Fun chicken lollipop treat for the kids

ANN/THE STAR – Known as chicken lollipop in India and the Philippines, boxing chicken offers a delightful crunch that’s hard to resist. With a shape reminiscent of a miniature boxing glove, this dish involves the artful technique of frenching chicken wings. This culinary process entails skillfully scraping the meat from the bone end, resulting in a convenient and flavourful handheld chicken bite.

My mother made this dish only once when I was a child. I realised why she never made it again when I attempted the recipe and realised the sheer effort needed to french the chicken wings.

That being the most time-consuming part, you may want to tackle the task ahead of time or involve family members to prepare it together for festive occasions.

Each whole chicken wing yields two pieces of boxing chicken. Frenching the drumette is fairly straightforward. It is more fiddly to french the wingette or middle wing, where you’d need to discard the smaller radius bone before scraping down the meat to form the boxing glove.

It was surprising that when rolled into shape, the drumette and wingettes had almost the same amount of meat. Everyone prefers the wingette because it is smoother and juicier.

The shape of boxing chicken has always appealed to children, thus I thought it makes better sense to marinate with herbs and pepper as a non-spicy option rather than the more traditional marinade of curry powder.

You may, however, make a spicy dipping sauce for the adults and also serve a few different bottled sauces such as Thai sweet chilli sauce or mayonnaise as alternative dips.

Instead of regular bread crumbs, you may also use crushed cornflakes or Japanese panko for the crust. Just beware that the chicken on the inside may not cook at the same rate as the browning on the outside.

What makes this dish so convenient is that the chicken can be frozen after frying and reheated in the oven or airfryer when needed.

The breading keeps the chicken moist inside.

BOXING CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

– 12 chicken wings

– Half teaspoon black pepper

– Half teaspoon salt

– Two tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

– Two eggs

– One cup bread crumbs

– One cup flour

– Four cups cooking oil for frying

Dipping sauce

– 20 grammes butter

– Half cup tomato ketchup

– Half cup water

– One tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

– Two tablespoons brown sugar

– Two tablespoons chilli powder

– Two teaspoons black pepper

Garnish (optional)

– One pod red chilli, finely diced

– One pod green chilli, finely diced

DIRECTIONS

Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce until thickened.

Wipe the chicken wings dry with paper towels. Separate the chicken wings at their joints into drumettes and wingettes, and discard wing tips.

To french the drumettes, detach the ligaments, then carefully scrape the meat off the humerus bone and roll it down until it forms the shape of a boxing glove.

With the wingette, cut into the joint to detach the small radius bone from the bigger ulna, then scrape the meat off the radius and discard the bone. Finally, scrape the meat off the ulna and roll the meat down until it forms the shape of a boxing glove.

Season chicken with salt, pepper and chopped parsley.

Beat eggs in a bowl, and place the flour and bread crumbs into separate dishes.

To bread the chicken wings, dredge each piece with flour, then coat with the egg and finally encrust with the bread crumbs. Repeat with the rest of the wings.

Heat up oil in the pan and deep fry over medium heat for about five minutes until pale golden.

Drain excess oil on paper towels, then bake for five to 10 minutes in a 150°C oven to cook the wings all the way through.

Garnish with red and green chillies and serve immediately with dipping sauce. – Ian Lau