Tag Archives: gluten-free

Asian Style Chicken Wings – gluten-free

Asian Style Chicken Wings

Asian Style Chicken Wings

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken wings, ends cut off
1/2 cup gluten-free shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup mirin
3 stalks green onion, sliced thin, a tsp reserved for garnish
1 tsp garlic chili sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds, a pinch reserved for presentation
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 inch ginger, grated or minced very fine
4-5 cloves garlic, minced

Preparation

Add all the ingredients except the chicken and reserve ingredients to a large ziploc bag or container and mix well. Add the chicken and marinate for at least 2-4 hours. Reserve the marinade when done!

Cooking

Chicken can be cooked in a number of ways, grilled, baked or broiled.
Grilled: cook the chicken about 5 minutes per side.
Baked: middle oven rack, 425 degrees for about 30 minutes
Broiled: on high, about 4 inches from the top for about 5 minutes per side.

Asian style chicken wings on the grill

Asian style chicken wings on the grill

While the chicken is cooking put the reserve marinade in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Bring the sauce to a simmer and continue simmering until reduced by half. The sauce will thicken due to the sugars. When the chicken is done give it a quick dunk in the marinade then transfer to serving plate. Pour any remaining sauce over the chicken.

Dipping the cooked wings in the reduced marinade

Dipping the cooked wings in the reduced marinade

Sprinkle a few slivers of green onion and some toasted sesame seeds on top for presentation.

Notes:

For a fruitier and sweeter wing replace the water with a fruit juice such as orange juice or pineapple juice. Fresh squeezed oranges will likely brighten up the flavor, while a canned pineapple juice should impart a very sweet taste.

Gluten-free variation: simply replace the soy sauce with a gluten-free variation. If gluten is not an issue for you simply use any soy sauce.

Want spicier? Add fresh or dried red chili peppers, more garlic chili sauce, or sriracha (the rooster bottle).

Korean style Kalbi short ribs

Kalbi

Kalbi

Ingredients

2-3 lbs beef short ribs
1 1/2 cup shoyu (gluten free versions are available if you need)
1 tbsp brown sugar (white sugar is fine but I like to use brown sugar)
1 inch ginger, minced or shredded
1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
2 stalks green onion, sliced thin
1 tsp sesame oil

Kalbi ingredients

Kalbi ingredients

Preparation

Put all the ingredients except the short ribs in a large ziploc bag or container and mix well. Add the short ribs and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours, over overnight.

Marinating kalbi meat

Marinating kalbi meat

Cooking

To cook, place a rack in the oven about 4 inches from the top and set the oven to broil. Place the marinated ribs in a tray and broil in the oven for about 3 minutes per side. Keep an eye on then as they will easily burn due to the sugar in the marinade.

Cooked kalbi meat

Cooked kalbi meat

Serve with rice.

Alternate cooking methods:

This dish can just as easily be grilled or pan fried for 2-3 minutes per side.

In summer I like to make these on the grill to cook outdoors, and doing so also reduces the amount of heat generated in the house when it’s already over 80 degrees indoors.

If you fry these in a pan it is better if you have a ridged pan as it makes nice lines on the ribs and also keeps any juices away from the meat, which helps prevent it from boiling in the pan if it is not quite hot enough. Make sure to start out with the pan preheated to medium-high heat (about 7 on my stove) to prevent this from happening.

Meat Jun

Meat Jun

Meat Jun

Meat jun is a “Korean” food I discovered while living in Hawaii. It’s basically thin slices of beef that are marinated, coated in flour and egg, and fried. It is usually served with a soy sauce based dip and/or a gochujang-based hot sauce, rice, and various vegetable sides (banchan). Any time I went to the Ala Moana food court or stopped by a Yummy’s I would almost always fore go trying anything else just so I could order meat jun. The gold standard for meat jun however is Soon’s. I used to live right across the street from the place for a while but it became out of the way when I moved closer to the University area.

After I left Hawaii I always scanned the menu at Korean restaurants looking for meat jun, but I could never find it. Only later was I told by a Korean restaurant employee in Seattle that it is not actually Korean and seems to be a dish that was developed in Hawaii. That explains why many Korean people I asked did not know what it is.

The bottom line was that if I wanted to enjoy meat jun again before my next trip to Hawaii I was going to have to learn how to make it myself. In my typical fashion I scoured the web for recipes and picked bits of pieces of various recipes and came up with one which I thought I would like. Having made this several times now the result is a recipe which I have written down and come back to over and over again.

Ingredients

2-3 lbs. beef, thinly sliced
1 cup shoyu
3 Tbsp sesame seed oil
3-4 stalks green onion – finely chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
6 eggs – beaten
Flour – about 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Oil for frying (I use vegetable oil)

Preparation

Cut meat into thin slices if using a large cut, or use thin sliced beef (about 1/8 inch thick)
Place in a bowl – add shoyu, sesame seed oil, green onions, and garlic, mix well. Let sit for about 15 minutes. I like to do this a few hours before and let it marinate in the refrigerator.

Marinating Meat Jun beef slices

Marinating Meat Jun beef slices

Cooking

First make a little assembly line with the meat on the left, the flour in a flat pan or large plate in the middle, and the egg in a bowl on the right, closest to the frying pan. Dip the marinated meat pieces in flour and coat well, then shake off the excess. Transfer the meat into the beaten eggs to coat, covering the floured meat completely but allowing the excess to drip off. Fry on medium heat (about 6 on my electric stove top, 5 when I’m using cast iron) until barely golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Dipping Sauce

My favored sauce:

1 cup shoyu
1/4 cup rice vinegar (Mirin)
1 stalk green onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Shoyu Meat Jun dip

Shoyu Meat Jun dip

My wife’s favored sauce:

Similar to the one above but add a tbsp of gochujang (Korean hot paste) and about a tsp of sesame oil, and no sesame seeds. We usually have both sauces at the table. I like spicy, but for some reason I just have to have my favored sauce with meat jun.

Gluten free variation:

  • Replace the shoyu (soy sauce) with a gluten-free soy sauce or tamari. We use San-J brand but any brand you like will work. I find it a bit of a waste to marinate with San-J so if you can use a cheaper wheat-free brand for the marinade and use the “better” brand for the dipping sauce.
  • Replace the flour with a gluten-free flour blend. We make one similar to the one found here.

I made the version for this recipe with gluten free ingredients only and it tasted the same as usual, so know that you won’t be missing out on anything at all.

Note:

Don’t buy meat which is sliced too thin. I always end up doing that then have to deal with the meat shredding apart. What’s too thin? Well for one if it’s cut for Sukiyaki (or hot pot) then it’s too thin. It should be about an 1/8 inch thick. The ones I get always end up being closer to a 1/16 inch thick – like a Sukiyaki cut – and they fall apart. Oh I still use them and they taste great, but it’s a bit inconvenient and harder to work with.