Our Taste of Home: Coke Wings

by Adrian

We definitely have a variety of dishes in China, there are eight different culinary cuisines with different cooking methods and flavors. I wanted to introduce to you my favorite dish, which I am not even sure whether it actually originated from China, but it is one of my childhood memories. Coca-Cola wings (Coke wings), the main ingredient is just like its name. It may sound a little bit weird, but I will say it is a must try. Other ingredients include soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger slices, green onions, and salt.

Every recipe would be a little different, my first step is to marinate the cleaned chicken wings with soy sauce for about 45 minutes to add more depth to the flavor. A tip for this step is to make sure you cut each side of the wings a little bit just so the coke and soy sauce can really get in there. While the chicken marinated, we prepared about 6 ginger slices and a cleaned scallion. The cooking method is even simpler, heat the pan to medium to high heat, drizzle a little oil in it and put the ginger slices in and stir for about 1 or 2 minutes. My mum told me that the ginger will keep the pan non-stick when we put in the chicken wings, so I always follow that! Next is to put in the chicken wings, be patient and let each side of the wings get a nice brown color. After you get both sides with that perfect brown color, pour a can of Coca-Cola in it and we make a knot from that scallion and put it into the pan then turn to high heat and wait for it to boil. After boiling the whole thing, add a drizzle of the soy sauce to give an umami taste as well as a drizzle of dark soy sauce to give a darker color. Turn the heat to medium-low level and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then, we pick out the ginger and the scallion and turn to high heat. At this point, you can see caramelization on the sauce and chicken wings. We cook it just a little bit more when you see there is almost no sauce or the sauce is basically hanging on the chicken wings, we are ready to serve!

Kids often like sweet stuff for some reason and I am definitely one of them, so my mum always prepares this dish for me, and it is delicious. After studying in the US since high school, I don’t get much time with my family back home and I am basically on my own for a long time. Food is actually really powerful to me; it reminds me of a lot of things back at home and reminds me to treasure the time that I have with my family.