The trifecta of flavor: chicken wings, beer, and PINEAPPLE—kind of like the holy trinity of cooking! This was never intended to be a stand-alone dish. But Thi’s mother invented it as a soup base for hotpot (shabu-shabu, for those more familiar with the Japanese version), basically a pot of soup that you cook in, dip, and sip at the dinner table, or eat it on its own, like me!
2–4 SERVINGS
1 pound chicken wings
1 piece fermented bean curd (aka fermented tofu)*
⅓ tablespoon minced garlic
⅓ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon chicken bouillon
⅔ cup fresh peeled pineapple, sliced into rings
Brown sugar, for grilling (optional)
1⅔ cups Superconcentrated Cantonese Chicken Stock
⅔ tablespoon Asian light beer, plus additional for flavor
⅓ bunch Chinese watercress
Kosher salt
Sugar
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
20 pounds chicken wings
20 pieces fermented bean curd (aka fermented tofu)*
6⅔ tablespoons minced garlic
6⅔ tablespoons sugar
10 tablespoons chicken bouillon
13⅓ cups fresh peeled pineapple, sliced into rings
Brown sugar, for grilling (optional)
8⅓ quarts Superconcentrated Cantonese Chicken Stock
13⅓ tablespoons Asian light beer, plus additional for flavor
6⅔ bunches Chinese watercress
1. Mix wings with fermented bean curd, minced garlic, sugar, and chicken bouillon in a bowl. Cover and marinate overnight.
2. Taste the pineapple, and if it’s not sweet enough, toss pineapple rings in a bowl with just enough brown sugar to lightly coat them. (If the pineapple is sweet, skip the brown sugar.) Grill pineapple rings, to bring out the smoky sweetness that money can’t buy, for 2 minutes per side, or until you get good grill marks. (You can also sauté in a pan with a little bit of oil if grilling isn’t an option for you.) Remove from heat and cut into 1-inch chunks, then set aside in a bowl.
3. Next, sear wings on grill or in pan until the skin looks nice, browned, and food-porn-rific, but do not cook through. Save leftover marinade and set aside.
4. Add wings and leftover marinade to a pot with chicken stock. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once it starts boiling then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until wings are tender but not falling off the bone, then add beer and pineapples. Season with salt and sugar and stir.
5. You want a balance of sweet, savory, and not-too-beery. If the soup’s too sweet, add a splash of beer. If it’s too beery, add a pinch of sugar.
Remove from heat, serve in bowl, garnish with fresh watercress on top, and slurp up the savory soupy goodness that we had to make for our entire family in Orange County for Christmas dinner one year because they were as obsessed with it as I still am.
* If you don’t have an Asian grocery store near ya, fermented bean curd might be more expensive to buy online. But this is an important ingredient to give the chicken wings and the soup a super umami-savory-licious flavor, so don’t skip it!