Recipe: Tomato Chicken Wings with Pasta

Posted by Marcin on 19/01/2007 @ 22:17 +1100

Tags: recipe, chicken, pasta

This is a recipe that I learned from my mum. When I lived at home there was a period where this would be the standard dinner every Monday. I'm not sure where she got it from, it doesn't really seem like a Polish recipe, but she cooked it for years. I still enjoy making it occasionally, as while it takes time it doesn't need a huge amount of effort to prepare, and I haven't become bored with it and still enjoy eating it!

Serves: 3-4? I personally eat 3-4 wings most of the time, and my wife eats 2. Left overs are a good re-heatable for lunch the next day at work!

Ingredients

• 400g large spiral pasta
• 10 chicken wings (approx. 1kg)
• "Season All" Seasoned Salt and flour for dusting
• 1/2 large capsicum
• 3 Tbsp extra light olive oil
• 1 tin of good quality diced tomato
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 small can of green peas

Instructions

1. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil for the pasta.
2. Cook the pasta as per the directions on the packet. Probably around 10 minutes. Then drain and set aside
3. Cut tips off chicken wings at first joint
4. Thoroughly season wings with seasoned salt, and then dust with a decent amount of flour. Shake off excess flour.
5. Heat oil in a large deep frying pan
6. Fry chicken wings until the skin is brown and crispy on both sides, no need for the wings to be cooked through.
7. Add the tomato, capsicum and enough boiling water to just cover the wings. Sprinkle on the cayenne pepper, cover the pan and bring to a simmer over a low heat.
8. Once simmering partially uncover the pan. The chicken will need to simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Move the pan occasionally to prevent sticking, and turn the wings over every 10-15 minutes.
9. Once the liquid in the chicken pan is reduced to a thick sauce, remove the wings from the pan and put in a bowl.
10. Add the pasta to the pan and mix to coat the pasta in the sauce.
11. Serve wings with pasta and some green peas.

Notes:

Frying pans

Depending on the size of your pan you might need an additional pan for frying the chicken. You need to leave enough room so that you can turn the wings and they don't stick to each other or the pan. For the 10 wings in this recipe I find that my 28cm pan is a bit small, so I use a second smaller one to make it easier while frying. Once the chicken is ready, just transfer from the second pan into the main one for the rest of the recipe. When the chicken is simmering in the sauce a tight fit isn't as much of a problem.

Portions

When my mum made this at home she'd use 2kg of wings (I think the 10 wings above is about 1kg) and have practically two layers of wings in the pan. Just make sure you put in enough water such that you end up with a nice consistency for the sauce after about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Better to underestimate and have to add water during the cooking if it's reducing too soon and you don't think the wings will be ready.

Timing

Also, a timing tip - you can start boiling the water for your pasta when the chicken starts simmering. You can wait for it to boil, cook the pasta and drain and be done before the chicken is. I've just placed the instructions at the start above because it makes it less confusing.

Ideas

While I've stuck to the same recipe my mum used for years, I suppose you could experiment with different things to add to the sauce. You could make it more like a normal tomato sauce for pasta by adding some fresh basil or other herbs. Maybe some garlic? Or even replacing the cayenne pepper with chilli!

With regards to the chilli, I'd probably do it like I read in another recipe - add two whole chillies that have been pricked so they don't explode. Right at the end of the cooking process remove the chillies, and finely slice as much or as little as you want and add that back in. This will give it a nice mild kick during cooking, and then add as much heat as you want for the final product.