Tebasaki(手羽先) literally translates to “wing tips” and refers to the cut of chicken as well as to a dish popular in izakayas around the city of Nagoya. Unlike the other Japanese fried chicken, Tebasaki is always made with bone-in chicken wings, has little to no breading, and is seasoned after it’s fried. Despite the absence of any significant crust, the wings are fried until the skin is rice cracker crisp before being dunked in a sweet and peppery soy sauce based glaze. Think of it as the Japanese cousin of Buffalo wings, and Korean fried chicken.
So how does one go about making chicken so crispy without a batter or breading, and then maintain the crisp crunch after being drenched with a glaze? There are a few tricks to getting these restaurant-good without an industrial deep fryer or the use of lard.
Anyone familiar with making crispy french fries already knows the first few tricks to making crispy fried chicken wings. The surface of the wings need to be very dry before going into the oil, and then they need to be double fried. The first fry at a lower temperature cooks the meat and greatly reduces the moisture content of the skin. After the wings have had a chance to cool and the remaining moisture has equalized, the second fry at a higher temperature finishes the job, crisping up the skin, while making it golden brown.
So now you know how to make a batch of super crispy wings, but how do you glaze them without making the crust go soft? The trick is to dunk the wings in the glaze as they come out of the hot oil. This does two things. The first is that there’s still hot steam escaping from the chicken, preventing too much glaze from seeping into the crust and making it soggy. The second is that the hot wing actually caramelizes some of the glaze around the wing, giving it a ton of flavor, without soaking up a ton of moisture.
If you don’t pile the wings too high, you should have some mighty crispy wings that stay crispy for at least half an hour (although nothing beats the crunch of the piping hot wings as they come out of the glaze). In Nagoya these are often served with some sweet, tender cabbage leaves, but cucumber or celery stick also make a great accompaniment. Lastly if you want to add a bit of heat, try mixing in some gochujang (Korean chili paste) into the glaze, then dusting with gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) before serving.
Ingredients
-
800
grams
chicken wings
-
1/2
teaspoon
ground black pepper
-
1/2
teaspoon
salt
-
3
tablespoons
dark brown sugar (packed)
-
3
tablespoons
soy sauce
-
3
tablespoons
sake
-
3
tablespoons
mirin
-
1
teaspoon
ginger juice (grate the ginger and squeeze out juice)
-
1
medium cloves
garlic (grated)
-
1
tablespoon
black vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
-
1
tablespoon
potato starch
-
vegetable oil (for frying)
Steps
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Put the chicken wings in a large bowl and sprinkle the pepper and salt. Toss the chicken to coat evenly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or preferably overnight. This step not only infuses the chicken with the black pepper, the salt draws out extra moisture from the chicken, which will help in making the skin crisp.
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Make the glaze by putting the sugar, soy sauce, sake, mirin, ginger juice, and garlic in a shallow pan. Heat over medium high heat until the glaze is at a rolling boil, like in the photo above. Add the vinegar, then transfer to a large bowl and allow the glaze to cool.
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Add about 2" of vegetable oil to a heavy bottomed pot and heat to 320 degrees F (160C). Take the chicken out of the fridge and use paper towels to remove as much moisture from the surface of the chicken as possible. Sprinkle on the potato starch, and toss the chicken to evenly coat each piece with a thin layer of starch.
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Fry the chicken wings for 10 minutes in batches. You can actually cram quite a few wings in, as long as they are fully submerged and get the oil temperature back up to 320 relatively quickly. Transfer to a plate and continue frying the rest of the wings.
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Increase the heat of the oil to 375 degrees F (190C). Fry the chicken in smaller batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. The chicken is done when the wings are golden brown (about 2-3 minutes). Transfer the wings directly to the bowl of glaze and quickly toss to coat. Don't let them sit in the glaze too long.
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Transfer the tebasaki to a serving platter, and sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds and black pepper. Serve immediately.
Nice tips! The wings are a gorgeous colour and do look so delightfully crisp.
I love eating chicken wings but can never bring myself to cook them at home .. since I have rule-no deep frying at home LOL!
These wings are gorgeous! Now I know how Tebaya in Chelsea gets their wings so crispy and flavorful. Thanks for the recipe!
I usually have that rule too, but for these I’ll make an exception!
This turned out great! Thank you!
Awesome! Always good to hear from someone who’s tried it:-)
I’ve never tried Tebaya, may have to give it a go the next time I’m in the city.
im living in japan and 25 yrs ago ive worked in nagoya for 6 mos but still cant forget the taste of the tebasaki so ill make it a try…..a must tomorrow
Wow! This was terrific. Even my wife (who’s from Osaka) said it was amazing!
Wow! This was terrific. Even my wife (who’s from Osaka) said it was amazing!
Just made these wings for pre-Thanksgiving dinner. They were really good. Even my boyfriend, who claims to not really like wings, approved of them!
I lived in Nagoya 10 years ago and will never forget the taste of the tebasaki there. Am VERY excited to try these!!
I lived in japan for 7 years. Live this recipe and make it all the time!!
Best recipe ever!!
Can you premake the wings, fry it the first time and refrigerate it? And then fry it the second time when you are ready to serve? Has anyone tried this?
Question: Can you use Corn Starch in place of Potato Starch in the recipe?
Hi skeeter, cornstarch fries up with a different texture so I would not recommend it.— Sent from Mailbox
I have to say I love this site – I’ve been making your pan-fried teriyaki for over a year now and I can do it with my eyes closed, and today’s the first time I’ve tried something other than that and it turned out great. Thanks so much for this, I can’t wait to slowly expand my repertoire courtesy of norecipes!
Could I skip the mirin or would that completely change the flavor? Or maybe add more sake to replace it??
Hi Riaallende, you could use a 50/50 mixture of sake and maltose (rice sugar) or corn syrup to replace the mirin.
Wondering, but is this similar to the Ippudo’s Hirata chicken? I love the black pepper sauce that they use and the cabbage wedge that accompanies the chicken wings. I love the chicken as well, but that sauce with the cabbage was a nice surprise. I would love to replicate the black pepper sauce (as well as the chicken).
Hi Melissa, I haven’t tried Ippudo’s wings, but I googled it and it looks like it’s their version of tebasaki. I can’t say this is going to taste exactly the same since I’ve never had there’s but it’s a sweet and savoury sauce with lots of black pepper. Let us know how it compares if you give it a go.
Great. I’ll definitely give an update once I make this. One question, though. The black vinegar – do you mean something along the line of Chinese black vinegar or Kurozu? Most likely, I’ll probably use the balsamic vinegar I have in my pantry, but I was wondering…
Any of the above will work. I used a Japanese Kurozu, but Chinese or Balsamic will give the same effect.
Hi, I tried your recipe but I think it was more on the sweet side. I was expecting it to taste more like Nagoya’s famous Yama-chan tebasaki. Is this supposed to taste like that? If yes, then I might have made a mistake. Hmm..
Hi Jaysn, thanks for your note. I don’t do copy-cat recipes, so these are not supposed to taste like Yama-chan. If you’d like for them to be less sweet, you can cut back on the sugar in the sauce.
One day I found my brown sugar hardened and substituted it with maple syrup and it came out even better! I have been making this dish with that alteration ever since.
Hi Roland, great call! If you ever have your brown sugar harden again, try putting it in a ziplock bag along with a damp paper towel. It should be back to normal within a day.
Morei no Japão durante 18 anos na cidade de Nagoya no bairro de Minato -ku e o Tebasaki de lá é realmente muito bom…..parabéns pela dica…essa receita irá fazer algumas pessoas viajarem para o Japão na cidade de Nagoya.