Movie Night at California Chef
Michael Chiarello’s Home

Chicken Wings Agrodolce
The Fritti Flour and Agrodolce Sauce can be prepared one day in advance.

Fritti Flour*
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1 cup semolina pasta flour
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons salt (sea salt is too heavy for this blend)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Agrodolce Sauce*
• 2 cups champagne vinegar
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon Calabrian chile (pepperoncini), or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Chicken Wings
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (about 2 large onions)
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 8 cups cold water
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 1-1/2 tablespoons gray sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 fresh thyme sprig or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
• 2 (2-pound) packages chicken wings (about 16 total), cut apart at
joints, wing tips discarded
• Corn, peanut, canola, or any neutral oil for deep-frying
• 2 cups buttermilk

Fritti Flour:
In blender, grind rice until very fine, about consistency of powdered gelatin. Shake ground rice into large bowl. Add semolina, all-purpose flour, table salt, and pepper. Toss until well mixed.

Agrodolce Sauce:
In large saucepan, combine vinegar and sugar. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Stir in onion, fennel seeds, and salt. Simmer, uncovered, until it reaches consistency of maple syrup and coats back of wooden spoon, about 50 minutes. (You should have about 1 cup sauce.) Remove from heat and stir in Calabrian chile. Taste; add more chile for more heat. Set aside.

TO MAKE CHICKEN:
In 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven or pot, combine onions, carrot, celery,water, peppercorns, salt, and thyme. Bring to boil over high heat. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

Add chicken. Simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Let chicken stand in liquid until cool, about 30 minutes. (See Chef’s Note below.**)

In heavy saucepan or deep-fat fryer heat 3 inches oil to 375°F. Meanwhile, pour buttermilk into shallow bowl. Pour about 2 cups of Fritti Flour in another shallow bowl.

Dip each chicken piece into buttermilk. Roll in Fritti Flour to coat. Cook about 6 coated chicken pieces at a time in hot oil until crust is just slightly darker than color of honey all the way around, about 4 to 6 minutes. Using tongs, transfer chicken from oil to Agrodolce Sauce; coat chicken evenly. Shake off excess; transfer wings to serving plate. Repeat to cook remaining chicken. Serve hot. Makes 12 to 16 servings (about 32 pieces).

*CHEF’S NOTE:
Don’t halve the Fritti Flour recipe. We’ve found it takes at least 1 cup of Arborio rice for the blender to grind the rice properly. Make the full recipe and store any leftovers in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks.

**CHEF’S NOTE:
Don’t be in a hurry to pull the chicken from its cooking liquid. If you let the chicken cool in the liquid, it will absorb the liquid and stay tender and juicy. If you pull the chicken out before the liquid is cool, the chicken will be dry.