Caramelised chicken wings

Finger food need not mean undistinguished or bland, but it does mean presenting food in a form in which it really can be eaten with fingers. Isigny Sainte-Mere chef Ivan Vautier puts a lot of time into his preparation which means that most of the real work is done before service starts: take his recipe for caramelised chicken wings.

This has a nominal preparation time of five minutes when service is in full flow, but one important element was done earlier, when prepping the chicken wings. In a recipe to serve four, Ivan allows five wings per diner.

But he doesn’t wait for an order to come into the kitchen to roll his sleeves up for this dish. His ingredient listing requires the chicken wings to be manchonnés, or sleeved, looking like a meaty lollipop on a stick. To do this, the ends of the wings need to be removed and the flesh removed from the inboard end of the remaining wing piece, leaving an thinner but even layer of meat on the next joint.

To do one or two chicken wings is not particularly hard, but takes time which Ivan wouldn’t have during service. Besides, these are going out in clumps of five and the trimmings can be retained to make stock after prepping up a batch of wings.

Many French poultry butchers can supply kitchen-ready manchonnés chicken wings, outside France you’ve probably got some work to do first. But don’t let this put you off trying the recipe, since the sweet and sour cream that is served with the chicken wings is rather special.