If I had to pick one cookbook from my shelf to represent my cooking these last few months, it would unequivocally be Priya and Ritu Krishna’s Indian-ish. I was familiar with Priya through her contributions to Bon Appetit and the New York Times Cooking pages, but I somehow held off on buying her cookbook, despite seeing the saag feta recipe take over Instagram, or the Indian-ish Nachos. However, by April I gave in, rationalizing that lockdown was a perfect excuse to buy a new cookbook.
Indian-ish very quickly became a favorite, and I was cooking out of it at least once, but often multiple times per week. I made the saag feta, of course, then kadhi, a yogurt soup, then matar paneer, the whole roasted cauliflower with green pea chutney, the roasted aloo gobhi, kachumber, khichdi, chile peanut rice, lentil dal, and I’m sure I’m forgetting more. For me, this is a lot to make in quick succession out of one cookbook!
One of my favorite recipes was one of the few non-vegetarian dishes in the book, the Achari Fish. The recipe has you marinate filets in the spicy, salty condiment mango achar, or mango pickle. The fish was crazy good, but then I was left with half a jar of mango pickle. The flavor of it reminded me somewhat of the acidic, salty, spicy tang of buffalo sauce, and I had the idea that it would be a great coating for chicken wings.
Well, I’ll just skip to the point and assure you that yes, this was a great idea! I prepared and baked the chicken wings the same way I did in one of my very first recipes, drying them out in the fridge overnight, then baking on a wire rack. Then, I coated the hot wings in a puree of the mango pickle, and served them with a cooling, refreshing cucumber yogurt dipping sauce. I won’t admit the exact number of these wings that I ate in one sitting, but just know it was too many. These are that good!
If you love Buffalo wings, you will love these, I promise!
Mango Pickle Chicken Wings with Cucumber Yogurt Dipping Sauce
Mango Pickle can be easily found online or at your local Indian grocer. Just be sure to not buy the sweet variety.
For the mango pickle wings:
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2-2 lbs chicken wings
1/2 jar (10 oz) mango pickle (not sweet)
water, to thin
For the Cucumber Yogurt dipping sauce:
1/2 cucumber, seeded
1 cup yogurt, plus more, as needed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tbs cumin seeds, toasted
cilantro, for garnish (optional)
Lightly grease a wire rack (like a cooling rack) and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Whisk together egg white, baking soda and salt. Toss the wings in this mixture to completely coat, and then place on the wire rack. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator, uncovered, so the skin can dry out.
When you are ready to bake the wings, take your baking sheet of wings out of the refrigerator, at least 30 minutes prior to baking. This is a good time to preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Bake the wings for 20 minutes, then flip and bake 10 minutes more.
While the wings are baking, prepare the mango pickle sauce. In a blender, combine the mango pickle and enough water to create a smooth sauce. I found the right amount to be what was needed to rinse out the jar, but start with a little and gradually add. Set aside.
Prepare the dipping sauce: add all ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in more yogurt as needed to reach your desired consistency. Cucumber has a lot of water in it, so depending on the yogurt you use, you may need to add a little more to get it to that dipping sauce consistency. Taste and adjust salt if needed, but don’t go crazy on the seasoning here, you want this to complement the spicy, salty wings!
Once wings are finished baking, toss the hot wings in the mango pickle sauce, then bake 5 more minutes to finish and “set” the sauce a bit.
Serve hot with the dipping sauce, garnish with cilantro if using.