Coriander Chicken Wings

My favourite parts of a roast chicken are the wings – succulent meat and plenty of crispy skin to nibble off the bone. Luckily, most people prefer breast or leg meat, so the wings are often cheap offcuts at the butcher’s. Here they’re marinated in a lip-tingling spice mix and baked, so no deep-frying mess. Evolved from a David Tanis recipe. 1 kg seems a lot, but it only feeds 3-4 (easy to scale up for a crowd though)

• 1kg chicken wings

• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• a pinch of ground cloves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Whizz everything but the wings in a spice grinder or mini food processor, or smush in a pestle and mortar. You’re after no lumps of garlic, which would burn, but some crushed seeds for texture.

Marinade the wings on a large baking tray, using a spatula, or your hands, to ensure they are well covered with the spices. Sprinkle salt over with a heavy hand, plus several generous grinds of the pepper mill. Leave for a few hours if you can, uncovered in the fridge, which will help any stray moisture evaporate, encouraging the skin to crispen.

Bake in a preheated 180°C oven for an hour. If they aren’t crispy enough after 50 minutes, turn the oven up to 220°C for the final ten minutes; or cover loosely with foil if too burnished already.

Let cool a little if you can wait. We couldn’t wait the first time I made these, hence the sorry photo of a rather oily, solitary wing…