Vietnamese Garlic Butter Chicken Wings. Crispy deep fried chicken wings coated in a sweet tangy garlic butter sauce packed with umami flavor!
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What are Vietnamese Garlic Butter Chicken Wings?
These Vietnamese chicken wings are made of crispy wings tossed in a sweet umami-based garlic butter sauce garnished with aromatics! The lime juice, butter and fish sauce take these wings to the next level! You may find a variation of these wings at Vietnamese restaurants.
These serve well as a main dish, appetizer, side dish or snack for game day! My recipe was inspired by the popular restaurant called Phnom Penh based in Vancouver. They're known for their ultra-scrumptious Vietnamese chicken wings. When I had my first bite of their crispy chicken wings, it was pure heaven and I knew it was a recipe I had to develop for the blog!
Ingredients
- Chicken wings: separated into drumettes and wings
- Potato starch: make sure it's not potato flour as this is completely different. As a last resort, substitute with cornstarch.
- Neutral oil: like avocado oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. Avoid olive oil or any heavy scented oils with a low smoke point.
Wing Marinade:
- Regular soy sauce: or substitute with low sodium soy sauce or light soy sauce. If you’re gluten-free, substitute with tamari sauce, coconut aminos or a gluten-free soy sauce of your choice.
- Fish sauce: this is a salty umami flavored sauce used in Thai cooking. I wouldn't suggest skipping this ingredient!
- Fresh Lime juice: or as a last resort, substitute with lemon juice. This helps to tenderize the wings and give it that refreshing acidity.
- White sugar: or brown sugar
Garlic Butter Sauce
- Unsalted butter
- White sugar: or brown sugar
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh lime juice
Garnish
- Red chili: any large red chili will work.
- Green onion
Expert Tips
- Check the chicken wings for freshness using the smell test! Whenever I cook with dark meat, I always smell the chicken in the packaging before purchasing to check if it's fresh. If it has an odor, put it back and get one with less odor.
- To separate the wings from the drums, slice it where the joint is - the joint looks white and slightly translucent.
- Only marinate the wings for only 20 minutes and no longer. Lime juice is powerful at breaking down meat, so you don’t want to overdo this.
- Ensure the wings are moist from the marinate before coating in potato starch. This moisture allows for the potato starch to adhere better.
- Use potato starch! This ensures the crispiest wings. Cornstarch can be substituted but it may not be as crispy.
- Coat wings evenly ensuring no bald spots for a crispy texture.
- Make sure the oil is hot enough and the temperature is at 350 degrees F. A cooking thermometer can be helpful here and you can find the one I use linked below.
- Deep fry in two batches to avoid overcrowding your wok or pot to ensure the wings get crispy. If you overcrowd, it results in less crispy wings and undercooked meat.
- While the wings are still hot, this is when you want to coat them in the garlic butter sauce.
How to make Vietnamese Garlic Butter Chicken Wings
- In a large mixing bowl, add separated drumettes and wings and add marinade ingredients. Mix and marinate for 20 minutes at most, no more than that.
- In small bowl, combine ingredients for garlic butter sauce as listed and set aside.
- Generously coat the marinated wings in potato starch. Make sure the wings are moist so the starch can stick to the wings. Press the starch into the wing, shaking off any excess.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large wok or dutch oven over medium high heat (at 350 degrees F with a digital instant read thermometer). Once oil is hot, carefully lower each wing into the oil. Fry the wings in small batches to prevent reducing the oil temperature.
- Deep fry wings on both sides for a total of 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Chicken wings are safe to consume at an internal temperature of 165 F with a digital instant read thermometer. Remove fried wings from hot oil straight into a large bowl.
- While wings are still hot, pour garlic butter sauce over wings with green onions and red chili. Toss wings in sauce and aromatics. Serve hot and enjoy!
Storage & Reheating
Leftovers will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To reheat, microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot or reheat in a pan on medium heat.
Other chicken wing recipes you may like!
📖 Recipe
Quick & Easy Vietnamese Garlic Butter Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 1.8 lb chicken wings separated into drumettes and wings
- 1 cup potato starch or cornstarch
- 2 cups vegetable oil or any neutral oil for frying wings
Wing Marinade:
- ¼ cup lime juice freshly squeezed
- 2 tablespoon regular soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoon white granulated sugar
Garlic butter sauce:
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- 4 tablespoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 2 tablespoon white granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoon garlic minced
Garnish:
- 1 large red chili pepper chopped
- 3 tablespoon green onion finely chopped
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add separated drumettes and wings and add marinade ingredients. Mix and marinate for 20 minutes at most, no more than that.
- In small bowl, combine ingredients for garlic butter sauce as listed and set aside.
- Generously coat each marinated wing in potato starch. Make sure the wings are moist so the starch can stick to the wings. Press the starch into the wing, shaking off any excess.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large wok or dutch oven over medium high heat (at 350 degrees F with a digital instant read thermometer). Once oil is hot, carefully lower each wing into the oil. Fry the wings in small batches to prevent reducing the oil temperature.
- Deep fry wings on both sides for a total of 6-8 minutes until golden crispy brown. Remove wings from hot oil straight into a large bowl.
- While wings are still hot, pour garlic butter sauce over wings with green onions and red chili. Toss wings in sauce and aromatics. Serve hot and enjoy!
Roland
I enjoyed this recipe . The potato starch provided a nice crunch to the overall taste. The combination of flavors provides a spicy sweetness that is fantastic.I definitely will cook this recipe again.
FYI - The video shows sugar added to the wings , but the written recipe does not include the sugar . I’m sure it’s an error but just thought I would inform you .
christieathome
Thanks so much for making my recipe, Roland and I also appreciate you flagging that to me! I have revised the recipe to show this accordingly. Have a great day!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
I am really loving your homemade garlic butter sauce... it's absolutely divine! Your chicken wings look finger licking fantastic!!
Becs
Really crispy wings and tasty sauce just a little limey for my liking
Rosemary
Oh my gosh these vietnamese chicken wings sound so good and look so crispy! Lately we have been making wings on the grill here!