Air Frying Class

Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Fun fact: You can find more teriyaki spots in Seattle proper than all other fast-food brands combined, which makes teriyaki the city’s iconic fast-food item.The <a href="https://www.seattleweekly.com/food/how-teriyaki-became-seattles-own-fast-food-phenomenon/">first teriyaki shop, Toshi’s Teriyaki, opened in 1976</a>, and ever since, the city&#39;s been in love with the stuff. But Seattle’s teriyaki is less traditional Japanese food than it is a homegrown evolution of a style of cooking. “Teriyaki” is a term for a cooking method: grilled meat, most often fish, seasoned with a tare, or sauce, that has enough sugar from the inclusion of mirin to form an attractive glaze—the “teri” in teriyaki refers to that glazed surface. The teriyaki that’s so popular in Seattle today is a direct descendent of Toshi’s, and it refers to meats cooked in a sugar-sweetened, soy sauce-based marinade.While making teriyaki typically involves a grill, that doesn’t mean you can’t make the dish using other methods. Using the forced convection of an air fryer as a finishing step offers comparable results, and these teriyaki chicken wings have all the charred flavor that’s a hallmark of great teriyaki.Before turning to the air fryer, we braise the wings in a teriyaki sauce made from soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and grated garlic and ginger. The short braise gently breaks down the connective tissue in the meat and skin, converting it into gelatin, without any risk of burning or drying out the wings. The converted gelatin and rendered fat from the wings enriches the sauce, which, when reduced, will form a beautiful glaze.Brush the glaze over the wings and give them a quick blast in the air fryer and you’re all done: sweet-savory wings with a charred, smoky, and slightly crispy exterior.

Air-Fried Teriyaki Wings