Turkish Food – Saturday Night Chicken Wings

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We’ve been writing this blog for two years now so it’s surprising that it’s taken us so long to get round to writing about this meaty staple of Turkish cuisine; kanat. Kanat means ‘wings’ (in this case, chicken wings).

This post has been waiting backstage for a long time to see the light of day. The idea behind it is that it’s perfect Saturday-night-in-watching-TV food and so I wanted to do the post on a Saturday night.

Except Saturdays in Fethiye came and went, and each time we remembered about it, it was never a Saturday.

Well, today is Saturday! It’s Saturday night! Bring on the kanat!

Kanat makes an appearance on just about every Sunday afternoon Turkish barbecue – and there are a lot of those! – because the people of Turkey just love their chicken wings.

So much so that, if you go anywhere to buy a chicken for the oven, the norm is not a whole chicken. Most chickens have their kanat missing.

As a tip, should you want the whole thing, you need to shop for a bütün (whole) chicken.

There will be many chickens available that look whole but if it doesn’t say bütün on it, your chicken is going to be minus its wings.

Kanat is that popular.

Even kömürde piliç is usually wingless with the kanat being sold separately. You’ve been warned!

When we first came to Turkey, I was very much a chicken breast person, but I was soon converted to the joy of crispy-on-the-outside-juicy-on-the-inside kanat.

And so, let’s move on to the perfect Saturday-night-in meal. Forget the calorie count or the healthy side of greens; it’s Saturday night.

And at least you can console yourself with the fact that this meal is much more likely to be better for you than similar offerings from a lot of the fast food joints out there.

• Marinate 500g of chicken wings in olive oil, the juice of a wedge of lemon, paprika, chilli flakes, salt and pepper (It’s Saturday night don’t forget. Sprinkle generous pinches of each at will). Marinate for a couple of hours. If you’re in a rush, just use this as an immediate coating. (Use whatever spices you like, here. We’re still using our Antalya chicken rub.)
• Peel one large potato (or 2 medium ones) and cut into rough 2cm cubes.
• Spread the potatoes on a non-stick baking tray with thin wedges of lemon and cloves of garlic wedged at intervals in between.
• Sprinkle kekik (dried thyme or oregano) over your potatoes and then place the chicken wings over the top.
• Bake in a preheated oven at about 250 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove and loosen any potatoes that have stuck to the tray.
• Put your tray back in the oven, reduce the temperature to 230 degrees and roast for a further 20 minutes.

When the oven pings to indicate all is crispy yet moist, turn on the TV, select your channel, plump the cushions on the sofa…

…and share the kanat and potatoes between two plates.

Serve as they are or with a blob of süzme yoghurt.

You can use a knife and fork if you want to – but why create washing-up? Fingers and thumbs will suffice.

Watch the screen, munch your food, sip your beer. Saturday-night-in bliss!

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