Okay, okay, so I didn’t spend the evening snaring bats in a net….you guessed it, these aren’t bat wings! But don’t they look like they are??? I actually just used regular old chicken wings and slow cooked them in the oven to get them charred and ultra creepy looking.

Underneath all that black, dark magic, is super soft chicken, coated in a tasty, spicy, zesty and satisfyingly sticky skin. The flavours are of curry and mango chutney.Sorry for the crap pic, but literally impossible to get a decent pic of all this dark goodness against the whiteness of my mum’s kitchen.

So we had an early Halloween party and I was nominated to make the creepy starters for dinner. I searched and searched for a decent starter recipe, but they were all a bit footery and involved messing around and stuffing things or making things look like ghosts and honestly, I literally couldn’t be arsed. And given that it’s National Curry Week – this little creation was perfection!I just wanted something easy for the kids and everyone else and I thought chicken wings would be perfect and then my brain wave came – let’s call them bat wings and that way, everyone is satisfied.

Gotta say, they worked perfectly. The kids bought the entire story, including me catching bats with a fishing rod. So much so, that they were reluctant to try them at the start! Eventually we had a bowl of bones and everyone licking their fingers with delight.

The flavour of curry and mango chutney was perfect for party food, and served with my spiced mango chutney mayo, everyone was happy.

And while I slow cooked these, you could easily cook them in the oven for 40 mins at 200c. They wouldn’t come out as dark and gnarly, but would be equally as delish.

And the prep work is only a matter of a few active minutes and the rest is marinating and cooking time.

This recipe is adapted from here – lovely little website!

Curry and mango chutney bat wings!

Ingredients

• 2kg chicken wings, tips removed
• 6 tbsp. curry powder
• 2 tsp pink Himalayan salt
• 400g mango chutney
• 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 4 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 4 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
• 3 tbsp. mango chilli dressing (from asda and not essential if you cant find it)
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Place the wings into a container or bag and coat the chicken wings with the curry and salt, making sure to coat the wings well.
2. Add all the remaining ingredients into a jug giving it a mix together.
3. Pour the sauce over the coated chicken wings and make sure everything is mixed together.
4. Leave this to marinade for at least 30 mins, overnight is better. I did mine for 4 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 130c and lay the wings out on wire rack, over a baking sheet – this helps the wings go more crispy.
6. Bake for 3 hours, turning every hour.
7. Serve with whatever dipping sauce you like – I’ve given you a cracker below!

Spicy mango chutney mayo

• 300g mayo (I used full fat!)
• 2 tbsp. mango chutney
• 2 tbsp. sriracha
• 2 tbsp. mango chilli dressing

Mix all the ingredients together. DIP AT WILL!!!