Three ways with chicken and fruity fondue

No school today for our oldest who is in her first year of school. While Mr Three was in kinder, Miss Six, Bub and I went to the shops with a recipe book. We bought ourselves 'coffees' (aka a Raspberry Spider and Ice Chocolate) while we looked through a book from The Australian Women's Weekly called Kids Cooking. Miss Six chose a main and dessert. Not a vegetable in sight, but slightly redeemed by fruit in the sweets. So, for our Friday night meal, cooked by Miss Six, with her 'sous chef' there for the menial tasks like chopping chicken wings and handling the hot stuff we first shopped, then prepared together.

It's normal for our children to be in the kitchen, but less common for the meal to be 'anything goes' as far as meal selection. It was lovely time to share time together, chat and cook. When Mr Three was home, he was in charge of the sauce for the chicken, along with helping prep the fruit so wasn't left out. Bub was always about, and 'helping' in his own way, turning the dishwasher on and off for instance, or rummaging about in the onion and potato drawers (yes in the past I have discovered bite marks in these!).

Here then is what we had for our Friday night Feast!

Chicken Wings Three Ways

Each of these recipes of course, can be enough on their own, but my daughter, (like mother like daughter?) wanted to create all three...

Method is the same for each.

Tandoori Wings

1 kg chicken wings
1/3 cup (100g) tandoori paste
1/3 cup (95g) yoghurt
1 medium brown onion (150g), grated

Chinese Barbecued Wings

1kg chicken wings
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp char siu sauce
1 tsp five-spice powder

Deep-South Finger-licken' Wings

1 kg chicken wings
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp American mustard

Dipping sauce for Deep-South Finger-Licken' Wings

1 tbsp American mustard
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar

Cut wings into three pieces at joints, discard wing tips, or, keep them if you want and use them in the recipe, we did. Combine selected ingredients in a bowl before tossing the wing pieces in the marinades, cover and pop them in the fridge for three hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to hot (220c-230c). Place chicken in a single layer on an oiled wire rack set inside a foil lined (help with cleaning) shallow baking dish.

Roast uncovered for about 30 minutes or until well browned and cooked through, and I chose to turn them over at about 20 minutes and cook them for another 15 minutes.

For dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a small microwave proof bowl and cook, covered in microwave oven for 1 minute. Serve this sauce with the Deep-South Finger Licken' Wings.




The children found the tandoori version of the wings a little too spicy for them, but the other two they really enjoyed. The grown ups liked them all.

Orange Butterscotch Fondue

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar (we went with dark brown sugar here)
25g butter
2/3 cup (160ml) cream
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
2 tbsp orange juice
100g white eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
1 large banana (230g)
250g strawberries
2 small pears (we used apples here)
2 medium mandarins (400g)
18 marshmallows (110g)

Stir sugar, butter, cream, rind and juice in medium saucepan until sugar dissolves; bring to a boil. Boil uncovered, 3 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Stir in chocolate until fondue mixture is smooth, stand again for 5 more minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Chop fruit into serving sizes, segment the mandarins and arrange on a serving platter, serve with fondue and skewers for dipping.

Serves 6


I think we could have nearly doubled the amount of fruit for this dip. Perhaps I should have cut the fruit smaller, I am not sure, but we're not complaining about leftovers. We'll find a use for it somewhere somehow! Delicious sweet treat - darker than example shown in book due to the brown sugar we used, taste was still spot on though.

Fun day today. Really enjoyed letting the children have control over the kitchen........the mess awaits me, but thank goodness the baking dishes are lined!