Modified "Nando's" Chicken Wings

You all may recall Hadi's previous Nando's Roast Chicken dinner. Because he wasn't completely satisfied with how that turned out, he made a version 2, where he marinated the chicken with the sauce overnight. This made it much much better! The chicken absorbed the marinade nicely and was much more flavoursome. Hadi was STILL not satisfied, however, and made yet another chicken dish with the Nando's sauce, this time with chicken wings as well as a few modifications.

What you need:
12 chicken wings
Nando's marinade (we used the Hot flavour)
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
Sprinkling of paprika
3 onions, quartered

Also, for the rice (optional):
3 cups rice
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon paprika
5 garlic cloves, cooked in coiling water for about 3 minutes

What you do:

1. Combine the tomato sauce, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, paprika and onion with the Nando's marinade. Add the chicken, and marinate overnight.
2. Place the chicken in an oven-proof dish, and bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until the wings are tender - about 30-40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, add the turmeric, paprika and garlic into the water for cooking the rice. Cook the rice, and serve with the chicken once done.

Hadi was actually loathe to add more things into the Nando's marinade. He believes that it has already been perfected, and should not be tampered in any way. After saying that, he tampered with it anyway! His hands are so itchy!

Anyway, in saying that, this time round, his tampering actually yielded pretty good results. I particularly liked the tomato flavour, and the lemon juice gave a flavour reminiscent of Nando's extra mild chicken in the restaurant, only spicier because of the cayenne pepper. I don't know why Hadi added the paprika. :/

But anyhow, when I mentioned that I actually liked this dish better than the original Nando's chicken (restaurant), Hadi and Justin shouted me down with an unequivocal "No way!" They are fans, I see. Hadi says that this dish tastes more "like home" and cannot and should not be compared with the restaurant's chicken. Um, right... To tell you the truth, I don't like Nando's all that much, so maybe that's why I like this one better? In any case, I was definitely the minority in this opinion :P (1 out of 3, haha. Very statistically significant! But that's how we make of the decisions in our house :P)

As for the rice, Hadi added in the extra ingredients ... just for fun, basically. They both complained that there wasn't any garlic taste at all. Um, maybe he should have mashed it up first??? How can you expect to have any significant garlic flavour if the cloves are still whole??? As for the turmeric, Hadi claimed that the colour it gave was "interesting". He explained that he actually wanted to make the rice bright red, by mixing the turmeric and paprika, but it seems like he didn't add enough paprika. I have a few thoughts on this.

1. Hadi is probably one of the only people I know who would use paprika for colour, not for taste!
2. Why would you want bright red rice??? I dread to see what he's going to do next. Should I come to the dinner table and expect blue rice next time???
   

In any case, I am perfectly fine with white rice, thank you very much. I like my food pure. :P

Quote of the day: Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.

Ahahahaha, I kid you not! This was an actual quote made by a Walt Kelly. I hope some of you out there are thinking the same thing! :D