Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings Recipe Crispy - Sweet, Salty, and Spicy, a Flavor Explosion!

This one hits close to home. I grew up eating these Vietnamese fish sauce wings (cánh gà chiên nước mắm) - hot, crispy, straight out of the wok, and always paired with a big bowl of white rice. It’s the kind of dish that made everyone drop what they were doing and run to the table.

My mom would make them on weekends, and the smell of garlic frying in fish sauce was the unmistakable sign that dinner was about to slap. Now, every time I make them, it feels like a little love letter to those family meals - simple, chaotic, and delicious.

The wings come out golden and crispy, just like how my mom used to make them. She’d fry them until the skin was perfectly crisp, then toss them in that sweet, salty, spicy fish sauce glaze that would fill the house with the mouthwatering scent of garlic and fish sauce. The kind of smell that had us sneaking into the kitchen, pretending we just needed water.

Once those wings hit the rice, that's when the magic happens. The glaze soaks into the rice, and suddenly it’s not just a side - it becomes part of the dish. My mom always used to say, “Cái này mà ăn với cơm trắng là hết nồi cơm luôn đó,” meaning, “Eat this with plain rice, and the whole pot will be gone.” And honestly? That’s 100% true.