Cornstarch Lab 101 + Bourbon/Sriracha Wangs, V2.0

Botch · December 2018

A couple weeks ago I did some wangs and totally made up a sauce with bourbon, sriracha, and a few other things:
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1216665/wangs-with-sriracha-bourbon-sauce#latest
They tasted good but the sauce was quite thin, and several folks mentioned using cornstarch to thicken it. I didn't think cornstarch would thicken if it wasn't cooked, but wasn't sure (this was a no-cook sauce).

So, three days ago I defrosted the rest of the wangs, two days ago I brined them, yesterday I air-dried them, and today I cooked 'em. But first, I was curious about the cornstarch so "Stand Back Bishes, I'm Going To Try Science!"

I set out 4 small bowls.
- In the first, 2 Tblspns water and a tsp of cornstarch (approximately the ratio I use for my stirfry sauces), sat two hours
- In the second, 2 Tblspns peanut oil and a tsp of cornstarch (I have both, sometimes, in my stirfry sauces, do they both thicken?), sat two hours
- Third, I put 2 Tblspns water in a small pot, brought to a boil, and added a tsp cornstarch, and stirred briefly. This was very interesting, it was a black, anodized pot and as the mixture thickened, it went from cloudy-white to clear (easy to see against the black). Dumped into the 3rd bowl.
- Fourth, I heated 2 Tblspns oil in the pot, added the tsp of cornstarch, and stirred for quite a bit, dumped it into the 4th bowl.
Interesting! Only the cornstarch cooked in water thickened! I was expecting the cs cooked in hot oil to thicken too, but it didn't. Everything in my sauce was water-based, so I went with briefly heating this time, but I did mod a few things just to see what happens. I went with:
1/4 cup bourbon
2 Tblspns Sambal Oëlek, instead of 1/4 cup sriracha
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tblspns maple syrup
2 Tblspns orange marmalade
Once everything was bubbling and incorporated, I mixed just a wee bit more bourbon with a tsp of cornstarch, poured the slurry in the pot, and stirred until thick (30 seconds) and killed the heat.
I preferred the sriracha and will go with that in the future. That much soy sauce was too much. While orange marmalade goes great with duck, think I'll go back to honey/agave nectar for chicken, in the future. The sauce was still a bit thin for my taste (will probably reduce more next time) but these weren't dunked at all, just basted once, each side: