Almost 20 years ago, Blue Ribbon Sushi executive chef Bruce Bromberg and his brother Eric were assembling the menu for their original Manhattan location. They were insistent on offering some version of fried chicken—it was their go-to weekend meal—but having grown up in New Jersey, they didn’t exactly have a family recipe upon which to draw.

As luck would have it, they were making matzo balls around the same time—and that provided the inspiration they needed: matzo meal. They found the unleavened ingredient didn’t absorb oil the same way breadcrumbs do, achieving moist fowl minus the usual greasiness. “We were kind of amazed that it worked out,” Bromberg remembers. ”We’ve really never done anything to the recipe since that first try. It’s what we’ve been serving for 20 years.”

Blue Ribbon Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

8 chicken wing sections

4 cups egg whites

.5 cup all-purpose flour

.5 cup Streit’s matzo meal

.25 tsp. baking powder

1 cup togarashi

1 cup paprika

.5 cup sea salt

2 cups Blue Ribbon Mexican Honey (orange blossom or autumn honey can substitute)

1 tbsp. freshly grated wasabi root (tbsp. of powdered can substitute)

Method: Mix flour, matzo meal and baking powder for chicken fry flour. Mix togarashi, paprika and sea salt for seasoning mix. Combine honey and wasabi root for wasabi honey. Preheat fryer to 375 degrees. Submerge chicken in egg white wash. Remove from egg wash, allowing excess egg to drain back into container. Add wings to chicken fry flour and coat entire surface of each wing. Tap off excess chicken fry flour and place wings in fryer basket. Fry until golden and cooked through for 10 minutes. Transfer fried wings to a wire rack on a half-sheet tray and evenly dust all sides with seasoning mix. Plate wings and drizzle with wasabi honey.