Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings:
If you want the perfect crispy baked hot wings, but want to skip the fat of frying, look no further than this baked chicken wings recipe.
Not only have I tested this recipe hundreds of times, tweaking, and adjusting to make them perfect and be able to answer all the questions, but am sharing everything I have learned with you here.
This post has all the tips for how to prep your wings, how long to bake chicken wings, how to get truly crispy wings in the oven, and how to get finger licking good hot wings with minimal work! These wings come out crispy every time, the fat renders, and they are ready to be sauced with your favorite hot wings sauce recipe, like buffalo sauce , or something from a bottle if you want to keep it easy.
Whether it is Super Bowl Sunday or you just love a good crispy wing recipe, you are going to love these! We are obsessed with wings over here:
No matter how you sauce them, you have to start with crispy, crunchy, golden brown wings that are baked in the oven! So let’s get down to the nitty gritty for how to do this:
How do you make chicken wings crispy in the oven?
How do you make crispy chicken in the oven? For years I thought it was impossible, and I settled for terrible wings in order to cut the calories by avoiding frying them.
But why would anyone want to make a sacrifice like that when it comes to chicken wings?
So, I did a ton of research, and tested and tested, and now I can share with you how to get baked chicken wings that are truly crispy, from the oven not a fryer!
There are some key steps that can’t be missed if you want crispy baked wings. I learned these from Cook’s Illustrated. And I am going to simplify them for you here.
The basics of how to make chicken wings crispy in the oven are:
- Prep the wings: Segment them into the various pieces. (Don’t worry I will show you how)
- Pat the chicken wings dry. This step is an absolute must. You don’t want them to steam in the oven. The surface water has to evaporate before they will crisp up, so do your chicken a favor and get rid of as much of it as you can. This is why it is so important for baked wings that you do not make them from frozen! Fresh chicken is best. More on that later.
- Coat wings with baking powder…don’t worry I will explain why. The science geek in me loves this stuff! Just be sure to use baking powder not baking soda (ewwww)
- Cook at a low heat on a rack so the fat under the skin can render.
- Turn the heat up to crisp up that skin. When it is done you will have crispy baked chicken wings.
- Now, let’s coat those baked wings with your favorite hot wings sauce.
How To Segment a Chicken Wing
First thing is first, you need to get the right wings! So, let’s talk fresh versus frozen:
Whenever possible, opt for fresh wings.
Frozen wings have too much moisture, which is basically the nemesis of crispy wings. There are ways around it, and I will show you how to make frozen wings work. But if you can pick fresh.
Segmenting the Wings
Save yourself money by buying your wings whole, and cutting them down yourself. It i s WAY easier than you think. You just need a few extra minutes for prep, and a sharp knife and cutting board.
How to:
- Locate the two joints in the wing using your fingers. You can feel where they connect.
- Use a sharp knife and cut through the center of each joint. You should have 3 pieces as a result: ,the Drumette, the Wingette (often called a Flat), and the tip.
- For this recipe, you are going to use the Drumettes and Wingettes. You can either discard the wing tip, or pop it in a bag and freeze to use later to make bone broth, or chicken stock.
That is it! Eazy Peazy.
Coat Oven Baked Wings in Baking Powder:
The next step in the process, after segmenting your wings and patting them dry is to coat them in a mixture of baking powder, salt, and pepper.
- TIP: The first thing I have to warn you about is to use Baking Powder, not baking soda! If you use baking soda, just plan now to toss those wings now. It will ruin them, while the baking powder makes them awesome.
Why Baking Powder?
The baking powder is a key factor in making these oven baked wings crispy. Like not joking, seriously crunchy, crackly, crispy wings. Like you pulled them out of the deep fryer, only way less fat–crispy!
- In a nutshell this is because the baking powder will help to draw moisture to the surface of the skin, and the heat of the oven will cause it to evaporate, and then the skin will be left moisture-less, and thus become far crispier.
- It also helps to render the fat, so you get a delicious, lower fat, far crispier, but still juicy and delicious wing.
Alternative methods:
Parboil the Wings: While I was doing my research for this post, and this cooking method, I came across the idea of parboiling your wings before baking them.
This essentially means putting them in a pot of simmering (almost boiling) water, and cooking them for 6-7 minutes to help render out the fat before baking them.
The smaller the layer of fat under the skin means the crispier the wing.
What To Do If You Only Have Frozen Wings:
This is so important. Whenever possible start with fresh wings, not frozen. But life happens….
I get it, sometimes you can’t find them. Sometimes you forget to pull them out of the freezer. Bottom line, if your wings are frozen, you can still get crispy oven baked wings, but you HAVE to use the parboil method or completely defrost them.
If you can only find frozen wings, here is what you need to do:
- Let them defrost fully in the refrigerator. Never leave them on the counter to defrost, as bacteria can form and that is not good.
- Once fully defrosted, drain off any excess liquid.
- Use paper towels and squeeze each wing to get any excess moisture out of it.
- Pat the wings dry with more paper towels, and set aside.
Or
- Parboil wings in simmering water for 6-7 minutes until completely defrosted and fat is rendered.
- Remove from water. And drain to let the exterior dry.
- Pat dry and let air dry. Be sure to shake off and pat off any excessive moisture.
- Toss with salt and pepper
- Continue as normal
I found this method to work well for a crispy skin, but not so well for my life and house.
A big pot of boiling meat that you have to really pay attention to the time on not to ruin was a bit too fussy for me. So while it worked awesome, and the skin was super crispy. I still much prefer the defrost and use baking powder alternative for ease.
Of course, feel free to use whatever method works best for you! The key is simply to reduce the fat under the skin, and dry the skin well so you can get a crispy exterior.
Baking Powder TIPS
I have made these wings countless times and haven’t run into problems with the wings tasting like baking powder, but many have commented they have had this problem, so I have done some trouble-shooting. And here are my suggestions:
- First make sure you are using BAKING POWDER. I have had far too many readers mistakenly use baking soda, which makes these inedible.
- Mix baking powder, salt, and pepper together first (unlike in video, I found later this works better)
- Put in a zip top bag and toss so it is more evenly distributed. This way no one wings has too much baking powder on it.
- Make sure you have the correct amount of wings. If you use fewer than 5 lbs, adjust the baking powder accordingly or you will taste it.
- Cook according to instructions for a crispy, golden brown result.
Other Tips for Perfect Wings
- Don’t Skimp On Drying the Wings: If you really want to be safe, let the wings sit, uncovered in the refrigerator for a day after patting them dry, and pat them dry one more time. You want to get rid of as much of that excess moisture as you can.
- Line The Pan: Line the bottom of the baking sheet with foil to catch the fat and make clean up easier.
- Spray The Rack: Spray the baking rack/cooling rack with non-stick spray before placing your wings on it to make clean up easier.
- Sauce them Right: When coating the wings with sauce, use just enough to cover them without making them too saucy. This will take that crispy skin and make it soggy. If you love sauce, serve them with a side of extra sauce, rather than over-saucing the wings to begin with.
- Serve right away: Wings come out hot, which produces steam, which is going to make those crispy skins less crispy. So plan to serve right after cooking for optimal crispiness.
How long does it take to cook chicken wings in the oven at 400?
The easy answer is until cooked through with an internal temp of 165 degrees, and a crispy skin. It can vary, based on the size of the wings, your oven, etc. But here is a good rule of thumb:
- Conventional Oven – cook at 400 degrees F for 45-50 minutes, flipping them halfway through.
- Convection Oven – cook at 400 degrees F, but reduce the cook time to 35-45 minutes flipping them halfway through.
The ideas is simple, start cooking them at a lower heat, and rendering the fat out, so when you turn the temperature up to 400, it should take only about 45-50 minutes to get a nice crispy skin!
- You can move the rack up so they are closer to the heating element too if you want to speed things up a little.
- You could bake them at 450 and it will cook faster, but after a lot of testing, I like the slightly longer cooking time at 400 degrees. They still come out juicy, and have optimal crispiness.
As you can see from this pre-sauce picture, the skin is crispy, and golden brown, and ready to be sauced or eaten as is.
I love that these wings are reduced fat because it melts away and you discard it. And that they can be paired with whatever sauce you want!
I love making my own sauces, but I also know that sometimes I just need a quick solution, so a bottle sauce or dip is also great.
So for your next tailgating party, or football watching weekend, or just when you want something extremely tasty and delicious, make these awesomely crispy baked wings!
What side dish goes with chicken wings?
Other Wings Recipes
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Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 5 pounds chicken wings
- 1 1/2 Tbs baking powder
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
- 1/2 Tbs kosher salt Or less, see note
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Ginger Soy Glaze:
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce Use low sodium or it will be too salty
- 1 1/2 tsps minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tsp minced ginger
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
Wings instructions:
- Preheat oven to 250°F. And place on rack at the lowest setting, and one near the top.
- Use a paper towel to pat the totally defrosted wings dry. This will not work with frozen wings.
- Place wings in a large bowl or in a ziplock bag. Add the baking powder and salt and pepper, and toss to coat evenly. Note: Some have complained the wings are too salty, adjust to preference, but remember salt is needed to help dry out the skin and get crispy wings.
- Line a tray with foil, and set a wire rack inside the rimmed baking sheets.
- Brush rack with vegetable oil, or spray with cooking oil. Place the wings on the baking tray in a single layer with the skin side up. It will be a tight fit, use two sheets if needed. Make sure wings don't touch, You need space for air to get around them.
- Brush wings with remaining oil. Or spray with cooking spray
- Bake wings at 250 F. for 30 minutes at the lowest oven rack setting, this will help to help render the fat.
- After 30 minutes, increase temperature to 400 degrees F., and move wings up to the top of the oven. Bake an additional 45-50 minutes until cooked through and skin is crispy, and wings are golden brown. Optional: Flip once during baking
- Once baked, remove wings from pan, and toss in a bowl with 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup sauce of choice to coat wings.
- Return to baking sheet rack, bake for 5-6 minutes until glaze is lightly caramelized.
Ginger Soy Sauce:
- Bring all ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve honey. Taste, and adjust as desired, such as adding sweetener.
- Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/4 cup, 7–8 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Mix baking powder, salt, and pepper together, and toss with wings.
- If you adjust the amount of wings you use, adjust the amount of baking powder, it is supposed to only very slightly coat them to draw out moisture. If you use too much it will be gritty and add a bitter flavor to your wings.
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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DeannaCollum says
Can you use split leg quarters instead & how long would it take to cook them?
Beth says
Oooh, that sounds good. I’d like to know too, for chicken thighs with crispy skin and this sauce.
Rachael says
Deanna, I have not tried this method with anything but wings, but I am sure the method would work for other cuts of chicken. I would start with the same time as used for the wings, and use a meat thermometer to get a read on how close to done they are. You would want the internal temperature to be 165 degrees. Let me know if you try it.
Dave says
Rachael, I’ve made your wings probably 20 times and we love them!
Today I followed pretty much the same recipe to try with skin on thighs. Let me tell you, they were delicious!! Used about the same weight. I upped the 250 prebake to around 35 minutes and then followed with the 45 minute 400 bake. The skin seemed perfectly crispy before the sauce, but it lost a lot of crisp after the sauce. I’m thinking it might need more low temp or more after sauce cooking.
I don’t normally comment. But thanks for the recipe and wanted to share with the previous poster!
Rachael says
Thank you Dace, I haven’t tried thighs, so I REALLY appreciate the feedback. I think longer on the pre-bake for sure. I wonder if you broiled for a few minutes after saucing if that would have helped.
Coach says
Terrible. Everything is general with no specifics on temperature or time. Useless. Especially the video.
Beth says
That’s a pretty rude comment. Did you read the recipe? It says “Bake wings at 250 for 30 minutes” then “increase temperature to 400 degrees, and bake an additional 45-50 minutes until cooked through and skin is crispy, and wings are golden brown.”
The narrative gave other options, should you choose to use them. But the author’s favorite method is posted. Baking time for meat is not as specific as, say, machining parts that need to fit together in an engine. Heat + meat + time = cooked meat. The variations are in how you want that meat to turn out, what type of heat and what type of meat you use.
Would you like to apologize to the author who worked so hard on this informative post?
Rachael says
Thank you Beth for sticking up for me, and for taking the time to actually read the recipe and post before commenting. You can’t please everyone, so I just ignore the naysayers usually. But I do appreciate you having my back. Have a great day.
Rachael says
I am sorry you feel that way. The post is fairly generic, true, and the video is meant to display the method, it moves quickly so I do not include measurements as no one would be able to record them fast enough. BUT the printable recipe card includes all the details and specific directions. I suggest reading all the way through next time before being so unkind.
Lucy says
I made them, did 2 sheets and used convection to get even heat all around both sheets, worked great. Took 25 degrees of the heat due to convection. A couple of issues though. I didn’t realize baking powder had a taste, but yep, and we really tasted it. Had a dusty, powdery taste to it. As if there was to much of it ? But I made sure to get the excess of (and I did not use baking soda) Did no one else have that problem? Perhaps mine were to dry on the sheet? I dried them well, got the powder mixture on it, then sprayed oil on them, because I didn’t understand what was meant with “drizzle”. I know what drizzle means, but when exactly do you do this? After you coat them in the baking powder mix ? While in bag? With the baking powder mix? Afterward but in a bag? Afterward while on a plate? On the sheet?? I feel like I still had literal powder on them when done, and you could taste and feel it, even after I put sauce on it (although I used little sauce, didn’t want them wet) I’m about to make my second try today, adjusting the baking time slightly and want to do something different with the baking powder/oil. So they don’t seem so powdery / dry / dusty tasting. Thought I’d ask to clear up the “oil drizzle” since I may have not added enough oil before baking them?
LUCINA GONZALEZ says
Make sure you are using baking powder WITHOUT aluminum – should be on the front label.
Harley says
OK…I didn’t like the results of the two batches I did.
I just checked my baking powder container. Does not have Without Aluminum on the front label but it’s included in the ingredients list. What does the aluminum do to ruin the recipe?
Naj says
Aluminum will hurt you! Easiest way to say it. Google it hung.
Brandy Wilkerson says
This was the best oven baked chicken I’ve ever had!
Dalinda Cantu says
Worth all the prep and cook time!
CA says
The amount of baking soda should be reduced to half or even 1/4. It ruined dinner tonight. My kids were so excited and hungry to eat chicken wings and then super disappointed to taste it. It left a weird feeling in our mouths. I had to dump it all out.
CA says
Sorry I meant baking powder, not soda
melissa says
It’s baking powder
Slack says
I have found a reliable, stress-free method for parboiling wings. I use a TIMER, set it for 6 minutes, when I hear the bell, I fetch them out of the pan and send them to the oven. Never fails
Joleen says
Tying these today! I am so excited!
Sandy says
Doesn’t sound enough baking powder to do 5 pounds of wings
Rachael says
It is supposed to lightly coat to help dry out. If you use too much you will taste it. Which a few commenters have experienced, my guess is they did not have as much wings as they thought they had.
Chris says
Loved this recipe, turned out terrific. Made without the sauce. Tender, juicy, crispy, couldn’t have been any better. Will make this way from now on. Thanks so much!!
Paula Gates says
This was amazing. My husband said he would lie them this way from now on.
Paula Gates says
Mix the spices and salt and baking powder in a zip lock. Don’t use a lot. Make sure the wings have been patted dry. Shake them well in the zip lock. That will help make sure you don’t get a bitter taste.
Rachael says
Thank you Paula!
A.J. says
I’m excited to try these! Quick question, though: if using the parboiling method instead of starting them at the lower temp, do you then toss the parboiled wings in the baking powder mixture and add them to the rack? I assume that is the way, but I’ve been wrong before! 🙂 If so, is there a set amount of time to let them cool before tossing them in the mix, or just take them out of the water, dry them off and then toss them in the mix immediately?
Rachael says
Great question. If you use the parboil method, you can just take them out, dry them completely, and then toss.
A.J. says
Wonderful, thank you!
Mae Lynne l Menier says
I wanted to leave a comment to let you know these are so delicious and my whole family loves them, even my 22-year-old daughter who is pretty much a wing snob and finally tried them and now CRAVES them. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Mae Lynne
Rachael says
Thank you for the comment! I am so glad your wing-snob loved them. They are our favorites!!!!
Renea L Steele says
I could taste the baking powder so I would not do that again. otherwise this recipe was just so so.
Rachael says
How many pounds of wings did you use? If you adjust the amount of the wings you have to adjust the baking powder as well.
Cathy says
Hi I am looking forward to trying this for the 4th.Can I bake them on low and then crisp them the next day
Rachael says
I have not tried it. I would think it would be possible. But might dry them out some as it will require them to come back up to temp.
CARMEN CINTRON says
Im.making these right now for the first. Ow and crossing my fingers I only had about 4 pounds of chicken so I had to adjust the amount of baking powder. Will post again once its complete.