Instant Pot Chicken Wings
Instant Pot Chicken Wings are super tender and juicy, smothered in sauce, broiled until crispy, and done in under 45 minutes. These can be made from fresh or frozen wings. They are loaded with flavor, super crispy, and a great way to cook for a crowd.
Serve with Pizza Dip and Mexican Street Corn Dip and Crockpot Grape Jelly Meatballs for the ultimate game day spread, or party appetizer table.
You guys know I am wings obsessed. I have these Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings that makes a lot and everyone goes crazy for, then a quicker recipe that only makes a few at a time with this Air Fryer Wings, a hands off version with these Crockpot Wings, but I knew I needed an Instant Pot version. I love the instant pot and use it all the time for everything. And what makes it so amazing for wings is unlike all the other versions, you can cook from FROZEN.
Ingredients for Wings
Making these wings is so simple, and requires very few ingredients. You need 3-4 things.
- Wings: Look for meaty, high quality wings that aren’t too small. You can go with fresh or frozen. I like to look at the actual wings. If they are too small they may end up rubbery in the cooking process. We don’t want that.
- Flavor enhancer: This is the liquid smoke. I love using liquid smoke because it gives them that smoked, grilled, flavor, but from the instant pot. Just be careful not to use too much.
- Sauce: This is where you get to flavor your wings the way you want. I love a good Buffalo Sauce or Easy Peach BBQ Sauce, but you can use a bottled sauce, or whatever you like best.
How to Make Instant Pot Wings
- Prepare Instant Pot: Pour 1 cup cold water in Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. Add liquid smoke (optional), then place a steamer basket in Instant Pot, or place a trivet in pot, and add your chicken wings and drumettes into the basket or on top of trivet. Make sure none are in the water. We don’t want boiled wings
- Cook Wings: Close lid and lock into place. Set the valve to “sealing” Pressure cook on Manual High Pressure for 6 minutes if wings are fresh, 12 minutes if wings are frozen. When time is up, let steam naturally release for 5-10 minutes (5 for fresh, 10 for frozen), the turn valve to “venting” When pin drops, and pot is vented, unlock and open the lid carefully.
- Finish Wings: Remove wings from the pressure cooker pot, and use a paper towel to blot them dry. Dry them well so you can get a nice crispy skin. I like setting them on a cooling rack inside a baking tray, then blotting them dry. Then you sauce them up. I like to toss them with my favorite sauce. Then finish in airfryer, oven, or with crisping lid to get that crispy result.
Air Fryer Instructions:
- Preheat air fryer to 400°F.
- Take dried wings, and place in a large mixing bowl, and toss with sauce of your choice.
- Place in air fryer basket, and air fry for 5-10 minutes until sauce is glossy and caramelized. Tossing half way through.
Oven:
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Take dried off wings, and place in a large mixing bowl, and toss with sauce of your choice.
- Place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until sauce is glossy and caramelized. Flipping half way through.
Air fryer crisping lid: (Ninja Foodi, IP Duo Crisp, Mealthy, etc.)
- Remove the cooking pot and clean it well to get anything stuck on the bottom off, or you will get a burn notice, and you do not want that. Then return it to the pressure cooker, and place an air frying rack in it.
- Toss wings with sauce, then place on the air frying rack.
- Secure the air fryer lid on top of your pressure cooker. Select the Air Fry setting.
- Set the temperature to 400°F and a 6 minute cook time.
- When the cook time ends, remove the air fryer lid, and serve wings immediately.
From Fresh or Frozen
There are a lot of reasons to love this recipe, but for me, as a busy mom, the best is that it works great from fresh or frozen. I always have a bag of chicken wings in the freezer. So when there is a game on, and I forgot to defrost them, it is no problem, I just put them in the pressure cooker frozen, and add some time.
Instead of 6 minute cook time, you increase it to 10 minutes. Otherwise it is the same.
How long do you cook frozen chicken wings in the instant pot?
You cook frozen chicken wings for 12 minutes on High Pressure, followed by a 5-10 minutes Natural Pressure Release.
How long do you cook fresh or thawed chicken wings in the instant pot?
You cook fresh or thawed chicken wings for 6 minutes on High Pressure, followed by a 10 minutes Natural Pressure Release.
Sauce Options
These wings turn out tender and juicy, but you finish them in the oven/air fryer to get that crispy skin and caramelized sauce. So this is where the real flavor comes from. And to get it exactly how you want it, you need to choose the sauce you like best. This is personal, I love BBQ sauce, which is what is pictured here. Here are a few options:
- Buffalo Sauce
- Peach BBQ Sauce
- Bottled favorites
- Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Tips for the Best Instant Pot Wings
- Wings Matter: For this recipe you want to pick high quality wing segments, and look for ones that are good sized. Fresh or frozen works great.
- Trivet: Make sure you use a trivet with handles or a steamer basket when cooking instant pot chicken wings. This will help you avoid overcooking or boiling your wings by keeping them above the water needed to get your pot to pressure. Also, it makes removing the chicken wings from the Instant Pot easy. If you do not have one, you can fashion a sling for your trivet using foil.
- Pay Attention to Pressure Release: Pay attention during the natural pressure release, you do not want to walk away and forget about your wings, otherwise they will overcook and get a rubbery soggy skin you don’t want.
- Handle with Care: One of the reasons this cooking method is so nice is the result is a tender, juicy wing, but it can mean they can fall apart or off the bone before you finish them up. They are super soft. So be gentle to avoid that.
- Sauce to Your Preference: Toss the chicken wings in your favorite store-bought or homemade sauce. Taste the sauce first, if you like it, you will like it on your wings.
- Crisp Them Up: You do not want to skip the final step. The Instant Pot uses hot steam to produce perfectly cooked and tender wings, but it is not possible for those wings to get crispy in the IP without the help of an air fry lid. So be sure to broil, air fry, or crisp lid your wings in order to get them crispy on the outside, it is totally worth it, and so good.
Other Instant Pot Favorites
- Instant Pot Baby Back Ribs
- Instant Pot Chicken Piccata
- Instant Pot Pork Chops
- Instant Pot Lava Cake
- Instant Pot Lasagna Soup
Instant Pot Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 4 lbs chicken wings
- 1 cup liquid
- ½ tsp liquid smoke optional
- 1-2 cups Sauce of choice BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Pour 1 cup cold water in Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. Add liquid smoke (optional)
- Place a steamer basket in Instant Pot, or place a trivet in pot, and add chicken wings and drumettes in basket or on top of trivet, so none are in the water.
- Close lid and lock into place.
- Set the valve to “sealing”
- Pressure cook on Manual High Pressure for 6 minutes if fresh, 10-12 minutes if frozen (depending on size of the wings)
- When cook time is up, let steam naturally release for 5-10 minutes, (5 for fresh, 10 for frozen) then turn valve to “venting” to manually release remaining pressure.
- When pin drops, and pot is vented, unlock and open the lid carefully.
- Remove wings from pot, and use a paper towel to blot them dry. Dry them well.
- Then finish in airfryer, oven, or with crisping lid, instructions below.
Air Fryer:
- Preheat air fryer to 400°F.
- Take dried wings, and place in a large mixing bowl, and toss with sauce of your choice until well coated.
- Place in air fryer basket, and air fry for 5-10 minutes until sauce is glossy and caramelized. Tossing half way through.
Oven:
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Take dried off wings, and place in a large mixing bowl, and toss with sauce of your choice.
- Place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until sauce is glossy and caramelized. Flipping half way through.
Air fryer crisping lid: (Ninja Foodi, IP Duo Crisp, Mealthy, etc.)
- Remove the cooking pot and clean anything off the bottom. Then return it to the pressure cooker, and place an air frying rack in it. You clean it to avoid getting a burn notice if something is stuck to the bottom.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss wings in the sauce of your choice.
- Place the wings on the air frying rack, and brush with additional sauce of your choice if desired.
- Secure the air fryer lid on top of your pressure cooker. Select the Air Fry setting.
- Set the temperature to 400°F with a 6 minute cook time.
- When the cook time ends, remove the air fryer lid, and serve wings immediately.
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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