↑
  • Start Here
  • Recipe Index
  • Travel Index
  • Lifestyle
  • Disclosures
  • Contact
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Easy Peasy Meals

Easy Recipes, Slow Cooker Meals, Meal Planning & Meal Prep

  • About
  • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Disclosures
    • Privacy + Ad Policy
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
  • Nav Widget Area

  • Start Here
  • Recipe Index
  • Course
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert
  • Method
    • Air fryer
    • Instant Pot
    • Skillet
    • Sheet Pan
    • Slow Cooker
    • Grill / Smoker
  • Holiday
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
    • 4th of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • NYE
  • Protein
    • Chicken
    • Beef
    • Turkey
    • Pork
    • Fish
    • Vegetarian
  • Low-Carb
Home » Air fryer » Instant Pot Chicken Wings
This post may contain affiliate links. See my Full Disclosure for further details.
Air fryer

Instant Pot Chicken Wings

By Rachael | Updated on March 8, 2022

275shares
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly
Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe

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.

Instant pot chicken wings, easy to make wings, cooked in the instant pot

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.
making chicken wings in the instant pot

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.
Instant pot chicken wings

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
Instant pot chicken wings made in the pressure cooker, then finished in the oven or air fryer

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.
Instant pot chicken wings, sauce, wings, and so delicious

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, sauce, wings, and so delicious

Instant Pot Chicken Wings

Crispy chicken wings, cooked to tender perfection in the pressure cooker, and then crisped up in the oven/air fryer for a crisp exterior and juicy interior, and a nice caramelized sauce.
No ratings yet
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetiser, Appetizer
Cuisine: wings
Keyword: buffalo chicken wings, Chicken Wings, wings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 16 minutes
pressurize and depressurize: 20 minutes
Total Time: 41 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 462kcal

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

Calories: 462kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 94mg | Sodium: 459mg | Potassium: 296mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 47g | Vitamin A: 260IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 2mg

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.

Tried this recipe?Mention @ezpzmealz or tag #ezpzmealz!
Want to use this recipe in a meal plan?Try PrePear, my FREE Meal Planning App that allows you to save your recipes, plan meals, shop for groceries, and cook simply in one place. Join Here!

Pin to your Appetizer board:

275shares
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly

Related

Related categories:
Air fryer Appetizers Chicken Collections Main Dish Tailgating Video Wingschicken wings hot wings wings

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Rachael from Eazy Peazy Mealz

Welcome, I'm Rachael!

I’m a mom of 4 great kids that keep me super busy.

My philosophy is cooking has to be easy, tasty, kid approved, and fit between homework, piano practice, soccer, and the MOUNTAINS of laundry in my life! Read More Work With Me
Take the Hassle Out of Meal Time!
FREE EMAIL COURSE + Printable Recipe Binder!
 
Easy, quick prep meals your family will want to eat sent straight to your inbox!
Thank you for subscribing!

Crock Pot Meals

Crock Pot Philly Cheesesteak (Keto)

Crockpot grape jelly meatballs are the perfect party appetizer.

Crockpot Grape Jelly Meatballs

A bowl full of bolognese made in the slow cooker.

Bolognese Slow Cooker

A bowl of chicken parmesan casserole

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan

20 Minute Meals

Pop hearts, homemade pop tarts, flakey pie crust stuffed with raspberry jam and baked to golden perfection.
A cuban sandwich
Pad see ew a thai stir fry noodle with vegetables, so delicious, so easy to make.
A hot stack of buttermilk pancakes and syrup being poured over the top

Free Kitchen Binder eBook

Let's Do This!

browse allRecipes By Method

slow cook

Sheet Pan

Air Fryer

Instant Pot

Grill/Smoke

One Pot

Skillet

Let's Work Together

Hi, I'm Rachael, and I am obsessed with sharing quality products and solid recipes. I can work with you to develop, test and create original recipes and content using YOUR products, and share it across Eazy Peazy Mealz blog and social channels, reaching thousands of dedicated readers.

Let's Do This

Footer

Eazy Peazy Meals
  • About
  • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright ©2023, Easy Peasy Meals. All Rights Reserved.
Design by Pixel Me Designs
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly