This is by far the best recipe for baked chicken wings that I’ve ever tried. After many experiments I finally was able to make my baked chicken wings extra crispy on the outside and very tender and most on the inside. They taste just like deep-fried wings, only without the oily mess and added calories. Actually, they taste better than deep-fried. Try them, you’ll know what I am talking about.
What makes a chicken wing taste great?
Extra crispy skin and moist, tender interior is the holy grail of chicken wings. That’s the reason why deep-fried Buffalo chicken wings are so widely popular. No other chicken wing recipe is as cloned and copied as the original Buffalo wing recipe. I am big fan of Buffalo chicken wings and visit Duff’s Famous Wings or Anchor Bar a couple of times a year when I visit Buffalo. In an effort to replicate the famous wings at home I deep-fried chicken wings and used the original sauce. They came out perfect, just like at the restaurant, but the pain of dealing with hot oil, smell and the resulting mess was a big turn off.
Options for making the best crispy chicken wings
I knew the solution would be baked chicken wings. What I needed to find was a way to bake them such that they would come out just as crispy as deep-fried. I figured out how to bake amazingly flavorful and crispy enough chicken wings, I posted about it in my How to Bake Chicken Wings post, but they are not like deep-fried. I experimented with different temperatures, convection, with and without oil, but couldn’t get what I wanted. The solution was prompted by Serious Eat’s The Food Lab: In Search of the Best Oven-Fried Buffalo Wings article. Similar approach is used in the Cook’s Country Oven-Fried Chicken Wings recipe. What the recipes in the above links suggest is tossing wings in baking powder to help with browning and crisping up the skin. Then baking for 30 minutes at 250F, followed by 40 minutes at 400F. Using baking powder was genius. It really does help. While I generally liked the results I had a couple of issues. One issue was that the wings would come out a tad too dry inside. Another issue was the crispness – the wings weren’t quite as crispy as deep-fried. Finally, I could not stand the length of baking. Seriously, over an hour to bake a couple of dozen wings?
What worked to get extra crispy baked chicken wings
To make a long story short, after a few experiments, I did the following: After tossing chicken wings in baking powder (1 tablespoon per 2 pounds of wings) and baking for only 30 minutes at 425F convection I got these beautifully crisp chicken wings:
Another time I baked them for 40 minutes. I liked the result better. These baked chicken wings had a thicker crust and more crispiness. Here is a picture of a wing baked at 425F convection for 40 minutes:
The interior of the wings was still tender and really moist and juicy.
Serving crispy chicken wings
To serve, toss the wings with your favorite Buffalo wing sauce. In the picture below I am using the famous 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce and a couple of minced garlic cloves. I also add 2 teaspoons of salt as I do not salt before baking. While I like wings with this sauce, they do taste a bit too rich for my taste.
My favorite sauce is the Duff’s Hot Sauce with a little bit of melted butter. About 1 tablespoon of melted butter per 1/3 cup of Duff’s wing sauce, plus 1 teaspoon of salt. That’s enough for 2 dozen wings.
Or just a little bit (2-3 tablespoons) of plain Duff’s hot sauce and some salt, like this:
After tossing baked chicken wings in sauce or sauce and butter mix they will become less crispy. If you want optimal crispiness, serve them with a wing sauce on the side.
Tips and tricks
I stopped using a cooling rack as it’s a major pain in the back to clean it afterward. I now bake directly on the baking sheet lined with foil and parchment paper. The difference is barely noticeable. The bottoms come out a little greasier, but also crispier due to contact with a hot baking sheet.
Every now and again I see an email or a comment on social media that the recipe did not work and that the wings tasted like crap because of the baking soda. Dah! DO NOT USE BAKING SODA! It’s not the same and can’t be used as a substitute in this recipe. The recipe calls for BAKING POWDER! This is a tested recipe and it works exceptionally well. I’ve made it at least 2 dozen times with great results. As was mentioned above, this recipe uses a modified version of the approach proposed by The Food Lab: In Search of the Best Oven-Fried Buffalo Wings article. A similar approach is used in the Cook’s Country Oven-Fried Chicken Wings recipe, which also uses baking powder. I’ve tried making these extra crispy chicken wings in an air fryer and they turned out absolutely amazing. If you have one, definitely give that recipe a try. Don’t forget the try these crunchy air fryer French fries as an accompaniment to the wings, they go exceptionally well together. Letting the wings sit for 5 minutes before tossing in sauce will help preserve most of the skin crispiness. Try tossing wings in a 50/50 mix of hot wing sauce and BBQ sauce, my new favorite.
If you like smoked chicken wings, don’t forget to check out these Extra Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings, plain or with BBQ sauce. Exceptionally good!
