Baked chicken wings are the perfect game-time appetizer. Thoroughly drying the chicken and adding a light baking powder coating ensures that each bite is crispy. These wings are delicious eaten straight from the pan or served with your favorite dipping sauce like buffalo, teriyaki, or ranch.
Crispy baked chicken wings are a tasty option to serve at your next party or gathering. For those health-conscious eaters, no problem, we’re going to bypass the deep fryer and use the oven instead. For this healthier version there’s not a drop of oil involved, well okay, maybe just a tiny bit but only to grease the rack to prevent sticking. That’s it!
Just because we’re not deep frying the chicken wings doesn’t mean we can’t recreate a similar texture. Using a simple drying method and just four ingredients will send you on a culinary path to crunchiness. There’s also no flour used which makes this meal gluten-free as well. So, turn up the dial on your oven and let’s get cooking!
How to make baked chicken wings
- Dry chicken with paper towels to remove excess moisture.
- Combine chicken with baking powder, salt, and pepper.
- Bake on top of an oiled wire rack placed in a sheet pan.
- Bake until golden brown and crispy, flipping just twice.
- Serve chicken wings plain or with desired sauce.
How long does it take to bake chicken wings?
It takes about 50 minutes to oven bake chicken wings at 450°F (232°C). The wings and drumettes contain white meat, covered by skin and some fat, so it can handle the hot oven temperatures. In just under an hour, the skin will be super crunchy and the meat will be fully cooked.
How do you make chicken wings crispy in the oven?
The key to making baked chicken wings crispy is drying as much moisture as possible from the skin, then coating it with baking powder, and cooking at high heat. Moisture on the surface of the chicken will create steam, which makes the skin soggy instead of crisp.
By drying the skin thoroughly with paper towels eliminates the time it would require for the oven to dry off the moisture. A small amount of baking soda in the baking powder accelerates browning and creates bubbles that harden on the skin to enhance the crispy sensation.
Cook at high temperatures
The goal is to create deep-fried results using consistent high oven temperatures. Baking above 400 degrees kick starts browning and cooking immediately. Placement on top of a greased wire rack ensures that the heat surrounds all sides of the chicken and that excess fat can drip to the pan and not make the chicken feel greasy. Make sure to flip the wings two times to ensure even cooking and heat exposure.
Looking for a dipping sauce to serve?
Sometimes these baked chicken wings disappear so fast from the tray that I don’t have time to make a sauce. But when I do, some of my favorite pairings are:
- Buffalo sauce
- Barbecue sauce
- Teriyaki sauce
- Chimichurri sauce
- Sweet and sour sauce
Each chicken wing is well seasoned with just the right amount of salt and pepper, so the sauce is completely optional. Once you’ve mastered the technique you can venture out and make baked buffalo wings served with a side of ranch. Just make sure to keep this recipe on hand for a game day, the Super Bowl, or other family celebrations. Once you make your first batch I hope you enjoy the results without all the excess frying oil.
More appetizer recipes
What is the functional purpose of baking powder?
Tossing the wings in a little baking powder does two things. First, it helps the chicken brown quicker, just like it does in cookies. Second, the sodium bicarbonate reacts with any moisture left on the chicken and creates tiny carbon dioxide bubbles on the surface that hardens with heat. The result is crackly chicken skin with extra crunch appeal.
Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- vegetable oil, as needed for oiling wire rack
- 2 pounds chicken wings, wings and drummettes
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the middle position. Preheat to 450°F (232°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with foil. Set a wire rack inside and coat both sides with vegetable oil.
- Thoroughly dry chicken wings and drummettes between paper towels.
- In a large bowl whisk together baking powder, salt, and black pepper.
- Add chicken to the bowl and mix to evenly coat the surface.
- Evenly space the chicken on the wire rack.
- Bake chicken for 20 minutes. Flip and bake for 15 minutes.
- Flip again and bake until skin is golden brown and crisp, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Serve baked chicken wings hot with desired sauce like buffalo, barbecue, or ranch.
Equipment
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Tried this recipe?
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Jie Jie Oehlman says
This. Was. Delicious! Crispy. Tasty. The recipe is spot on! I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes! Many thanks!
EDDIE says
Mine didnt come out right. I think it’s because I misread the instructions regarding how much baking powder. I coated them heavily and they taste like chalk. 🙁
Jessica Gavin says
How much baking powder did you add?
Scott says
Ok I’ll bite.Big college playoff games today & have 10 lbs of wings to cook.Never heard of baking powder,maybe it will impress a girl I like.
Steve Myerson says
I made these today. Instead of mixing the baking powder in the rub, I added it on after. So, I coated the chicken in oil, then sprinkled garlic salt, thyme, and black pepper. Then, dusted then with the baking powder and tossed them around a few times. Placed them on a baking sheet with parchment paper (no rack) and tossed them every fifteen min, three times.
They came out AMAZING!!! I saved this recipe in my paprika app. It is more or less a method rather than a recipe, as you can season the wings however you like. The key is to stick to the 450 oven and toss every fifteen minutes. The rack was optional as these came out perfect just on the sheet lined with parchment.
Jessica Gavin says
Thank you for the helpful tips Steve! You are rocking the wing method!
Beverlyn says
No need to marinate?
Jessica Gavin says
Marination not required, but you can if you’d like.
Anthony Carosella says
Good afternoon Jessica
I made the baked wings yesterday and they
We’re great I used two different types of pepper black pepper and also used Sichuan pepper corns and sea salt , they turned out great I had blue cheese 🧀 and also I used lemon 🍋 on them as well either way they were great
Marcia King says
I would love to be able to do this with bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Is this possible?
Jessica Gavin says
Hi Marcia- I feel like this method could work if you bake the chicken first to get the inside cooked, then turn up the heat for the skin to brown and become crispy. You can’t cook it at the high temp the whole time because the outside will burn and the thicker center would be undercooked.
Jacquelin Curry says
I LOVE this wing recipe. In fact, my entire family loves it. I have had to double it every time I make it. To Marcia’s point – do you think it would work with chicken tenders?
Susan McNamara says
Do you toss the wings in oil also or just oil the wire rack? How much baking soda do you use? They sound great and can’t wait to try.
Jessica Gavin says
Just use the oil for greasing the wire rack. Use 2 teaspoons of baking powder, not baking soda.
Jeanine Howard says
Absolutely the best oven fried wings I have ever had. That skin! It was light and crispy! These are my go to wings from now on. Thank you Jessica!
Anne says
I found that the baking powder gave this a really weird taste that overpowered everything else. I followed the recipe to the letter. Will stick to just using plain flour.