Crispiest Baked Chicken Wings
Learn how to make crispy baked chicken wings! These wings come out of the oven hot and crispy and stay crispy for hours. Plus you only need three ingredients to make them.
Today I’m sharing a method for producing the crispy wings. With just one extra ingredient, the wings come out golden with skin that stays crispy for hours.
So what’s the secret ingredient? Baking powder. Coating the chicken skin with baking powder raises the pH level, which helps to break down proteins in the skin and brown the skin.
The method was published in Cook’s Country back in 2013, but I only recently came across it.
With this method you can make wings that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. They are perfect – you won’t want to make them any other way.
Ingredients
- Chicken wings
- Salt
- Baking powder
How to Make Crispy Chicken Wings
Wings are pat dry with paper towels to remove moisture, then coated in baking powder. They are then placed on a wire rack so that the air circulates underneath the wings as well, and baked at a low temperature to dry out the skin and render off most of the fat.
I like to line the baking sheet with aluminum foil to make clean-up easy.
Then the wings are baked at a high temperature to brown and crisp the skin. The end result is some fantastically crispy baked wings.
Sauces, Dips, and Seasoning Ideas
These wings are perfect as is or glazed with a sauce or served with a dip. Here are some ideas:
- Toss them in buffalo sauce, teriyaki sauce, or BBQ sauce.
- Dip them in ranch, hot sauce, blue cheese dressing, or honey garlic sauce.
You can also season the baked wings with seasonings and spices like salt, pepper, garlic powder, Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, paprika, or another spice rub you like.
This chicken wings recipe is great as an appetizer for parties, game day food, and more. I will definitely be making these again and will have to make more next time. I polished off six wings before I even took a photo!
More Chicken Recipes
- Sriracha Chicken Wings
- Baked Garlic Parmesan Wings
- Baked Fried Chicken
- Baked Salt and Pepper Wings
- Orange Chicken Wings
Crispiest Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken wings, defrosted and patted dry with paper towels (I purchased ones already separated into first and second wing sections but you can also use full wings and separate them)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder, not baking soda!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F. Line a large baking sheet (half sheet pan size works) with foil. Place a cooling wire rack on top and spray surface with cooking oil spray.
- In a large bowl, add wings and sprinkle with salt and baking powder. Toss the wings until they are evenly coated in the baking powder and salt.
- Place the wings, side by side onto the cooling rack. All the wings should fit in a single layer on baking sheet without touching (but they will be quite close to each other).
- Bake for 30 minutes in the lower half of the oven. The wings should look smaller (from the skin being dried out and fat rendered off) but still very pale.
- Raise oven temperature to 425°F. Place wings back into the oven, this time in the upper middle section of the oven. Bake wings for about 50 minutes. Wings should be golden brown and when you touch the skin, it should feel crispy. Allow the wings to cool for about 5-10 minutes, which should further settle and crisp the skin even more. Eat wings as is or coat them in your favorite glaze or serve them with your favorite dipping sauce.
Best Baked Wings Ever!!!!
Thanks so much! We’re so glad you loved the recipe.
I followed your instructions and currently have wings in the oven. I plan on serving them at a later date coating them with a sauce. Have you done this? Do you have a recommendation on how I should do it?
We haven’t tried making them ahead- sorry!
I’ve made this twice and they are the best baked wings EVER! Thank you! My new go to wing recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Killed it!!!! Absolutely the best flipping wings ever! I have convection so I always shorten the time, I did 225 for 30 but 450 for 35. Also I didn’t have a cooling rack so I did mine on parchment only. I don’t typically eat wings and I ate 10!? love the simplicity and result!
I’m happy this recipe worked out so well for you!
I made this recipe twice following instructions to the letter except that the first time I used the convection bake setting of my oven and they were extremely overdone and dry. The second time I did not use the convection setting and I still took them out 10 minutes earlier than indicated. They were good the second time with the shortened cooking time of 40 minutes.
In my experience, oven cooking times needs to be adjusted with convection oven. I have only tested these in a conventional oven
So, do you remove the wings from the oven after the 30min at 250, preheat to 425 and then put them back in? Or just leave them in while the oven gets up to 425?
You remove the wings and put them back in when the oven reaches 425. You also move what section of the oven they go back in as stated in step 5.
Thanks for sharing, Kirbie. We are a big fan of crispy salt and pepper wings. In this recipe, would I toss the cooked wings in salt and pepper, or add it in with the baking powerder/salt mixture before cooking?
https://kirbiecravings.com/baked-salt-pepper-wings/
Have you tried adding more seasoning like Goya adobo or Tony’s? Just curious if adding more dry seasoning would change end result or not?
Thanks so much!
you can add different seasonings at the end. This recipe is just for the plain chicken wings. Just make sure if you are adding seasonings, to sprinkle them at the end after the wings are done cooking
can i use this trick for other pieces of chicken like drumsticks or thighs?
I have not tested this with other pieces of chicken. I would imagine it should work though the cooking time may need to be adjusted
I’m going to make these wings this week. I just want to make sure the 425 for 50min is correct. I don’t want to over cook my wings.
yes
Thanks so much for this tip. I cannot wait to try it. My honey is a real stickler about crispy wings – and I can be freed from the fryer. You are mahvelous dahling!!
I love being freed from frying too!
Definitely saving this to pinterest! Can’t wait to try!
hope you enjoy!
Need to buy some wings now, heh heh. Those wings look fantastic!
we couldn’t stop eating them! I hope you get to try out the recipe!
Very interesting about the baking powder; I would have thought that the baking powder would leave a taste, but I guess not. Plus, it’s a small amount. I’ll have to try this soon!
Baking soda would have definitely left a taste, but I think baking powder is neutral enough that it doesn’t. You should definitely try it!