All the flavor of restaurant quality chicken wings, without the grease. Air Fryer Chicken Wings are a super easy to make, and turn out amazingly crispy. This is a great recipe for your Super Bowl party, tailgate or just a weeknight dinner in.
👍 Recipe Features
- Super Crispy - I like my wings extra crispy, which is exactly how I order at the bar. This recipe delivers exactly what I want. Wings that are super crisp and soak up flavoring extremely well. Plus, they aren't as greasy as the deep fried stuff. This has become my favorite wing recipe!
- Versatile - The base recipe here calls for standard buffalo hot wings, but I offer a ton of different varieties of flavor combos and techniques. After all, there's a reasons sports bars don't offer wings in just one flavor.
- Surprisingly easy - A quick season at the beginning, then a few shakes along the way are all it takes to deliver crispy wings. Then, flavor them how you want them and you're in ready to eat!
🍗 Ingredients
- Chicken wings - I get the "party wings" with drums and wingettes separated. This is closer to what you get at a sports bar. Plus, you don't want to pay for the full wings that come with the tips that are largely useless.
- Kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper - We season the wings before placing them in the fryer to help draw the moisture out of the wings.
- Vegetable oil - Just a couple of tablespoons is all we'll use, tossing the wings before placing them in the fryer to really help make things crispy. Way less than the cups of oil you'd need to deep fry them!
- Wing sauce - For a basic buffalo hot wing, grab your favorite wing sauce to add when they're done cooking.
- Garlic Powder - I love a good spicy garlic style wing, myself. The garlic powder is a quick and easy addition to add another layer of flavor.
- Blue cheese dressing or ranch: The standard dipping sauce here. I'm firmly on team blue cheese, myself, but ranch does the trick as well.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1: Preheat air fryer to 400°. Add chicken wings to a large mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and pour vegetable oil over top. Mix together to coat wings well.
Step 2: Add wings to air fryer (affiliate) basket, trying to keep them in one layer as best you can. Check the wings after 18 minutes, and gently shake the basket to help toss the wings. Continue checking every 5 minutes until wings are crisp. Total cooking time should take about 28-35 minutes.
Quick tip: The basket is likely to have a lot of chicken drippings at the bottom, so be careful tossing it too hard when shaking the basket, or you may splash yourself with hot grease.
Step 3: When the wings are done cooking immediately transfer them to a large, heatproof mixing bowl (affiliate). Pour in buffalo wing sauce and garlic powder. Toss until wings are evenly coated in the sauce. Serve with blue cheese dressing or ranch, whichever you prefer.
🎥 Video
💭 Top Tip
To help get crispy skin, I place the wings on a wire rack above a large baking sheet (affiliate) and pat them dry. I then place that all in the fridge for about 4-5 hours in open air. The cool dry air helps to dry out the chicken skin, which helps to give you extra crispy wings.
👨🏻🍳 Variations
There's a ton of different flavor combos you can use here, if you aren't in the mood for standard buffalo sauce. Transfer the cooked wings to a large mixing bowl and follow these instructions for some of my favorites:
- Garlic Parmesan: Season cooked wings with garlic powder, finely grated parmesan and oregano. Add a touch of olive oil to help everything stick and toss well.
- Cajun Ranch: Season cooked wings with equal parts cajun season and dry ranch mix. An awesome mix of spice and cool.
- Thai Sweet Chili: Mix together ½ cup of thai sweet chili sauce, and a splash each of rice wine vinegar and soy. To spice it up, add a tablespoon of Sriracha (optional). Stir everything together then pour over wings and toss. Garnish with thinly sliced scallions.
- Sweet BBQ: Toss cooked wings in bbq sauce until well coated. Return to air fryer and cook another 4-5 minutes to thicken sauce. Remove and let cool about 5 minutes before serving.
- Salt & Vinegar: Dust with powdered salt and vinegar seasoning and toss until well coated. Allow about 5 minutes to cool so that seasoning can sink in.
- Spicy Teriyaki: Mix together ½ cup of teriyaki sauce and 2 Tbsp of sriracha. Pour over wings and toss until well coated. Return to air fryer (affiliate) and cook for 4-5 more minutes for sauce to set.
- Lemon Pepper: Season with lemon pepper seasoning and toss until well coated.
- Jerk: Toss in jerk marinade until well coated. Return to air fryer (affiliate) and cook 4-5 more minutes for sauce to set.
🍽 Equipment
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Buy Now →🥗 Side dishes
The standard accompaniment here is celery and carrots. These make for great dippers and let you rotate in some freshness between spicy bites. Likewise, I'm a big fan of the chopped salad kits at the grocery store. Or, go for something different like this Cauliflower Potato Salad or Instant Pot Mac and Cheese.
🥡 Leftovers
These wings keep okay in the fridge for 3-5 days. The best way to reheat them is back in the air fryer (affiliate) at 325° for about 5 minutes, or until warmed through. They hold up okay in the microwave as well. Makes for a quick snack or an easy lunch.
👪 Serving Size
I roll with the standard restaurant serving size of a dozen wings per person. That with a good veggie side makes for a filling meal. This recipe calls for two dozen wings, but you can always scale it up using the recipe card below.
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Air Fryer Chicken Wings
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
Description
Make restaurant quality chicken wings at home, without deep frying them in fat! The air fryer makes crispy chicken wings you'll love!
Ingredients
- 2 dozen chicken wings, drums and flappers only, seperated
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- ½ Tbsp coarse black pepper
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- ¼ cup buffalo wing sauce
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- Blue cheese dressing, or ranch (for dipping)
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400°. Place chicken wings in a large mixing bowl. Season with kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper. Add vegetable oil and toss to mix together.
- Add to air fryer basket, trying your best to keep them in a single layer. Cook at 400° for 28-35 minutes (every air fryer is a little different). Check the wings after 18 minutes and toss. Continue chiking and toss about every 5 minutes. Wings are done when they are golden brown and crispy.
- Transfer cooked wings to a mixing bowl. Add buffalo wing sauce and garlic powder. Toss together until wings are completely coated. Serve immediately with blue cheese dressing or ranch for dipping.
Notes
- To help get extra crispy wings, lay the wings on a wire rack above a baking sheet, and place them in the fridge for 2-8 hours before cooking them. This helps to dry out the skin, which really helps to get it nice and crispy.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Air Fryer Chicken Wings, Super Bowl Recipes, Crispy Chicken Wings
