Chicken Wings

Here’s a mouth-watering crispy baked chicken wings recipe!

We all get cravings for bar food once in a while. As soon as you sip that beer, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll crave some juicy, hot chicken wings! Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, its been a while since I’ve been to a bar!

So for all you guys and gals craving some good bar food, I present my crispy, baked chicken wings recipe! I love this particular recipe so much because it’s oven baked and it tastes better than fried. Believe it or not, the calories in fried chicken wings is twice as much (128% more) as baked wings!

This recipe is really easy to make and requires minimal prep work. All you need to do is about 15 minutes of hands-on work, and the oven does the rest!

How to make the Crispy Baked Chicken Wings recipe?

Prep the chicken wings

Before you start this step, preheat the oven to 400 F (204 C).

This is the only step where you need to get your hands dirty. Put the chicken wing pieces into a large bowl. I recommend directly getting the party-style wings, which are basically individual drumettes and wingettes. But if you have the whole chicken wings, don’t worry, I’ll walk you through the steps of how to cut it.

Cutting a whole chicken wing

Lay the whole wing flat on your cutting board and cut along the dotted lines shown below. You will run into bone while cutting it. The trick is to feel for the low point between the bones and cut through that. Don’t overthink it!

Now, you will have 3 parts in total – the wing tip, wingette and drumette. You can discard the wing tip as it doesn’t really contain any meat, or you could use it to make broth.

Dredging the chicken wings

First, pat the pieces dry with a paper towel as thoroughly as possible. Then transfer the chicken wings to a large bowl and add baking powder, freshly ground black pepper and salt. Toss and mix them well to ensure that all the wings are evenly coated.

The secret to crispy baked wings is the baking powder! Using baking powder closely mimics the crispiness of deep fried wings. Just to clarify, you cannot substitute baking powder with baking soda. If you don’t have baking powder at home, I suggest buying some or simply cooking the wings without any.

Bake the chicken wings

It’s now time to bake these bad boys! Place a wire rack on a baking tray that is lined with aluminum foil. The foil will catch the juices that drip off the wings during the baking process and it allows for easy cleanup! Place the wings skin-side-down on the wire rack. To ensure crispiness, don’t overcrowd or stack them.

Bake this in a preheated oven at 400 F (204 C) for 18 minutes. Then flip the wings and pop it back into the oven for another 18 minutes.

Now check if the wings are cooked, the food thermometer should read 165 F. If they are nicely browned, you can take it out of the oven. If not, switch to broil for an additional 5 minutes. Keep an eye so that you don’t char the chicken.

Et voilà! You now have crispy baked chicken wings!

Today, I’ll be using 2 different sauces for the wings. If you are choosing just 1 sauce, then transfer the cooked wings into a single large bowl, else split them into 2 bowls.

Preparing the sauces

Garlic Parmesan

This garlic parmesan sauce is my favorite wing sauce! And it’s super easy to make. Begin by mincing 3 cloves of garlic (about 1 tbsp worth) and grating 3 tbsp of parmesan cheese.

In a small sauce pan, on medium heat, melt 1 tbsp of butter and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Next, add minced garlic and sauté until it becomes golden brown. Then, add in the grated parmesan, freshly ground black pepper and salt. I personally like a kick of heat in my garlic parmesan sauce, so I add a tsp of smoked paprika!

Mix all the ingredients in the pan and add it to the bowl of chicken wings.

Hot Buffalo

I highly recommend the Franks Red Hot Buffalo sauce. It’s a rich sauce with the perfect amount of heat and has a great balance of flavors!

You can add it directly to the bowl of chicken wings.

Toss and Serve

Toss the wings in the sauce until they are well coated!

That’s it! You did it! Serve your delicious crispy baked chicken wings with a side of delicious spicy mayo or your favorite dips, celery or carrot!

Enjoy this crispy baked chicken wings recipe at your next game night or tailgate party!

Tips

• Before placing the chicken wings on the wire rack for baking, it’s better to lightly grease it with some oil to avoid sticking.
• When you place the chicken wings on the wire rack the first time, be sure to place them ‘skin-side-down‘.

I hope you enjoy these wings as much as we did!

If you liked this recipe, please share it with your friends and family and do leave your rating and comments below. It’ll motivate me to keep creating and sharing my experiments in the kitchen with you guys!

Here are some other finger foods that you don’t want to miss!

Chicken Quesadillas

Fish and Chips

Chicken Tacos

See you next time!