These crispy baked buffalo wings are a slightly healthier take on classic deep-fried buffalo wings, but with the addition of one key ingredient, they're every bit as crispy and delicious as fried wings.
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Why This Recipe Works
Before we had kids, my wife and I would go almost every week to a local sports bar for their Wednesday night buy-one-get-one free wing special. I never tried making them at home because I thought chicken wings had to be deep-fried to be crispy.
Nowadays, with two kids, I don’t get out too often for wings. So a few years ago I started looking at recipes for making them at home. I didn't want the mess of deep frying, so I tried several baked recipes. Most that I tried were either sad and soggy, without that delicious crisp skin you get on a fried wing, or had a breaded coating like fried chicken.
Then I came across an old post from Serious Eats that changed the game. They introduced me to two keys for perfect baked wings. The first is putting the wings on a wire rack to hold them out of the rendered fat and get good air circulation around the wings. The second is the use of baking powder to help crisp up the skin.
How to Cut Chicken Wings
For this recipe, you'll need about 3 pounds of fresh chicken wings. Fresh wings often come whole. But they're not too easy to eat that way, so I recommend you split the drums and flats by spreading them apart and cutting between them with a chef's knife. I also like to cut the wing tips off the flats.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Give the wings a good rinse and dry them very thoroughly with paper towels to remove any excess moisture.
- Add 3 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon of onion powder, and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper to a large bowl or a large plastic bag. Add the wings and toss until well-coated.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the pan. Put your wings on the rack, leaving about an inch of space between each one. Bake the wings at 450°F for 20 minutes, then flip them. They will still be pretty pale at this time but don't worry if they don't look too good yet!
- Bake for another 20 minutes, then flip again and bake for about 5 more minutes. Remove the wings and let cool for around 5 minutes before adding the sauce.
How to Make Buffalo Wing Sauce
While the wings rest, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and mix with 3-4 tablespoons of Frank's Red Hot Sauce in a large bowl. This will be a mild to medium level of spice.
If you like spicier wings, you can reduce the amount of butter to 1-2 tablespoons and add additional hot sauce, or use a brand of hot sauce with a higher heat level, such as Tabasco. You can also add some cayenne pepper to the sauce mixture for another layer of spice.
After the sauce is to your taste, add the wings to the bowl and toss until well coated. Then serve with celery and your favorite dipping sauce.
More Wings and Game Day Favorites
- Crispy Baked Lemon Pepper Wings
- Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings
- Chili Lime Chicken Wings
- Southwestern Chicken Egg Rolls
- Homestyle Chili
📖 Recipe
Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken wings, drums and flats separated
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoon melted butter
- 3 to 4 tablespoon Frank's Red Hot sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil then set a wire rack inside and spray rack with cooking spray.
- Rinse and dry chicken wings thoroughly with paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible.
- Mix baking powder, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper in a large bowl or zip to plastic bag, then add chicken wings and toss to coat.
- Place wings on rack leaving about 1 inch of space in between each wing.
- Bake wings for 20 minutes then flip and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
- Flip again and bake for about 5 more minutes until the wings are cooked through and skin is crispy and light golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
- While the wings cool melt the butter in a microwave safe dish and then add to a large bowl with the hot sauce and stir to combine.
- Add cooled wings to the bowl with the sauce and toss until thoroughly coated.
Notes
Nutrition
* All nutrition information we provide are estimates based on third party calculators. We encourage you to calculate these on your own for accurate results.
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