Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wings are baked, not fried, using a secret ingredient that could fool any die-hard chicken wing fan.
These Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wings are exactly what they claim to be – CRISPY! Surprisingly, without deep frying. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!? Using a special ingredient you likely already have in your kitchen pantry, you can make your very own crispy buffalo wings without the hassle and grease of a deep fryer.
BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS
We love chicken wings as much as the next guy, especially our Sticky Honey Sesame Chicken Wings and our Sticky Thai Chicken Wings but there was just one thing these two recipes were missing – CRUNCH!
This extremely popular creation came out of a New York restaurant in the 60’s by Teressa Bellissimo. Teressa covered the wings in her own special sauce and served them with a side of celery and blue cheese. Since then, Buffalo wings have become a quintessential game day food in the United States, served at bars and restaurants everywhere.
Of course, good Buffalo wings need a creamy dip, so this recipe includes a blue cheese dressing. If blue cheese isn’t your thing, I also love my wings dipped in ranch dressing!
These deliciously, crunchy wings have been well received at home and have quickly become a hit with our readers. Abso-freakin-lutely worth giving these wings a red hot go.
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO CRISPY WINGS
The key ingredient to crispy wings, without using a lot of oil, is aluminium-free baking powder. It may sounds unappealing, but coating chicken wings in seasoned baking powder is what makes the skin super crispy. You won’t taste it in the final results, so long as you use aluminium-free. To be clear, make sure you use baking powder, NOT baking soda, because there is a big difference!
You’re going to spice up your wings with some classic seasonings you’re bound to already have in your pantry:
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper
- You an also add a dash of Cayenne pepper.
Toss them through the seasoning until they are coated evenly.
HOW TO COOK CHICKEN WINGS IN THE OVEN
After your wings are coated, place aluminium foil on your baking sheet to catch any drippings, then arrange a wire rack over the top. Place your wings in an even layer to allow the heat to be evenly distributed.
You’re then going to bake your wings on a rack so the fat can drip off, creating ultra crispy wings all over.
HOW LONG TO BAKE CHICKEN WINGS
Chicken wings can take about 50 minutes or more to bake, flipping them halfway through cooking time to allow even crispness. Why so long? To allow the fat to render out from the chicken wings so that the skin crisps to a delicious golden brown.
HOW TO MAKE BUFFALO SAUCE
To get the best baked buffalo wings, you’re going to toss them in an incredible buffalo sauce, which requires only three ingredients!
- Frank’s Original Red Hot Sauce
- Melted unsalted butter
- Honey or sugar (white or brown)
Whisk it all together until combined, then pour the sauce ALL over your CRISPY baked wings and serve! So easy and no deep fryers needed!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH BUFFALO WINGS
Serve your buffalo wings with blue cheese dip, ranch dipping sauce or a creamy garlic mayo. Don’t forget the celery and/or carrot sticks on the side! Game day has never looked so easy and so good!
To serve wings as a family meal, we normally keep some separate without sauce so the kids can enjoy super crispy chicken wings. You can also dip theirs in bbq sauce or honey garlic butter sauce. Buffalo wings can also be paired with our Macaroni Salad and some Crispy Garlic Baked Potato Wedges.
You won’t need to order take-out wings again after trying this epic recipe!
CRISPY BUFFALO WINGS ON VIDEO!
More chicken wings!
Sticky Thai Chicken Wings
Sticky Honey Sesame Chicken Wings
Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wings
Ingredients
CHICKEN WINGS
- 4 lbs chicken wings cut into drumettes and flats
- 1 tablespoon aluminium free baking powder not baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon cracked pepper
BUFFALO SAUCE:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup Frank's Original Red Hot Sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons honey or white sugar or brown sugar, adjust to suit your tastes
BLUE CHEESE DIP:
- ½ cup crumbled blue cheese softened
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cracked pepper to taste
TO SERVE:
- ¼ cup ranch dressing for serving
- ½ cup blue cheese dressing for serving
- 2-3 celery stalks for serving
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminium foil and set a heat-proof wire rack inside.
- Pat dry chicken wings liberally with paper towels, squeezing out as much moisture as you can. Transfer them to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together, whisking well to combine, and sprinkle the mixture over the wings. Toss wings through the baking powder mixture until evenly coated.
- Arrange on rack, leaving about 1-inch of space between each wing.
- Bake for 30 minutes; flip and continue to cook until crisp and golden brown, (about 20-30 minutes longer), until golden browned and crispy.
- While wings are cooking, whisk together hot sauce, butter and sugar. Toss wings through the sauce to evenly coat.
- Serve wings immediately with blue cheese dressing or ranch dressing, and celery sticks.
John Douglas Thompson says
I’m doing something something wrong. The taste was awesome, but it was still gooey, not dry. The last step says to put the crispy wings from the oven into the Frank’s Hot Sause, butter, sugar mixture. It made it very yummy, but very wet. It went from crispy to gooey. I’m still trying to find a recipe that makes wings like the sports bar in my home town. Crispy, and dry. What am I doing wrong?
Astrid says
I’d try marinating them in hot sauce for a few hours, then pat dry and proceed as per recipe.
Also maybe dip wings as you eat, rather than than pour over.
Lisa Weyand says
Ignore that idea to marinate the wings in the sauce. If you watch wings prepared at a sports bar or place that specializes in hot wings, you’ll see they only dip the wings into the sauce just before serving to maintain the crispness.
The key to this is in the prep & baking time. Try squeezing the raw wings in a kitchen towel or paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible before tossing with the dry bkg powder mixture. Then, I like to bake on a low heat (250) for 30 min to further dry out the skin before raising the oven temp and following the rest of the original baking directions. Hope this helps!!
Sue says
you could pop them back into the oven too…that’s the way I do it…I don’t like the “wet” sauce either!!
Smc says
Be sure to bake on a rack, so the drippings are not soaking into the meat.
Robin says
After you take them out of the oven, let them cool just a bit – they will crisp up nicely & dry a bit. Then dip each one in the sauce and place back on the rack so the extra sauce drips off. This should do the trick!
Stacy says
You should probably try a dry rub instead of a sauce
Clare says
You can cook the wings a little more after you’ve dipped them in the sauce. We don’t like drippy wings either in my house, and this is how we do it.
Karen says
I put them back in the oven after I toss them in the sauce. Crisp right back up.
Steph says
Maybe you didn’t cook your wings long enough. When they are crispy, the won’t get gooey when sauced. I have used this recipe twice and cook the wings over an hour. They were awesome.
Tony says
Your sports bar is frying them. To keep baked wings crunchy serve sauce on the side for dipping.
Suji says
This recipe was so delicious! These were the best wings I’ve ever had. The only change I made to the recipe was that I added few dashes of smoked paprika to the baking powder mix. Thank you Karina for sharing this recipe!
Jacqueline says
My wings turned out fairly crispy with the recipe as listed. I think mine were too big, smaller may have been better. The sauce was great though!
Jocko says
I agree, smaller wings might work better because the skin on the wings should be a bit thinner. That would help it crisp up better. I used these giant wings, from Stater Bros. and the skin was crisp but chewy. If you can believe that. But these were the best wings I ever tasted, take out or whatever. I am so glad I decided to cook at home tonight. Followed the recipe to a “T”.
Rashaad Lay says
I am also a witness to the greatness of this recipe. I seasoned the chicken with ground black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cajon seasoning, and chicken and poultry seasoning. These were really tasty. Thank you very much for the recipe.
Adriana Ellem-Allen says
Hubby the King of wings loved these so much he went back for 3rds and miss 5 devoured them. Baby rays and sweet chilli sauce make a killer sauce to dip them in too.
Lydia says
Amazing recipe! I have made these multiple times and this is a “Keeper” recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Jules says
I had completely given up on making wings after trying at least a dozen times-whether in an oven or air fryer. They were always flavorful but they never came out crispy, and that’s the main thing for me with wings. Karina, you fixed that! Last night my wings came out crunchy-crisp and delicious! The baking powder, 450 oven, and leaving them in for near an hour made ALL the difference. It never occurred to me to cook them beyond half an hour or so. I used Old Bay seasoning and they were amazing even without sauce. Thank you so much for these essential techniques!!!
Margie says
This is the best wing recipe EVER! I’ve fried in the past but this far surpassed fried. Incredibly crispy. I had normal sized wings and they were not overcooked with the noted cooking temperature and time. I did not have aluminum-free baking soda so used what was recommended by another reviewer – 1 tsp. cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. corn starch. I also forgot to dry the wings prior to sprinkling w/mixture above, so I covered the wings with a kitchen towel for one hour before cooking. Excellent. Will DEFINITELY keep this recipe and make again!
Chef Deb says
I make my own Baking Powder as well. I like the way this turns out and add a little smoked paprika to the dry mix for a bit of extra flavor. Also add Worcestershire sauce to my Bleu Cheese dip
Ken S says
Wow! I had given up on baking wings. If I was going to eat them, they needed to be cooked right; crispy outside, moist inside. And that meant fried.
While in isolation, I decided to give this recipe a try and the wings were perfect. While I’m a good cook, I’m a better critic. Bookmark and/or copy this recipe, NOW!
Anna Mccosker says
I totally agree!! Since finding and using this recipe, I’ve never used another… It’s that good! Further more, my family actually enjoys staying home to eat these rather then getting them out at a specialty wing place….a huge win for me😊👍. Thank you, thank you! Anna
pat zelazoski says
Has anyone ever back the wings and stored them for later like in freezer. Pulled out a few and rebaked them with sauce on?
BJ says
You can just refrigerate them after they are baked (I put them in a covered glass pyrex dish. 5 days later I took them out and heated up a couple of them in my TOASTER OVEN (on the bake dial @ 350 degrees) for about 7 minutes. This can vary if the wings are very cold….test them with the side of your hand and put them back in for about 3-4 or even 5 minutes depending if you want them hot or just warm or to just take the chill out. You can heat up the sauce the same way and side by side with the wings, but be careful not to burn the sauce. For this I use small ceramic table to oven dishes. Soooo good and delicious for snacking.
I have an OSTER toaster oven with 2 rack height ranges. I absolutely love it. Don’t know how I lived with out it. Saves so much energy than using the big oven for everything. Great for cooking or warming up snacks.
Pamela says
I made these tonight and they were amazing! I followed the recipe using frozen chicken wings as I forgot to take them out of the freezer, and added a little longer to the time in the oven and they crisped up perfectly. The buffalo sauce was perfect! Thanks!
Andrea says
These wings were fabulous. Used Chipotle Buffalo brand sauce rather than Frank’s hot sauce. Better than any hot wings I’ve had in a restaurant! The blue cheese sauce was amazing with it too. We had a little leftover and just added a tiny bit of milk to water it down a bit and used as a salad dressing.