Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
I have tested several competing methods for making Crispy Baked Chicken Wings, and these still come out as the best! There are hundreds of rave reviews in the comments too.
These are extra crispy thanks to a special cooking method of parboiling to get rid of excess fat, then cooking in a super hot oven. Less fat, less calories, and healthier than deep-fried!
This recipe is one of the oldest and most popular on my site, and for good reason. A crackly skinned chicken wing is SO good!
I have long been enamored with wings (as evidenced by the many variations on my site, like these Garlic Parmesan Wings, Korean Chicken Wings, and Honey Garlic Chicken Wings), and I’ll use any sports event that comes up on TV as an excuse to make them.
Why This Is the Ultimate Cooking Method:
The crispiest crackliest skin, without deep frying – In the 9 years since this recipe has been posted, I have repeatedly revisited this to see if newer methods were better than this one. But I’ve found that this two-part cooking method of parboiling, then baking, gives the crispiest skin.
Easy to scale – Because we don’t have to worry about overcrowding a fryer, it’s easy to make a ton of these at once, and get several trays in the oven. Of course, you can also just make a few.
The healthiest option – I try not to fry in vegetable oil at all anymore, since the evidence is pretty clear that it’s bad news on the health front. I love that these are still wonderfully crispy, but not deep fried in bad oils.
Can be mostly made ahead – You can parboil the wings ahead of time, then keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Then just toss in the oven before you’re ready to serve!
A Look at Other Methods
If you want to look for yourself, I took a photo of a side-by-side test against other methods.
First, I already knew from when I originally posted this recipe that parboiling is an essential step before baking, because I tested them side by side. Parboiling renders some of the fat down, allowing for a crisper end result. I’ll talk more about this further below.
A newer popular method is to coat the skin in baking powder and bake in a low oven (250F) for a while, then in a high temp oven (425-450F). The skin felt leathery to me, which you can sort of see in the photo above. I wasn’t a fan.
Then I tested a hybrid of the baking powder method with my own, but it wasn’t as crispy as the parboil method, plus it felt more fussy than the original.
At the end of the day, the original parboil and bake method from 2012 remained king.
How to Make These Step by Step:
Here’s an overview of the game plan.
- Cut the chicken wings into drumettes and wingettes, if needed. If you buy “party wings” at the store instead of whole, they are already prepped for you. I recommend this to save time and hassle.
- Simmer the chicken in salted water for about 7 minutes, to render excess fat.
- Dry them thoroughly.
- Place them face down on a sheet pan and bake, flipping once while cooking.
- Coat in sauce, and serve.
Let’s look at some step by step photos.
Parboil the wings
If you’re not familiar with parboiling, all that means is were going to partially cook the chicken in simmering water before baking in the oven.
Boiling meat feels very strange, but I’ve done test batches comparing parboiling to straight baking, and parboiling is the way to go.
It helps get rid of some of the excess fat so they turn out crispier.
It’s kind of like when you have to render out the fat on a duck breast in order to get it crispy. Parboiling boils away some of the excess fat so we can get a thin layer that crisps more easily than a thick and flabby layer.
Drain in a colander
After parboiling for 7 minutes, drain the chicken in a colander:
Dry them even more
Lay them out on paper towels and dry very well, giving each one a squeeze.
It’s REALLY important to dry well with the towels, because it has a big impact on how crispy they will end up later.
In order for the skin to get crispy, all the surface water must evaporate and cook off first, so you want as little there as possible from the start.
Bake!
Bake in a 450F oven for about 25 minutes, until you start to see golden brown bits on the bottom of the wings.
Look closely, and you can see golden bits peeking out from the sides here:
Flip them over
Flip all the pieces over, and you can see those caramelized parts:
This is what we want! But, we need to cook it more. Most of it is still isn’t crispy yet.
Continue baking for another 5-10 minutes, until much more of the skin has crisped:
Toss in your desired sauce
At this point they’re ready to be tossed with Buffalo Sauce and enjoyed.
If you prefer something that isn’t spicy, you may like Garlic Parmesan Wings better. I also have sweet and spicy Korean Chicken Wings, Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, or you can toss in BBQ Sauce.
What to Serve with This Recipe:
Serve the wings with Blue Cheese Dip if you’re doing classic Buffalo Sauce, along with celery sticks and carrot sticks.
You can also do a side of Buffalo Garlic Knots and Buffalo Chicken Dip (or the Crockpot version, Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip) to round out a full spread of football snacks!
How to Make Sure They Don’t Stick to the Pan
A few people have reported issues with the wings sticking to the pan. This means they were too wet when they went into the oven.
Make sure to:
- Dry the wings very thoroughly after parboiling. As stated in the recipe, let them air dry for a few minutes (you will literally see steam evaporating off the wings as they cool). Then dry them very well with towels, squeezing well.
- If you want extra insurance, you may grease the pan with a high smoke point oil, like ghee, tallow, avocado, vegetable, canola, etc. Just make sure you don’t put parchment paper or a silicone mat underneath the wings, because they won’t crisp up the same.
- Bake on an uncoated sheet pan (affiliate) for best results, and use a turner like this (affiliate) to really get under the wings and scoop the crispy bits off.
Tips and FAQs:
I only recommend you bake these fresh. They won’t stay crispy later.
Yes, go through all the steps of parboiling the wings and drying well with a paper towel, then place the wings on a sheet pan and let them sit in the refrigerator UNCOVERED for up to 24 hours. Then all you have to do is pop them into the hot oven and bake them. Because they will be cold, they will likely need to bake a little longer.
Never cook meat from a frozen state, always thaw first. Because you will be parboiling these anyway, you can thaw them quickly in cold water, then parboil them.
Yes, definitely! Parboiling renders out some of the fat, and the remaining fat is used to crisp the wing naturally.
Absolutely. Unfortunately, frozen meats lose moisture in the freezing process. This is true not just for chicken but also beef, pork, etc.
Yes, these are made without baking powder, without flour, without breading of any kind. They are also Paleo, Whole30, and friendly to other kinds of eating styles. You can add the sauce of your choice or eat them as is.
In a 450F oven, bake for 25 minutes, then flip and bake for about 10 more minutes, until crispy on both sides.
Variations on Baking Time/Dryness: The sizes of wings at grocery stores vary hugely, so the visual cues are incredibly important! Make sure to look at the photos above, and to use the baking times as estimates. If the wings turn out dry, this means they were overcooked. They definitely shouldn’t be dry on the inside.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. Or, follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest!
Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
For the Chicken Wings:
- 2 lbs chicken wings "party style" (pre-cut into wingettes and drumettes)
- salt
What to Serve With Them:
- Blue Cheese Dip
- Cut celery and carrot sticks
- Buffalo Wing Sauce
- Buffalo Garlic Knots
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Heat up a big pot of boiling water. Season the water like you would for cooking pasta (taste the water, it should taste a little repulsively salty, like sea water).
- Add the chicken wings to the pot, and reduce the heat slightly to keep them at a simmer for 7 minutes.
- Drain the wings in a colander, then place them on a wire rack for a couple minutes, letting the steam evaporate from the cooling wings and also letting any excess moisture drip down. Then dry them very well with paper towels or highly absorbent kitchen towels.
- Place the chicken wings directly on a metal sheet pan, with the fattier top side down.
- Bake the chicken wings for 25 minutes on the first side, then flip the wings and bake for another 5-10 minutes on the other side, until the skin looks golden and crisp. Make sure to keep your eye on them, particularly if you have smaller wings, to check for doneness. Overcooking risks drying the inside out.
- If serving the wings with sauce, coat them while they’re hot out of the oven. I like my Perfect Buffalo Wing Sauce, but you can do Garlic Parmesan Wings for a non-spicy option or this sweet and spicy Korean Chicken Wings sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
- Dry the wings very thoroughly after parboiling. As stated in the recipe, let them air dry for a few minutes (you will literally see steam evaporating off the wings as they cool). Then dry them very well with towels, squeezing well.
- If you want extra insurance, you may grease the pan with a high smoke point oil, like ghee, tallow, avocado, vegetable, canola, etc. Just make sure you don’t put parchment paper or a silicone mat underneath the wings, because they won’t crisp up the same.
- Bake on an uncoated sheet pan (affiliate) for best results, and use a turner like this (affiliate) to really get under the wings and scoop the crispy bits off.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in August 2020. Originally published in 2012.
792 Comments on “Crispy Baked Chicken Wings”
My husband ate them all up! I made them exactly as the recipe called for. Shortened the 1st cooking of 25min down to just 20min because they were looking a little done at this point, but did flip and cooked another 10 min. I cooked an entire pack of 12, and seeing as how we normally split this between me and my husband I figured this would be more than enough. Wrong! He ate 10 and left me with 2 because he was enjoying them that much. He asked for more but sadly none left. He’s already looking forward to next family get together where I can make these and show them off!
Can you prepare this a day before? what happens if you go over 6 hours in the fridge?
Thank you! The best crispy baked chicken wing recipe ever!
Really excellent. Wings sold out so used drumsticks and they were terrific. Very little change to timing on recipe. Splashed a little extra Frank’s on at the table. Will be more than an occasional special dinner!
Do you have an idea how long to cook in an air fryer. Highest temperature is 400 degrees.
This was the best ever… did it for Super Bowl, and hubby and I emptied the bowl of wings in minutes!
(Loved getting rid of some of the fat in the simmering of the wings.)
The baked chicken wings ended up crisp, perfect and amazing. The tips re smaller wings worked. I checked and cooked them 5 minutes less. Will never fry wings again!
Thank you so much for this recipe!
(I have pictures, but could not figure out how to upload.)
Par boiling is good but pressure steaming is MUCH BETTER!
Joe-
Can you give me the directions for how you pressure steamed them?
Outstanding wings!!! Followed the recipe and sprinkled some Old Bay on both sides before baking. Ooh la la
how MUCH salt?
We are born and raised Buffalo, NY. We are fans of the Anchor Bar, home of the Buffalo wing. We were skeptical, but these wings are fabulous! Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Just as great tasting as Anchor Bar wings! If I hadn’t made them myself, I would not have guessed they were baked! Used the Buffalo sauce and am anxious to try the other sauces. Great recipe. You will not be disappointed! Healthier too!