Get ready to rethink everything you know about baked chicken wings. A dry brine, baking powder, and spiced butter baste give these baked chicken wings a delicious, deep-fried flavor and crunch. Honestly, they’re good all on their own, but you can toss them in buffalo sauce or serve them with your favorite dipping sauce to take this game day snack to the next level.
Chicken wings are all I want to eat during Sunday Night Football and the NBA playoffs. They will always be the first snack I run to on game day, no matter what. I usually make my classic Buffalo Wings or fire up the smoker for these Smoked Chicken Wings, but these crispy oven-baked chicken wings have been such a game-changer for me. I borrowed a few tricks from my other chicken wing recipes to make this baked version even crunchier and more flavorful than what you’d get from a sports bar.
Baked Chicken Wings
Baked chicken wings are dry-brined to draw out moisture, coated in baking powder to crisp up their skins, and then roasted low and slow in the oven. The bar-style wings I grew up deep-frying don’t stand a chance next to these. This method yields a shatteringly crisp skin with juicy meat that pulls effortlessly from the bone.
To give these wings a little chef upgrade, I went with a 2-step technique. First, I coated them in baking powder to raise the skin’s pH and encourage browning. Second, I let them dry brine with salt for hours. Just like in my Dry Brine Chicken Recipe, the salt penetrates deep into the meat, locking in the natural juices while simultaneously drying out the skin for maximum crunch.
I was just as intentional about baking the wings, too. They’re started at a low temperature to render out the fat, then the heat is cranked up to get the skin as golden and crispy as possible. Along the way, I baste the wings in my second “cheffy” upgrade: a seasoned butter sauce. They come out of the oven so unbelievably flavorful that you don’t even need to toss them in sauce before passing them around to friends.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken Wings – pre-cut drumettes and flats (sometimes labeled as “party wings”) are a solid choice. You can also split whole wings yourself with a chef’s knife. If the wings are frozen, you’ll have to let them thaw overnight in the fridge first.
- Baking Powder – If you need a substitute, go with cornstarch or even potato starch. This helps immensely in getting the wings crispy. DO NOT use baking soda. It tastes terrible and won’t give you the same results.
- Unsalted butter for basting halfway through and at the end. This will add some richness to the recipe and, of course, help it crisp and brown up more.
- Seasonings – Salt for the dry brine and ground black pepper for seasoning the wings. I also upgraded the melted butter with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Make sure you use these seasonings generously. This is where you get your flavor from.
How to Bake Chicken Wings
Pat dry: To start, pat all of the chicken wings dry with paper towels. Then season them with salt.
Dry brine time: Arrange the salted wings on a wire rack set on a sheet tray. Put the wings to the fridge and let them dry brine for up to 24 hours.
Season: Before it’s time to bake, toss the wings with the baking powder and pepper in a large bowl. Arrange them back on the wire rack over the sheet tray.
Bake the wings for 25 minutes. After testing, I’ve noticed that this is just long enough to render out the fat so the skin can crisp up later on.
Baste: Once the 25 minutes are up, baste the wings with half of the melted butter. Next, crank the oven to 450°F and continue baking the wings.
Make the spiced butter: While the wings cook, mix the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, pepper, and remaining melted butter together.
Final baste: Brush the baked wings with seasoned butter (trust me, be generous with that butter).
Serve: Remove the wings from the oven and either serve them with dipping sauce on the side or toss them in buffalo sauce before serving.
Chef Tip + Notes
If you want these wings to taste even better than any restaurant version, you need to use my 3 techniques: dry brine the wings to draw out moisture, toss them in baking powder to crisp up the skin’s surface texture, and cook them on a wire rack to allow the hot air to circulate. Do all that, and you’ll have extremely crisp and juicy wings.
- Dry brine for hours: I’m talking about anywhere from 2 hours and 24 hours. The longer you dry brine chicken wings, the more moisture will be drawn out and the crispier they’ll become.
- Fan on vs. no fan: I bake chicken wings in my convection oven since it circulates hot air constantly, which speeds up fat rendering and skin crisping. If you don’t have a fan, just stick to the “no fan” temperatures listed in the recipe and keep an eye on the wings.
- How to tell when they’re done: A deeply golden, crispy skin is the #1 sign. Or, a meat thermometer will measure the wing’s internal temperature between 175°F and 185°F. Wings have a lot of connective tissue, so cooking them to a higher temperature means the meat will pull cleanly from the bone while staying juicy.
- Saucy wings vs. plain wings: I didn’t think these wings needed a sauce the first time I tried them. But if you love the saucy mess that comes with sauced-up chicken wings, go ahead and toss the freshly baked wings in homemade BBQ sauce, buffalo sauce, or teriyaki sauce. Just don’t forget the napkins.
Serving Suggestions
I can’t serve chicken wings without dipping sauce. I just can’t. So, I’ll put out a bowl of blue cheese dressing for my wife and me and a bowl of ranch dressing for our daughter, along with celery and carrot sticks scattered on the side.
When I’m making these for game day, I’ll toss a third of the batch in buffalo sauce, another third in sweet chili sauce, and leave the rest plain so everyone gets what they want. A side of creamy coleslaw cools things down (along with an ice-cold beer), and a platter of cheeseburger sliders is there so no one goes home hungry.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: I prefer to eat these wings as soon as they’re ready, since that’s when they have the most crunch. When I need to hold them, I’ll keep them covered with a loose sheet of foil on a wire rack over a sheet tray in a 200ºF oven for up to 1 hour before serving. The dry-brined raw wings can also sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
How to Store: I cover and refrigerate any leftover wings for up to 4 days. Store them in a single layer in an airtight container to prevent them from getting too soggy.
How to Freeze: I freeze the leftover wings in a single layer on a sheet tray until they’re frozen solid. Then, I transfer them to a freezer bag and freeze them for up to 3 months.
How to Reheat: I’ll reheat the wings on a wire rack over a baking sheet in a 350ºF oven for 6 to 8 minutes or until they’re heated through and the skin looks crispy again.
More Game Day Recipes
- Ham and Cheese Sliders
- Loaded Rotel Dip
- Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Crispy Potato Skins
- Pimento Cheese Dip
Baked Chicken Wings Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken wings
- 2 teaspoons salt + more to taste
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 8 tablespoons warm melted unsalted butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder or granules
- 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder or granules
- 1 ½ teaspoons sweet or smoked paprika
Instructions
- Place the wings in a large bowl and pat them dry well with paper towels. Next, season them with 2 teaspoons of salt and mix until fully combined.
- Put them on a rack over a sheet tray and place them in the fridge, uncovered, for 2 to 24 hours to dry brine. The longer the dry brine, the crispier, more flavorful, and better browned the wings will be.
- When you’re ready to cook the wings, remove them from the fridge and preheat the oven to 250°F with no fan.
- Transfer the wings to a large bowl and toss them with the baking powder and pepper until thoroughly mixed in. Place them back on the rack over the sheet tray, spreading them out as best you can, making sure they are not touching too much.
- Place them on the middle rack in the oven at 250°F (no fan) or 225°F (fan on) for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, quickly baste the wings with half the butter, then crank the heat up to 475°F (no fan) or 450°F (fan on) and bake for 25 minutes.
- In the meantime, mix the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper into the remaining melted butter.
- With 10 minutes left in the wing baking process, generously brush them with the spiced melted butter. This will add amazing flavor and help them brown up even more.
- Remove and serve with optional buffalo sauce, ranch, blue cheese, carrot, and celery sticks.
Baked Chicken Wings Recipe