No false promises here – these crispy oven baked wings are SERIOUSLY crispy! You will be gob smacked how easy they are to make. They honestly taste like they’ve been deep fried, with a thin shatteringly crisp golden skin. You can see how easy these are to make and hear how crispy they really are in this cooking video.
These are so good they can be eaten plain. Or toss them in your favourite sauce, or serve it on the side. I’ve provided a selection of sauces for these crispy baked wings in the recipe below!
Truly crispy oven baked wings
This recipe for how to make Crispy Oven Baked Wings is a discovery by the genius folk over at Cook’s Illustrated. Being the food nerd I am, I really enjoy how Cook’s Illustrated explains the science behind why they do things in a particular way.
And I honestly believe this to be one of their most all time most epic recipes, especially because it’s so insanely EASY!!! And today, I’m sharing the secret with you. Are you ready? 🙂
How to make crispy oven baked wings
Crispy oven baked wings in 3 easy steps:
Pat wings dry with paper towels;
Toss wings in baking powder and salt;
Bake at 120°C/250°F for 30 minutes, then at 220°C/425°F for 40 – 50 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
Yes, that’s it. That’s all there is to it. 🙂
Why this recipe works
In those 3 simple steps are 2 very important things to make these truly crispy oven baked wings:
1. Coat in baking powder – yes, you read that right, baking powder! I won’t go into all the technicalities, but in a nutshell, the baking powder draws moisture to the surface of the skin so it can evaporate, thereby making the skin crispier; and
2. Bake for 30 minutes on low to melt the fat before blasting in a very hot oven to crisp up the skin. There’s a lot of scientific explanations around this and I’ll skip it because I’ll bore you! But basically, the wings are first baked on the lowest shelf in the oven at a very low temperature for 30 minutes which causes the fat under the skin to “melt”, then you move the wings up to the top shelf and crank up the heat which crisps up the skin.
The other tip is ensuring that the wings are dry. If you are organised enough, put the wings on the rack and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight. However, I neither have the fridge space nor am I organised enough, so I just dry them using paper towels (see photo below for how I do this).
When these come out of the oven and you tap the skin with your nail, you can instantly “hear” how crispy the skin is. They even look like they’ve been fried! And in case you are concerned, you don’t taste baking powder at all.
Got questions? See FAQ under the recipe card.
You will notice that the wings are smaller than you are used to. That’s because so much of the fat under the skin melts off the wings – you’ll see it all pooled on the tray. So these have the added benefit of reduced calories too!
You can toss the wings in your sauce of choice or serve the sauce on the side. I’ve also shared classic Buffalo Wings using this same method for crispy oven baked wings. For this recipe, I’ve included a few simple sauces that I like to serve wings with: Honey Garlic Sauce, Honey Mustard Sauce, Ranch Dipping Sauce.
Let’s get stuck into these wings! – Nagi x
PS I’ve now published the Buffalo Wings version! Here it is: Truly Crispy Oven Baked BUFFALO Wings.
Watch how to make it
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Truly Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
Crispy Wings
- 4 lb / 2 kg chicken wings , cut into wingettes and drumettes (Note 1)
- 5 teaspoons baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA / BI-CARB SODA!!)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- Oil spray
Instructions
Crispy Wings
- If you are organised enough, uncover the chicken wings and leave them in the fridge for a few hours to dry out. Otherwise, use a paper towel to pat the wings dry.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions.
- Preheat oven to 250F/120C (all oven types – standard/convection/fan).
- Line a baking tray with foil, then place a rack (like a cooling rack) on the foil. Spray the rack with oil spray.
- Place wings in a large bowl or in a ziplock bag. Add the baking powder and salt, then toss to coat evenly.
- Place the wings on the baking tray in a single layer with the skin side up. They should just fit snugly. They will shrink when they cook because the fat renders out so don’t worry if they look too snug.
- Place wings on the lower middle oven rack and bake for 30 minutes.
- Move wings up to the upper middle rack and increase the oven temperature to 425F/220C. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through.
- Remove baking tray from the oven and let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Toss wings in sauce of choice or serve it on the side to dip / drizzle on the wings, then serve.
Recipe Notes:
* Honey Garlic Sauce: Mix together 4 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp white vinegar (or sub with any other vinegar except balsamic), 2-3 garlic cloves, minced. Use for dipping OR tossing.
* Honey Mustard Sauce: 1/4 cup Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup honey
* Ranch Dipping Sauce: Mix 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup sour cream, 2 tbsp milk, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp EACH dried dill, parsley, chives, onion and garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste.
* Spicy Creamy Dipping Sauce: 3/4 cup mayo, 1/2 tso garlic powder, 1/8 tsp paprika, 3-4 tbsp sriracha, salt & pepper
* Pink Sauce: 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 2 tbsp ketchup, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp sriracha (or other hot sauce) 7. Nutrition: The nutrition is per serving, assuming 8 servings. Note that the calories is HIGHER than it actually is because so much fat is rendered out (melted) and discarded which is not reflected in the nutrition below. I measured the discarded fat once and calculated that it should be 60 calories LESS per serving (around 1/4 cup fat in total was discarded).
Nutrition Information:
Originally published in November 2014, updated with fresh new photos and step by step photos!
Frequently asked questions
I don’t have a rack. Does this cause a problem? The skin will still be crispy but the bottom of the wings that is in contact with the tray will be oily. This is because the purpose of the rack is to elevate the wings off the tray and allow the chicken fat to drip down.
One way to get around an oily underside is to take the wings out after around 35 minutes during the high temp cooking. Drain the oil out of the tray then return to the oven to finish crisping/browning. You could also drain the excess oil from the wings on paper towels before serving.
Can I make ahead? These stay crispy for as long as the wings are warm, so around 20 – 30 minutes. After that, the skin starts to wrinkle and soften. However, I was shocked how well they reheat! Just allow the wings to cool (uncovered), then cover and refrigerate. Spread wings out on tray, skin side up, and bake for 5 to 8 minutes at 200C/390F. The skin smooths out and puffs up, just like when they were baked fresh. Other than to you (if you’ve made as many wings as me!) and true hard core Wings experts, the difference in juiciness and crispiness is barely noticeable – my friends never notice when I reheat!
The skin stays crispy for around 10 – 15 minutes after tossing in the sauce, then after that they start to soften but not go soggy, up to around 30 minutes. If you reheat after tossing in sauce, they go soggy.
Please do not toss in baking powder then refrigerate or freeze, this won’t work (makes the wings sweat too much to become crispy).
Can I add seasonings? You sure can! It does marginally reduce the actual skin crispiness but a crust forms from the extra seasonings/spices and adds more crunch. I did a lot of testing around this and I can assure you it works really well!
There was a lot of smoke! Help! A few readers have had this problem and I don’t think it’s from the chicken wings because I’ve made a ridiculous amount of these wings (in my kitchen and others) and never had the problem. The problem may be: a) spillage of chicken fat onto the oven burners when transferring from the lower to the upper shelf or b) there already was fat on the oven burners. I can’t think of anything else. While the smoke point of chicken fat is below that of the high oven temperature used in this recipe, the fat is not in direct contact with the heat because it’s shielded by all the wings and diluted by chicken juices dripping into the fat.
You really don’t need to flip? Really! Even if you don’t use a rack, the underside will get crispy.
Can I make this with other cuts of chicken? Yes BUT the crispiness will only work on the skin. So it works best on wings because they are almost fully enclosed by skin. With drumsticks, thighs and skin on breast, they are not fully encased with skin when raw and the skin shrinks while cooking. But the actual technique works super well! For 1 kg / 2 lb drumsticks or other cut of chicken, using 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt – less than the recipe for wings because there is less skin surface area.
Life of Dozer
No wings for Dozer – cooked chicken bones are dangerous for dogs! How about a Honey Prawn instead??
Yay! I made these wings today and they came out nice and crispy. Thanks for sharing the recipe. My wings are always pretty greasy even though I always bake them. The sauce was great. It burnt my mouth at first but the 3 garlic cloves I used were pretty huge so I added some more honey and vinegar and it was fine.
Hi Ann Marie, I’m so glad you liked them! Did you put the wings on a rack on the tray? Because by doing that, the fat renders out so actually, they are far less greasy than any other method of making wings! 🙂
What would happen if I mixed a bbq dry rub with the baking powder before baking. Would that work?
I want the flavor of the dry rub but the crispiness of the baking powder.
Thanks much.
Hi Taylor! I actually made a version with a rub last week to try it out! It is not quite as crispy, which I expected would happen, but it was still FAR crispier than just baking without baking powder and without using the low/high baking method. Worth doing! I’m going to share that recipe soon 🙂
First of all, it’s refreshing to find a recipes with r cent reviews. Secondly, I LOVE the attention that you give your followers by replying with suggestions and answering their question!!!
Now to my point 🙂 I cannot wait to try these this evening. I love wings on occasion, but I very seldom deep fry foods (maybe once a year) but I like my wings to taste and feel deep fried vs soggy. I plan to try two sauces..buffalo and a maybe your honey garlic or teriyaki.
One question: my five year old is weirded out by the feel of sauces. I will keep hers plain but I want a bit of flavor/seasoning. Can I add other seasonings with or after the baking powder/salt coating? Thanks!
Hi Shawn!! That’s kinda cute, that your daughter is weirded out by sauces! Yep, you sure can add flavours to the coating (the recipe has salt in it already). You lose a bit of crispiness by adding flavours but it is still far crispier than the usual method of baking without baking powder and the low/high baking time. Actually, I have drafted a post for a rubbed wings recipe using this method of cooking. You can download it in the link below – preview for you! Please note it’s a draft only, I want to make it one more time before publishing it 🙂 Love to know if you try it and what you think!!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4z7q3zcqd3u164/KFC%20Flavoured%20Baked%20Wings%20with%20Blue%20Cheese%20Dip%20-%20RecipeTin%20Eats.pdf?dl=0
I’m soo enamored with this recipe that I made it again. I will try the dry rub the next time…but somewhat afraid to mess with perfection! Between these wings, your site and my girlfriend’s food blog I’m going to kill over from eating! I made the wings last night with chicken fried rice. I am sharing her CFR recipe (I hope you don’t mind..else delete the link 🙂 ). Hubby appreciates the change as he often claim my food is too frou-frou.
http://www.livingremixed.com/cfr-chicken-fried-rice/
Hey Shawn! I just checked out your friends blog – I love it! We have similar tastes in food! 🙂 I know what you mean about messing with perfection. I’ve been making an insane amount of wings lately and testing it out different rubs to see how much it affects the crispiness. It definitely reduces it BUT it is still MUCH crispier than straight baking at a single temperature without baking powder. PS The crispy cheddar chicken tenders on your friends blog looks GOLD! 🙂 PPS Frou frou? He he!! Tell him to be quiet and eat what he is given, or else he can cook!!
OHHH MYYY GOODNESS!!!!! I haven’t coated them with sauce yet. I will NEVER EVER fry another wing in my LIFE! The are a golden brown, and the little salt used adds plenty of flavor.
Crispy heaven and I assume a very easy cleanup. And I don’t smell like a short order cook!
Yay! So glad you like them! It’s seriously amazing isn’t it, how crispy they are? I love Cook’s Illustrated!! Thank you for coming back to share your thoughts! 🙂
I will try this tomorrow for the Super Bowl. I will post the result
I am about to try this recipe on a batch of wings. It is hard for me to imagine that 2 TBSP of baking powder is going to coat 4 lbs of chicken. Is this really correct?
Hi Jim! Yes, it is definitely only 2TBSP. It is only supposed to very lightly dust the chicken. Using any more will result in a slight after taste. Trust me – it works!! 🙂 Cook’s Illustrated method – they tested it a zillion times in their test kitchen! 🙂
Looking forward to hearing what you think! 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful recipe! The wings came out very crispy and I loved the sauce. I may have used too much baking powder though as I could taste it a bit and they wings definitely had an after-taste to them.
I’ve found that using only 1 tbsp baking powder mixed with 1 tbsp cornstarch works just as well and doesn’t leave you with that metallic taste in your mouth. The two temp cooking is essential.
Hi Jamie! Are you using baking SODA instead of baking powder? Because baking soda definitely comes out with a metallic type flavour which I discovered when I made that MISTAKE! I find baking powder does not leave any residual taste at all! 🙂
Hi Ryan! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 After taste is not good and the wings DEFINATELY should not taste of baking powder at all. America’s Test Kitchen tested and approved! Just to double check – you used baking POWDER and not baking SODA?? A friend of mine made that mistake once and it was horrid! 🙂
Can’t wait to make these this weekend! Should my wings be thawed our can I bake straight from frozen?
Hi Nielly! The wings must be thawed. Thawed and patted dry as much as possible – for the crispiest possible wings!
This is a very good method for obtaining crispy wings in an oven. I used various dry rubs and tossed the baked wings right before serving. Nothing worse than wobbly chicken skin. Made a oven version of buffalo wings and that skin was not crisp. I will definitely recommend this method to anyone who loves to eat.
Thanks David! Such a coincidence to get this message today because last night I made a version using a dry rub with the baking powder. The skin is not QUITE as crispy but it is still much crispier than you get by just cooking it at 180C/350F for the whole time. I am glad you enjoyed it! And it’s so easy too, isn’t it??
Yum! I made these tonight with a little substitution to the sauce, but they still turned out delicious. I was committed to making wings, but realized I had run out of soy sauce. Ack! Well, I used Worcestershire instead and omitted the garlic. They were delicious and my kids gobbled them up. Thanks for the recipe, once I get some soy sauce, I’ll have to try them again.
OOoohh, actually, I think Worcestershire and honey would be a fab combination flavour! I’ve never made a sauce like that before, I must have a go! I am so glad you enjoyed it – and even more so that your kids gobbled them up!! 🙂
Going to try today. Won’t cornstarch work the same way as baking powder?
Hi Rick! Cornstarch doesn’t work as well because it doesn’t draw the moisture to the surface as well. I have tried baked wings in the oven before using cornstarch (though I didn’t use the low then high temperature method) and they came out a bit crispy but nowhere near as crispy as these ones!
Hi Nagi. I tried these tonight. Super crispy on the outside which was perfect but my meat dried a bit on the inside.. the sauce is awesome.. I would definitely try this recipe again.. I thought my temperatures were correct but maybe my wings were smaller or less fatty or my try cooking for less time. Any recommendations?
I know this is way later, but do you have a convection oven? I wonder if the circulating air was the culprit to it drying out.
Nagi, I can’t wait to try your recipe out for the Super Bowl today!
Hi Sab! I have a fan forced oven. Honestly, chicken wings are a really fatty cut – the fattiest part of chickens. So the wings really truly should not dry out. I am presuming the skin wasn’t removed?? 🙂
Hi Clari! I’m so surprised to hear you thought the meat was dry inside. Because wings are a fatty cut they self-baste using this method. All I can think is that the wings you were using had abnormally thin skin??! I’ve honestly never known of chicken wings to be dry! My wings, when I cut them up, are about the following sizes: drumbeats 8cm / just over 3″, wingettes 7 cm / just under 3 “. This is before cooking them, they shrink considerably when they bake. I hope that helps! I worry that if you cook them for less time they won’t be as crispy 🙂
These were delicious. I made them today.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! I love these so much. 🙂 I’m making them tonight for NYE!
I made these last night. Even without a rack to place in a coin tray, these were awesome! I had to slightly crumple up a sheet of foil and stretch that out on my pan to make a plane of nooks and crannies to catch the oil from the wings. Then for the upper part of the oven bake, I transferred the wings to a second pan prepared the same way. Extra work, but we’ll worth it. The sauce was an excellent change from our usual red Buffalo wing sauce. Now I’m shopping for a rack because I will be making these wings again. And again. And again. And…
Hi Orlando, what you did with the sheet of foil to catch the excess fat is really clever!! Thank you for sharing that tip for other readers to see. I’m so glad you enjoyed these wings! They’re brilliant, aren’t they? Thanks for America’s Test Kitchen for discovering the scientific way to bake crispy wings!! 🙂
Sounds delicious! Making these tomorrow. I see that the wings bake for 70+ minutes. They stay moist and don’t dry out?
Hi Alysa! They definitely do not dry out because the wings are covered in fat / skin which basically self bastes. Actually, it’s pretty hard to over cook and dry out wings! Because they are a “dark” meat and covered in fat.
I don’t understand the rack thing. You talk about cooking them on a rack over a oven pan, but then you say to place them on the tray, not the rack. Please help.
Hi Robert! Sorry for any confusion 🙂 I mean that you need a cookie or any of any kind of rack that fits on a baking tray that you then put into the oven on the oven racks. i.e. the wings sit on a rack on a baking tray that then gets put into the oven on the oven shelves. Hope that helps clarify! 🙂
Think I got it, thank you. I was just brought up calling a rack, a cookie sheet.
Well actually then, thank YOU for telling me that because I just googled and found out that some people do call the rack a cookie sheet so from now on I will be extra clear about oven shelves vs racks!
Hi! Does it have to be wings specifically? I only have drumsticks on hand.
Hi Tay! Such a great timing for this question because I just tried this on the weekend with drumsticks! It definitely works, you just need to add 5 minutes to the cooking on the lower shelf plus 15 minutes (or so) to cooking on the top shelf. If you aren’t 100% confident it is cooked, just make a small incision and take a peek to check 🙂 And I would make 50% more sauce. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much! I’m making them now! 🙂
Oh yay!! Love to know what you think!
Nagi, I did the drumstick version for Super Bowl sunday today and they were a smash hit! Next time I’ll take them out a bit sooner – in my concern to make sure it was cooked all the way through I may have dried it out a bit – but it was a hit! And people were surprised it was not fried. Thank you so much!
Hi Rebecca! I’m thrilled you enjoyed it so much! My friends are always surprised that they aren’t fried too 🙂 And that they’re healthier!! Always surprises everyone! 🙂
Can’t wait to try these out – my 3 year old LOVES wings (odd, I know – haha). Always have trouble getting them crispy so I cant wait to test this method out.
Thanks Tara!! I am super impressed your 3 yo loves wings – advanced taste for his years!!
I’m with you, Nagi! I love Cooks Illustrated and all those ‘nerdy’ food things! If you REALLY want to get your ‘nerd-on’, check out, the Science and Cooking free online lecture series from Harvard – super cool stuff!
So I never knew the secret to super crispy oven baked chicken! This is GOLD!!! And the honey garlic sauce looks
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! I want to put that everything!
And I thought I was a food nerd!! But you know what I’m going to spend my relaxation time this evening doing, don’t you?! I love this sauce too! I wonder if it would be weird to use it on my Christmas Ham? Hmm…..thoughts are brewing….
Visiting from Maureen’s blog, and I’m hooked! These are brilliant, I’ve never made wings at home because I didn’t think I could make them great without deep frying, so I’ll definitely be making these! One happy hubby, coming right up 🙂
Thanks so much Anna!! Hope your hubby is please 😉
I also LOVE Cook’s Illustrated (or America’s Test Kitchen). I started watching that cooking show, I call it the ‘first ever cooking show’, YEARS ago and because of THAT, my cooking skills and knowledge took me in a whole new direction. I became a BETTER cook! I also found the best knives from them. I am so glad someone else loves to know why adding one ingredient and not another to a recipe changes things- the science behind the food! I added this recipe to my make next week pile, and I cant wait! I love chicken wings, but not too sweet and this looks perfect. THANK YOU for this chicken wing recipe…. maybe I will make some of your crack bread to go with?! From Portland- Lisa
I wish they aired America’s Test Kitchen here in Australia!! It is SO unfair! But I make do with the cookbooks – and I too believe I became a better cook because of them. I learned SO MUCH!! And I apply the things I learned to other recipes, that’s why I love knowing the science behind the food! I’d love to know what knives you use – my general kitchen knives are just Global Knives which are a great all round brand, but nothing in the fancy category 🙂 The sauce is definitely a bit sweet but not too sweet – my palette is more towards savoury than sweet so hopefully you like the sauce! And YES to the crack bread – I can’t imagine a better meal!! My birthday is coming up – I might request a birthday dinner with these wings and the crack bread, can’t think of a better combination so thanks for the idea!!
I’ve been using this method ever since CI published it… Best. Wings. Ever. I usually do a version of the low-carb “Heroin Wings” (butter, garlic and parm cheese) but will definitely need to try your honey garlic sauce!
Thanks Sherry!! I’m with you on the best wings ever! Heroin Wings are soooo good too!! Heroin is the right name for it!! 🙂