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Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings are simple to make as a deliciously satisfying appetizer or meal. Chicken wings are seasoned and then baked for an addictively crispy skin with no greasy frying!
This chicken wings recipe is truly a family favorite. We serve them at parties, on game day or for family movie nights. With lots of different flavors to choose from, like Lemon Pepper, Garlic Parmesan, Salt and Pepper Wings or BBQ Chicken Wings, baked chicken wings are as easy choice that’s budget friendly and easy to prepare.
Crispy Chicken Wings are delicious, but the messy frying doesn’t thrill me. That’s why I love this baked chicken wings recipe. It’s healthier and easier than frying, because they bake up crispy in the oven with hardly any effort!
Don’t want to mess with the bone? Try my Boneless Chicken Wings!
Pin this recipe for later!Table of Contents
The Best Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
We love finger foods for game day or just a fun family movie night! Baked Chicken Wings are almost always on the menu, and we love to serve them with some of our other favorite appetizers, like French Bread Pizza, Jalapeno Popper Dip, chips and homemade Guacamole, and Fried Ravioli.
Chicken wings are somewhat of a guilty pleasure, but I can enjoy these guilt free because they are baked instead of fried. Plus I can make buffalo wings and control the heat or customize for everyone with one of my favorite sauces. Honey glazed is one of my favorites!
Ingredients
- Chicken Wings – Use a combo of flats and drumettes, or separate out and only use drumettes if you prefer. If frozen, you need to thaw first.
- Flour – Helps form a crispy coating around the chicken.
- Baking Powder – Forms a reaction with the skin and helps dry it out, which is crucial to a crispy skin.
- Cayenne Sauce – Frank’s Red Hot or something similar. This is not a wing sauce, although that can be used.
- Butter – Use real butter, not margarine, for the best flavor.
- Seasoning – Chili powder, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper
How to Bake Chicken Wings in the Oven
Preheat the oven to 450℉. Preheating and roasting at a high heat will help attain the crispy skin you’re looking for.
Dry and Coat: Pat wings dry with paper towels and toss them with the flour, baking powder and seasoning. It’s very important to shake off excess flour or there may be some residual flour after baking.
Roast: You have 2 options for baking – flat on a baking sheet or on a baking rack. If you have a rack, you’ll get better air flow and a crispier result. If you don’t, just cover a baking sheet with foil and you’re wings will still get crispy. Either way, make sure to spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake for about 30 minutes, flipping them about halfway through.
Saucing Your Wings
If you’re making the buffalo sauce, you can do that while the chicken is in the oven. It’s basically just hot sauce and butter, melted together. You can make it as spicy or mild as you like. You can also leave your wings unsauced – they have a great flavor already.
Toss baked wings in the buffalo sauce or any sauce of your choosing.
FAQs
Using my foolproof method, wings take about 30-40 minutes to bake at 450℉, or until they are golden brown and crispy. Flipping them halfway through helps them to brown evenly.
The baking powder (not to be confused with baking soda) is really what makes all the difference for crispy chicken wings. When you coat the chicken it dries out the skin leaving it crispy and crunchy when baked. The more sciency explanation is that there is a reaction when the salt and baking soda combine that changes the PH of the chicken skin.
A lot of readers have asked if this recipe works with chicken drumsticks. Spoiler alert – it does! Check out my easy Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks.
Expert Tips for Crispy Wings
- Pat them dry. When you take them out of the packaging, you need to pat them dry really well. The dry they are the crispier they will be.
- Flour + Baking Powder. Some recipes don’t use baking powder but it really does help with the crispy skin.
- Tap off excess flour. Be sure to tap off any excess flour mixture before placing these on the rack. This will keep your wings from tasting bitter from the baking powder.
- Use the rack. If you don’t have one, get one. They are really inexpensive and super useful in the kitchen.
- Don’t crowd the pan. Space your wings far enough apart so they aren’t touching and the air can circulate around them for even cooking.
- Storage: Keep leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Serving Suggestions
Of course you’ll want to make sure you have carrot and celery sticks to help cleanse the palette, as well as some creamy Ranch or Blue Cheese Dressing for dipping. I actually like to mix the two together for a great flavor.
If you’re looking to make these wings a meal, add some of these yummy sides:
- Garlic Bread – crunchy, buttery, and full of garlicky goodness!
- Homemade Baked French Fries – Much easier than you might think and so much better than the drive thru.
- Easy Baked Potato Wedges – Thick strips of potato coated in a homemade seasoning blend and baked until crispy.
- Macaroni Salad – A classic that has been in our family for more than 50 years!
- Simple Carrot Salad – Skip the carrot sticks and make this delicious shredded carrot salad!
- Southern Potato Salad – Tender potatoes with a creamy, tangy dressing.
Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken wings or drumettes thawed or fresh (about 3 dozen pieces)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- Bottled Cayenne Hot Sauce like Frank’s Red Hot
- Butter not margarine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Rinse chicken wings and trim any excess skin. Do not remove the skin or you will lose the crispiness. Pat chicken dry.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and seasonings. Add chicken and coat with the flour mixture. Shake off excess.
- Prepare a large cookie sheet by covering with foil and spraying with cooking spray.
- Arrange chicken on the cookie sheet, at least an inch apart.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, turning once after about 20 minutes.
- While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce. Add about a ½ cup of the bottled cayenne hot sauce and a stick of butter to a small saucepan. Heat on low and stir until butter is melted and sauce begins to bubble. Taste. If the sauce needs more heat go ahead and add some in batches, or add a few dashes of Tabasco.
- Transfer wings into a large bowl. Pour the sauce over the wings and toss to coat.
- Serve with celery and carrot sticks and a side of ranch or blue cheese dressing for dipping.
Hello great recipe wings turn out just like you would deep frying them without the mess. Whenever I make these for the boys when they come over to watch the game they always rave how good my wings are lol. Thanks again!!!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Bill and leaving the positive feedback.
I’m a huge fan of chicken wings! They look so good I’m cooking these for tonight’s dinner, my mouth is watering already
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Rachel.
Great recipe!! Being a “Hot Feak”, I also added powdered cayenne to the flour and spice mixture, and also found some hotter than Frank’s Hot Sauce. They turned out great! I also suggest using parchment paper instead of tin foil…no spraying required! Thanks for the recipe!!
You are so welcome Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and feedback.
Thank You!
Mike, I’m surprised you were able to use parchment paper instead of foil, as I thought parchment paper could not be used at a higher temperature like 450F. If you had no problem then the next time I will use it too. Tks.
Hi, Jo-Anne! What you said is usually true; it all depends on the brand of parchment—Wilton brand says “Our heavy silicone-treated parchment is oven safe to 450°F”. 🙂
Hi, Jo-Anne! Some parchment is oven safe up to 450°, like Wilton brand; I frequently use it for oven-frying, works great. 🙂
I am so thankful for this recipe! I discovered it about a year ago and it is the only one I have used since. I recommend it to everyone! Thank you ?
You are so welcome Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time to leave some positive feedback.
I was reluctant to try this even though the pics lookcso good. I usually deep fry my wings but I wanted to try to do baked. These are totally awesome and so easy to make. I will definately make them again..
Thank you so much Jaye for sharing your positive experience!
Just made the yummiest wings using to his recipe. Between my husband and I, we polished most of them off. I used a foil lined baking sheet and a rack that I lightly sprayed with crisco. Note to self, next time spray the rack away from the foil liner. I didn’t, and thought that wiping the spray off the foil would suffice. I opened oven to turn them, and because of the small amount of spray on the foil, it created enough smoke to sound the smoke detector. Lesson learned.
So happy that you and your family loved this recipe! Thank you Lynn so much for stopping by
Good
Thank you Charles for the positive feedback.
I never leave reviews on recipes but this is an exception. Definitely a must try!
Nice! thank you so much for stopping by Eric!
Absolutely the best homemade wings we ever had.
Must try
Wow! Speechless. We love hot wings, but ive never made them myself. The idea of splattering oil and the clean up always made it easier to just order out.
I started looking around for an acceptable way to make these tasty treats in the oven. After reviewing and searching several recipes, this one seemed the easiest and seemed to have the characteristics I wanted
Made them tonight, a bit sceptical of how they would crisp in the oven.
Well to say both my self & my husband were blown away would be an understatement. They far exceeded my even moderate expectations. They were crispy, tasty, perfectly cooked. The only alternating I did was with the sauce, I added fresh minced garlic, as we like hot garlic wings
If these were placed side by side with our favorite wing place, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference
These will now most definitely be put into our regular dinner rotations
Thank you for a perfectly delicious , wonderfully yummy wing recipe!
YUM YUM & MORE YUM!
That’s awesome Diane! My husband and kids absolutely love this recipe too. Thanks for sharing your positive experience.
Best and easiest wing recipe I have come across, my wife doesn’t usually care for wings but she likes it when I make these nice and crispy and not DEEP FRIED.
Thanks Martin!
Second time I made these.
First time I ate them all and the wife didnt get to try them.
This time I will share.lol.
Ha Ha! Thanks John.
Great wings . You need to make extra wings they go fast .
These were fantastic. We made some buffalo and some garlic Parmesan, but these would’ve been excellent plain too. We made them for 5 boys. No leftovers.
That’s awesome Leslie! i’m glad they loved them.
I know you’ve heard this before – but these wings really are so amazing! Crisp and flavorful! Best part – EASY!!! We use a parmesan garlic sauce mostly… But we have done these wings SO many ways and LOVE THEM!!
Thank you Lana! this is one of my favorite recipes.
Hi, is this recipe really hot? With the hot sauce and chili pepper, I wasn’t sure if this was one of those recipes you need to have with a glass of milk. Wanted to make for family inclusive of a 2yr old. Thanks.
It’s as hot as you want to make it. You could set a few aside to keep plain for the toddler, then sauce up the others. Use as much or as little of the hot sauce as you want.
Putting the wings back in the oven after the sauce has been applied is a great way to test your smoke detector!
Haha yeah I wouldn’t recommend that!7
You can make a lot of yummy, crispy wings with this easy recipe. Place around with the spices. Just use the recipe’s measurement amounts for salts/peppers/seasoning. We’ve enjoyed eating these and the drumsticks many times.
Yes, you can! Thank you for the review!
I have made this a lot of times already. Hands down the best chicken wings recipe I ever tried. I use my airfryer instead of my oven.
Thank you Honey!