You guys. Fall is in the air. As I write this, we’re having a massive thunder storm with marble-sized hail and I love the dark gray skies and the fact that they dropped the temperature 20 degrees in a span of about 5 minutes. I’m ready for it to drop 20 more so I can bust out all of my tall boots, wear sweaters and corduroy, and sip steamers all day while I light cinnamon-scented candles and see how many ways I can incorporate pumpkin into my daily food consumption. This is my most favorite time of year and I love seeing everything autumn pop up in stores these days. Here’s another tell-tale sign of fall :
Yes, that’s our Alma Mater’s logo mowed into my back lawn which can only mean one thing: football season is here. And football season also means football food. I’ve made plenty of chicken wings in my day, but baked wings are always a far cry from their yummier, crispier, naughtier, fried counterparts. So I was intrigued to see that someone at ATK had taken on researching a method that could produce tender chicken and crispy fried skin, in the oven. The solution comes with one very surprising ingredient:
I told you it was surprising. Cook’s Country explains: baking powder is composed of an acid and an alkali. It helps draw moisture to the surface of the poultry skin, where it can evaporate. The acid helps break down proteins within the skin, and the alkali accelerates the browning process, meaning that the skin can crisp more quickly.
Now. Let’s talk about the chicken for a minute. If you can find wings that have already been cut and prepped (meaning the little drumstick is separated from the wing, and the wing tips are removed and discarded) then I would totally go for those. I myself don’t have any major issues with raw meat, and I’m pretty good with a knife, and I will tell you right now, I hate prepping chicken wings. I’m not going to show you the ugly photos of me butchering meat (and by “butchering” I don’t mean the logical definition of one who specializes in the preparation of raw meat products. I mean the other one: the act of ruining or destroying something someone else could have done with grace and ease.) If you don’t know how to separate your wings, just do a quick google search and there are oodles of YouTube videos that will show you. It’s really not hard, I just need to sharpen my knives apparently. Anyway, let’s skip forward to some perfectly prepped little wings.
The only prep for these guys is to dust them with a mix of baking powder and salt and then place them on a rack that’s been placed over a foil-lined cookie sheet. How’s that for quick and easy?
They cook for a little bit in a barely-warm oven (there’s lots of science there too, but let’s skip that and just follow the instructions, ok?) and then the pan gets moved to the top rack and the heat is cranked up to 425.
When they come out, they even look fried with their beautifully golden brown crispy skin. They have a nice crunch on the outside and tender juicy chicken on the inside. And in case you were wondering (because it was one of my first questions) there is absolutely no lingering taste of baking powder.
You’ll want to toss them with sauce and then serve them right away. When it comes to the sauce, the sky’s the limit. I’m not a huge fan of buffalo, but that’s an obvious choice. I’ll include my recipe for a Honey-Lime-Sesame glaze that was a hit around here. It’s got lots of my favorite things in it, like honey, lime juice, sesame oil and ginger.
I sprinkled on some black sesame seeds to that batch for color and crunch.
Everyone loved the sweet and salty combo.
Another easy sauce is bbq, and honestly, you could use one of our homemade sauces, like this one, or do what I did and take your favorite bottled sauce and mix in a good drizzle of honey, and a couple shots of hot sauce.
It makes a sweet, spicy, sticky glaze; just how wings should be!
Cook up a batch or two for your next game. That way whether you win or lose, at least there will be something good to eat 😉
Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
Wings
- 4 pounds chicken wings halved at joints, wing tips discarded
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Honey-Lime Sauce – Recipe by Our Best Bites
- ⅔ cup honey
- juice from one lime a couple tablespoons
- 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
- 1 pinch ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
Spicy Honey BBQ Sauce – Recipe by Our Best Bites
- ½ cup bottled BBQ sauce
- 3-4 tablespoons honey
- hot sauce to taste
Buffalo Sauce – Recipe from Cook’s Country
- ½ cup hot sauce
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 tablespoon molasses
Instructions
Wings
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 250℉. Set wire rack in aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and spray rack with non stick spray.
- Pat wings dry with paper towels and transfer to a large bowl. Combine baking powder and salt, add to wings, and toss to evenly coat.
- Arrange wings, skin side up, in single layer on prepared wire rack. Bake wings on lower-middle oven rack for 30 minutes.
- Move wings to upper-middle rack, increase oven temperature to 425℉, and roast until wings are golden brown and crisp, 40-50 minutes longer, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
- Remove sheet from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer wings to bowl with wing sauce of your choice, toss to coat, and serve.
Sauce
- Pick a sauce recipe above.
- Whisk all ingredients until smooth. Pour desired amount over hot wings and toss to coat.
Questions & Reviews
Can you make these ahead of time and then warm up? If so, how? Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! These wings look so good. I just made a batch with 4lbs of chicken wings. I did a few things differently; I cooked them an extra ten minutes at 250 degrees and halfway through baking at 425, I flipped the wings over on the pan and put them back in at 450. They crisped up very nicely. They are cooling right now and will be tossing them in hot sauce shortly!
Can you bake these & then freeze them, reheat & douse in sauce?? I’m looking for things I can make ahead since I’m doing so many appetizers
Soooo good 🙂 We just tried these last night for the Super Bowl and they were a hit! Definitely cook these on a cookie sheet with a lip all around. I had some chicken grease spill over and things got a bit smoky. But these were very crispy and delicious. We served them with Buffalo Sauce, 1 cup BBQ sauce, 1 T Dry Cajun Seasoning, 1 T Hot Sauce. YUM!
I don’t suggest using a gallon ziplock to coat them. The steam and the backing powder makes a paste. Better to do it in an open air bowl.
I was so excited to make these and I failed miserably. Misread the directions and used baking soda instead of powder. Totally in edible 🙁
Oh no, lol! Better luck next time :/
Finally – I can bake wings instead of deep fry them. I usually deep fry in batches (about 10 at at time) which is never enough to feed the 6 of us – so to be able to bake 40 wings at a time in the oven was great! The baking powder did not leave any after taste – all 5 lbs of wings were devoured! We love wings – especially during football season!
These were the most disgusting wings we have ever had!!! I have never been so disappointed in a recipe. My husband and I always eat all our hot wings NOT THROW ‘EM AWAY because they left such a nasty aftertaste in your mouth. Very disappointed!
Maybe you did something wrong because mine came out fantastic. You should try again.
Mine were nice and crisp, but there was a bit of a baking powder aftertaste that the hot sauce (1/2 cup Franks, 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 TBSP red wine vinegar) couldn’t quite cover. I will try again with half as much baking powder and maybe a thicker sauce.
Just a quick question…I don’t have a pan with a rack. Can I just use the foil lined pan?
You can, but they won’t be quite as crispy- might be a little soft on the bottom.
If you were wondering why this was one of your top posts (other than their amazing) its because my husband makes me cook them twice a week at a minimum. He had his doubts when I first introduced them since they weren’t fried but one bite quickly changed his tune. Now, if you could convince him to try a different sauce, although the one he makes is pretty fantastic.