Skip the restaurant and make these Best Air Fryer Chicken Wings at home! Featuring perfectly tender and crispy chicken along with all of your favorite sauces, you won’t even notice these wings are homemade and healthy!
When it comes to easy appetizer recipes, we’ve got you covered! Try our Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges, easy homemade Mexican Salsa, Slow Cooker Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs, and Easy Buffalo Cauliflower Wings.
Why This Recipe Works
Air Fried to Perfection: Instead of using a fryer, these best ever chicken wings are made in an air fryer! It is so much easier to use an air fryer instead of attempting to fry chicken wings at home. The wings still come out crispy and so delicious thanks to the convection method of the air fryer. Plus, air frying doesn’t add the extra calories that frying does!
Super Simple: While at first glance, making homemade wings sounds like a difficult process, these are super easy to whip up. My best air fryer chicken wings recipe uses minimal ingredients and uses the power of the air fryer to your advantage. You can have the perfect meal or appetizer on the table in just 20 minutes!
Sauce Heaven: One of the main reasons I love wings is because of the sauces. You can douse these wings in whatever sauce you prefer. My two favorites are Buffalo Sauce and BBQ Sauce! You can also find a lot of really great bottled sauces at the store, to make this recipe even easier.
Ingredients
This air fryer chicken wings recipe uses minimal ingredients to make them as easy as possible to make! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Chicken Wings: You can buy just the wings or find a mix of wings and drumsticks. Sometimes these are labeled as party wings in the meat section!
- Salt & Pepper: Simply season your wings with salt and pepper before putting them into the air fryer.
- Buffalo Sauce: For classic wings, you can use your favorite buffalo sauce. If you don’t like spice, I recommend trying a honey BBQ sauce instead!
- For serving: Ranch or Blue Cheese Dressing if desired!
Here’s How You Make It
Step by Step Instructions
- Prep the Chicken: Pat the chicken wings all over with paper towels until all of the excess moisture has been removed. Season chicken wings generously with salt and pepper all over. (photo 1)
- Start the Air Fryer: Grease your air fryer basket and add in the seasoned chicken wings. Set temperature to 400 degrees and air fry for 10 minutes. (photo 2)
- Flip & Continue: Use tongs to rotate the chicken wings and air fry for another 5-6 minutes. (photo 3)
- Toss with Sauce & Enjoy: Immediately toss with your preferred sauce (we love buffalo or honey bbq sauce) and serve. (photo 4)
Expert Tips
- Make sure to pat the wings dry! Don’t skip this step, since getting rid of the excess moisture ensures that the wings can crisp up in the air fryer!
- For an healthier appetizer or meal, serve these chicken wings with Homemade Greek Yogurt Ranch alongside some carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes!
- For a full meal, serve your crispy chicken wings with some Sweet Potato Fries and a big green salad!
- Perfect sauces for air fryer chicken wings include buffalo sauce, bbq sauce, honey bbq sauce, or any of your favorite store bought sauces! Dip them in some ranch or blue cheese and you will be in wing heaven!
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! You can follow by Crispy Baked Chicken Wings recipe instead, in order to get the perfect baked wings.
You can definitely cook frozen chicken wings in the air fryer! They will take longer to cook, so keep them in the air fryer at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, flipping halfway through. Keep in mind that cooking them from frozen means that more moisture will be cooking out of the chicken wings and might not end up as crispy.
It is best to eat air fryer chicken wings fresh on the day that you cook them, however, if you have leftovers you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat, pop them in the air fryer 375 degrees for about 2 minutes or until heated through. This method will ensure crispy leftovers!
More Easy Appetizers to Try
- Air Fryer Potatoes
- Buffalo Cauliflower Wings
- BBQ Chicken Bites
- Baked Lemon Pepper Wings
- Blue Cheese Stuffed Buffalo Meatballs
Best Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds chicken wings - or wings and drumsticks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper - reduce to 1/4 teaspoon if using finely ground pepper
- buffalo sauce - or honey bbq sauce
- ranch or blue cheese dressing for serving - optional
Instructions
- Pat chicken wings all over with paper towels until all excess moisture has been removed. Season chicken wings generously with salt and pepper all over.
- Grease your air fryer basket and add in the seasoned chicken wings. Set temperature to 400 degrees and air fry for 10 minutes.
- Use tongs to rotate the chicken wings. Air fry for 5-6 minutes longer.
- Immediately toss with your preferred sauce (we love buffalo or honey bbq sauce) and serve.
I am going to try these next Saturday they sound so good! BUT… I assume you add the other half of the sauce after you add the wings? It says to spray the crockpot, add half the sauce, add the wings, and toss to coat. Or do you heat the other half of the sauce up with the combined cornstarch and water to thicken before adding? Help me out here. Thanks!
Do you have a recommendation for a store-bought brand of boneless chicken wings for this recipe? I’m new to cooking so I am not sure I want to attempt to make my own!
Tyson is my go-to brand for store-bought chicken wings! 🙂
These were awesome! I popped them under the broiler to crisp up a bit. They caramelized beautifully and the meat fell right off the bone. Thanks for the great recipe!
Ooh, a little bit of time under the broiler would be fantastic for these wings! Great idea Vanessa! 🙂
Do you cook the chicken wings frozen???
We had these tonight. I made the homemade wings using gluten free panko crumbs. I LOVE this sauce and will definitely use it again. I think next time I’ll try cooking the wings for 6 hours instead of 7. They seemed dry. Overall this was a hit. Thanks 😀
Do you cook the chicken wings frozen??? Making them today
I made these tonight and they are great. Slow cooked and the sauce is really good. However, the minute I tried to serve them the meat just fell away from the bone (which is usually a good thing), but I was left with chicken and bone mush. Any thoughts on how to get the wings to keep their shape so they can be eaten like wings?
Michelle, I haven’t made these just yet but they are on the menu for next week. I would suggest shortening your cooking time for the next time you make them and even taking them out and putting under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes. I was searching for recipe ideas for my family for next week and that’s how I came across these. I will be posting my review after making them. Good luck.