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 think the confusion in the recipe lies in the very first step. You say to put the ingredients in a slow cooker, then to spray it, then to put only half the sauce in it? See the problem? You spray it after the ingredients are already in it, and then you are only supposed to have half the sauce in it anyways. Very unclear.
I think the first step should say “In a bowl, whisk together…” That would solve everything
Hi Josh, thanks for the help! I’ll take a closer look at those instructions today and make an adjustment! 🙂
Can this recipe be doubled? Want to make this for a Super Bowl party tomorrow?
Sure can!
I want to try to make the boneless version in the crockpot…it says just add them to a well greased crockpot…doesn’t there have to be a liquid/sauce to help the chicken cook and not burn? I’ve never cooked anything in the crockpot without a liquid to support it…
Hi Holly! Step 1 says to grease the slow cooker, then add half of the sauce.
Correct, but for the boneless ones, it says throw them in without the sauce
Was this comment resolved? I was planning to make the boneless version too but I’m confused about when to add the sauce. Is it 1/2 in the slow cooker with the boneless/breaded chicken then half once they’re cooked??
Hi Liz, yes you cook with half of the sauce and add the rest at the end!
I love your blog Tiffany. I have made your sweet and sour chicken and your jalapeno popper chicken taquitos and my boyfriend and I have loved them, so thank you. My question is on the bone-in recipe.. I see that I can cook them frozen, but do I need to change the time that they cook or can I just do the 3-4 on high or the 6-7 on low?
Hi Tiffany! I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying these recipes – the two you mentioned are two of my ABSOLUTE favorites! I’ve made these with frozen bone-in and they cooked up nicely in the same amount of cooking time. 🙂
Regarding boneless chicken wings….in your recipe When you use the crispier version of baking 5-10 mins, is that to finish? In other words, do I slow cook the chicken THEN finish in oven? Or just one or the other? I have been tasked to make chicken wings for 100 people…contribution to a memorial service. I am at a loss and hope that I can cook the wings at home, then serve in my 2 crock pots with the sauce at the service. If not practical would like advice how to make ahead and transport/keep warm if possible at the service. Wings were a favorite of the deceased so trying to do best possible and i loved the description of your recipe. https://m.facebook.com/home.php?src=email_notifeying
Hi Annie, there is no need to use both the slow cooker and the oven, one or the other is fine. You could make them in the oven, then keep them warm in your slow cooker for the service. Hope that helps!