Ingredients
3 lb. chicken wings, split at the joint, wing tips removed and discarded
4 tbsp. vegetable oil
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
3 tsp. baking powder
Preparation
Step 1 Preheat oven to 425º. In a medium bowl, dry chicken thoroughly with paper towels and toss in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and baking powder. Mix well. Step 2Grease rimmed sheet pans with remaining vegetable oil and spread chicken in a single layer. Bake on top third baking rack, 20 minutes, then broil until golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
What’s with the baking powder? Just like in baked goods, baking powder helps with browning. In this specific case, baking powder effects the pH of the chicken skin, allowing it to brown more quickly. This means you don’t have to cook your wings to death to get nice crispy skin. It’s just science! Do I have to remove the wing tips? Not necessarily! The wing tips will likely get slightly burnt, and obviously don’t contain much meat, but they’ll be totally edible. If you don’t mind a little extra effort, you could even remove the wing tips completely and place them on a separate baking sheet. Pull them ~8 to 10 minutes early so they don’t burn. Pro tip: if you decide you don’t want to cook the wing tips, you can use them to make chicken broth instead! Can I put foil under the chicken wings as they bake? Totally! Lining your tray with foil makes for easy clean up. Just make sure you don’t use parchment paper, which won’t allow the side of the wings touching the pan to turn golden. Can I make these using frozen wings? Yep! Just make sure you defrost them first. Place frozen wings in a sealed plastic bag, then place in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with cold water. The wings should be defrosted in 30 minutes, but if they need more time, refresh the cold water and let them sit for 10 to 15 minutes more. Can I bake these at a cooler temperature? You could… but they wouldn’t be nearly as crispy. In order for browning to occur, you need to get your oven HOT. Somewhere between 400º and 450º is the sweet spot. Any cooler and it will take too long to get that golden color on your wings. By that time the meat will be super dry. Dry wings = 😭 What kind of sauce can I put on these wings? Any kind your heart desires! Hard to beat the classic buffalo sauce, but we’ve got a few recipes we return to again and again when we’re feeling adventurous. We love the spicy, savory sauce on these bloody Mary wings, and the citrusy, sticky sauce in these Sunkist wings. Really though, when your wings are this good, any sauce will do.
