The Weird Secret Behind Actually-Crispy Baked Chicken Wings (2024)

FAQs

How do restaurants get their wings so crispy? ›

Coating wings in cornstarch or baking powder before frying not only helps seals in the meat's juices, but also gives them a crispy, golden-brown exterior.

Crispy Hack #1: Baking Powder

The kitchen science wizards at America's Test Kitchen and Serious Eats both found this worked best for them. This was the easiest of the hacks: Just toss the wings in a teaspoon each of salt and baking powder before baking.

bake on low then high – usually, the fat under the skin is part of the reason why baked wings don't get really crispy. In this recipe, we start at a low temp first which melts the fat under the skin, then we crank up the oven which makes the skin super crispy!

The less moisture left in the skin, the more crispy your wings will be! Use Baking Powder.

I tested baking these chicken wings at 350, 400, and 425 degrees f. Baking at a higher temperature will result in crispy skin in a shorter amount of time—which is why 400 is a better option. However, 425F is the best option.

In general, it's best to add your sauce only at the end of baking or until you're ready to serve. Doing so will preserve the crispiness of your wings and maintain the desired texture and taste all throughout the big game. Indeed, it's challenging to achieve the right balance between crispy and saucy wings.

A little baking soda goes a looooong way. Here's why it works. Baking soda is alkaline, so it raises the pH level of chicken skin, breaking down the peptide bonds and jumpstarting the browning process, meaning the wings got browner and crispier faster than they would on their own.

The baking powder raises the pH of the surface, allowing it to crisp better*), and tossing in plain cornstarch to absorb some surface moisture and create a rougher texture for the batter to adhere to. *See more on the science of baking powder and chicken wings in this article on oven-fried buffalo wings.

What is the key to a truly great chicken wing? ›

A grill with one side that's hot and one side that's cool — one side with no or very little fire underneath it — is what you need: put the wings on the cool side, cover the grill and let the ovenlike heat melt the fat away through the grates without any fear of an intense flame burning the skin from below.

Deep-frying is the standard way that wings are cooked in restaurants. While we stand by ourselves totally when we say our method for baking chicken wings is just as crispy and way easier, if you really want to go for it, you've gotta deep-fry restaurant-style.

“Baked chicken wings are a healthier alternative to fried ones,” says dietitian Katie Rankell, director of the UCI Health Weight Management Program. She notes that a typical serving of fried wings — two pieces — will weigh in with 309 calories, 21 grams of fat and more than 1,000 mg of sodium.