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Third try is a charm for the PERFECT Crispy Baked Buffalo Wings recipe. I’ve found the secret ingredient for making buffalo wings ultra crispy in the oven. Hint: it is not baking powder. And it’s exactly why I’m re-posting these with a new and much-improved recipe!
It’s not that I mind eating the occasional deep fried food. Who doesn’t love French fries? I just don’t enjoy deep frying in my own kitchen; it’s too messy, too smelly, and then there’s disposing of the oil. Because of this aversion, I assumed that buffalo wings were only something to be ordered out.
But I’ve been enlightened; it’s possible to make super crispy, utterly delicious buffalo chicken wings in your oven without baking powder! The secret ingredient? Plain cornstarch. Here me out.
Table of Contents
Ingredients You Need to Make Baked Buffalo Wings
For the Hot Wings:
- Cornstarch: not baking powder and certainly not baking soda – read why below
- Kosher Salt: or fine sea salt
- Chicken Wings: drumettes and flats separated (look for ‘party wings’ at the grocery store)
To Make the Buffalo Sauce:
- Butter: if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- Garlic: fresh garlic cloves
- Hot Sauce: such as Cholula Original or Frank’s Red Hot
For the Easy Blue Cheese Dip
- Blue Cheese: your favorite variety
- Garlic: fresh garlic clove
- Sour Cream: ideally full fat sour cream
- White Vinegar: or white wine vinegar
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Do NOT make the same mistake I did.
My first attempt at making these baked wings went terribly wrong, but it was my own fault. When I first tried the technique from the America’s Test Kitchen Meat Book, (where raw wings are coated with baking powder before baking and, like magic, the wings come out crispy) I knew I had to try it they were HORRIBLE.
It wasn’t until the next morning when I awoke with an awful taste in my mouth that I took another look at the recipe and realized that I’d used baking soda not baking powder. Whoops! Do not make the same mistake. After the baking soda flavor left my mouth, which was no less than a week, I decided to give the recipe another try. And the wings were very good, crispy on the outside; tender and flavorful on the inside.
Why Cornstarch is Better than Baking Powder for Crispy Baked Wings
But I have to make a confession: there was still a hint of metallic flavor from the baking powder that I didn’t care for, likely from the baking soda that is one of the ingredients. I learned that when I read the baking powder label, and the answer to the ultimate crispy chicken wings was right there. The first ingredient in baking powder is, drumroll please…
Cornstarch.
When you coat chicken wings in plain cornstarch mixed with a little kosher salt before baking, you are rewarded with ultra tasty, divinely crispy wings with zero metallic flavor. They’re delicious on their own, but you can make them even better by bathing them in buttery homemade buffalo sauce and dipping them in my easy blue cheese dressing.
More Great Game Day Recipes
- Garlic Parmesan Wings
- Cajun Wings
- Pulled Pork Nachos
- Pork Belly Sliders
- Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
- Baked Coconut Shrimp
- Baked Buffalo Chicken Tenders
- And here or a complete list of game day recipes
How to Make Crispy Buffalo Wings
Start by setting one oven rack in the upper-middle position and another in the lower-middle. Preheat the oven to 250°F and prepare a baking sheet with a foil or parchment-lined oven-safe wire rack, lightly greased with non-stick spray or oil. In a large bowl, combine cornstarch and kosher salt. Pat chicken drumettes and flats dry, then toss them in the cornstarch mixture to coat evenly.
Arrange them on the prepared rack in a single layer and bake on the lower-middle rack. After baking, increase the oven temperature to 425°F and move the chicken to the upper-middle rack, continuing to bake until golden brown and crispy, rotating the sheet halfway through.
While the chicken is baking, prepare the buffalo sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, adding minced garlic and cooking until the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and whisk in hot sauce until smooth. Once the chicken is done, let it rest for 5 minutes, then toss with the warm buffalo sauce in a large bowl.
Serve the coated wings with the blue cheese dip, made by smashing blue cheese and garlic into sour cream, adding vinegar, and seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.
Crispy Baked Buffalo Wings
Video
Equipment
- Oven-Safe Baking Rack Key to achieving perfectly crispy baked buffalo wings!
Ingredients
For the hot wings:
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt or 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 pounds chicken wings drumettes and flats separated (look for ‘party wings’ at the grocery store)
For the buffalo sauce:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup hot sauce such as Cholula Original or Frank’s Red Hot
Easy Blue Cheese Dip
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbled
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
To make the wings:
- Adjust oven racks so that one rack is in the upper-middle and one is in the lower-middle.
- Preheat oven to 250 °F (121 °C).
- Set an oven-safe wire rack into a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Spray wire rack with non-stick spray or brush with oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together cornstarch and kosher salt.
- Pat chicken drumettes and flats dry with paper towels. Add to bowl with cornstarch mixture and toss to coat evenly. Arrange in a single layer on rack in baking sheet. Bake on lower-middle rack for 30 minutes.
- Increase oven temperature to 425 °F (218 °C) and move baking sheet to upper middle rack. Bake for 40-50 minutes more until golden brown, rotating the sheet half way through.
- Meanwhile prepare buffalo sauce. Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter begins to melt, add minced garlic and stir. Cook and stir until butter is fully melted and garlic is fragrant; remove from heat. Whisk in hot sauce until smooth.
- When wings are golden brown and crispy, remove them from oven and allow to rest on rack for 5 minutes. Then place wings in a large bowl and pour warm buffalo sauce over; gently stir to coat evenly. Transfer coated wings to platter and serve with blue cheese dip (recipe below).
Easy Blue Cheese Dip
- Add blue cheese, garlic and sour cream to a medium bowl. Using the back of a fork, smash blue cheese crumbles into sour cream until flavors have melded. Stir in vinegar. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve.
Notes
- Keep an eye on the wings in the last 25 minutes at 425˚F to be sure that they don’t get too brown for your taste. Some readers have preferred them baked for as little as 30 minutes at the higher temperature.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thank you @Marissa for co-hosting this great giveaway! I was contacted by Kristi and I am the winner! Yeah! I love following your blog and collecting all of these fantastic recipes. I will be stopping by often.
Congratulations, Trish! And what a sweet note, thank you!
Get outta town! I LOVE baked chicken wings! These look SO darn good!
🙂 Thanks, Kayiu!!
I also won’t deep fry in my kitchen (but mostly because I’m certain I’d accidentally stick a finger in the frying oil), so I LOVE this crispy oven-baked version you made! Thanks for sharing!
I hate frying things in my kitchen but I love the food! These wings look wonderful and I’ll never know it’s baked if you don’t mention it! Will try out the baking powder idea, sounds like a perfect solution! 🙂
Try it, Maggie! Can’t wait to hear what you think… 😉
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve mixed up baking soda and baking powder – I say we make a movement to change the names so they’re distinctly different 😛
This is such a wonderful recipe and I love that these are baked! I personally don’t mind frying food in my home (in terms of the actual act of doing it), but I do appreciate baking in terms of the health conscience part of me! And I love the blue cheese dip – gotta have blue cheese with wings!
I agree! Gotta have the blue cheese dip. 😉
These look amazing! And I don’t even really like wings!
Thank you!
Ooh, these look great! And that’s saying something, because I am not a wing person at all. 🙂 They still look great! I love the simplicity of the baking powder & salt coating.
Thanks, Eileen. I still can’t get over how easy these are to make.
Buffalo wings are always too good to resist! I love that your recipe is easy and perfect for game days!
Thanks Ashley!
Marissa, we *love*baked wings and learned the baking powder trick. Man, it works absolutely perfectly! The wings are crisp on the outside and juicy, tender on the inside. I guess I’m saying, you must know I love this recipe! Oh, and thanks so much for participating in the giveaway!
Thanks for including me, Kristi! xx
oh no!!! what a mix up! i ALWAYS double check because it’s definitely happened to me while baking! so awesome that you decided to give it another go!
crispy wings for the win!!! 😀
I’m so glad I gave it another go, once the baking soda taste had finally passed. 🙂 This will be a go-to party appetizer recipe for me from here on out – thanks for the inspiration, Stephanie!
I’ve got to give these a try! I love chicken wings and crispy baked ones are right up my alley 😀
You’ve got to try them, Lorraine! Can’t wait to hear what you think…
I’m with you – frying stuff at home is no fun. I make too much of a mess and frankly I’m not sure if I can be trusted with that much hot oil! These baked wings look perfect for game day!
Liz, I hear you! I don’t trust myself with molten hot oil – a little too accident prone I’m afraid. And on that note, if you have never read “How to Start a Grease Fire” from Pen & Palate, you must. It’s hilarious – http://www.penandpalate.net/?p=353
Marissa! Thank you for the shout out!! And OMG, I had to laugh – BAKING SODA is AWFUL!! I made that mistake too!! And every time I go to make the recipe, I hesitate and have to double check that I am to use baking POWDER not SODA. Because it really is a natural instinct to reach out for baking soda! Coating meat in powder is weird, right?? And you know what? I just made a batch yesterday and was tossing up whether to use a blue cheese or other dip, but because I was LOST in the selection of blue cheese dips out there, I ended up going in another direction – but now I can use yours!! Yay yay!!
Just one question – is the blue cheese you use the “crumbly” type (like feta) or is it slightly creamy (i.e. if you crumble it with your fingers you get it smeared on your fingers, whereas with feta you would not!) Thank you Marissa!!
Yay, I’m not alone! 🙂 On the blue cheese, the kind I used is on the creamy side – definitely gets smeared on your fingers.
Just made a batch…. Used baking soda.. . Was about to write a WTF message but realised that I am the one who didn’t read. Maybe write in parentheses “not baking soda” so no other poor soul goes through what my mouth just went through.
I made the same mistake the first time and, you’re right, just awful! Definitely try it with baking powder… 🙂
These look great for the big game day coming up. Too bad I want them today and I’m on day 1 of a 3 day cleanse. Detox and refresh! That baking powder tip is interesting, I’ve heard of cornstarch – a new must try!
Good for you, Kevin! Just two days to go. When you’re ready to try these though, I’d love to hear what you think.
Ugh, I hate frying too. I avoid wings because of it! I’m definitely making these for the superbowl! And I’m pretty excited. I can’t remember the last time I had wings!
I’d love to hear what you think, Amanda!