One of my favorite foods is, of course, chicken wings. But, sadly, my love of wings sometimes conflicts with my want to eat healthily. Since most restaurants deep fry their wings, the sheer amount of calories from a plate of wings can end up pretty staggering.
I’m not willing to give up on wings entirely, so, I’ve been working on a way to make wings that is at least somewhat healthier and, most importantly, is at least as good as those that you get at a restaurant. So, here is my take on air-fryer wings.
As far as ingredients go, things are pretty simple here. All you’ll need is the number of wings you think you’d like to eat, a little bit of baking powder (trust me, I’ll explain in a minute), and a sauce of your choice. With those handy, let’s get to it: there’s nothing worse than those recipe pages that have some person’s life story.
I like to buy whole wings, as it does cut down the cost even more, which is apparently a big deal now since there’s a national wing shortage. Thus, for mine, you’ll need to make use of a meat cleaver to separate the wings into parts, but most people will probably just buy pre-cut wings.
There are two vitally important steps here. The first is to pat the wings as dry as you possibly can with a paper towel. This will aid them in crisping up: any water or moisture on the skin will boil rather than brown, which is not what we’re looking for.
Second, put the wings in a bowl, season to taste, and, when you’re done, arrange them on the tray of your air fryer so that they’re not touching. If your air fryer necessitates flipping at some point, make sure to re-arrange the wings to give them breathing room to brown.
Before you start the air fryer, dust your wings with just a tiny bit of baking powder. You want just enough to brown the wings, but not so much to make them chalky. As far as cooking goes, follow the manual to your air fryer, and have a thermometer handy. In mine, 15 minutes at 400 does the job, but since your air fryer and mine might well be different, I’m not going to give recommendations on that.
Now, onto the important bit, flavor. My method will yield crispy wings. Lately, I’ve been using dry cajun seasoning on them before cooking, and no sauce after. If you’re using sauce, then I recommend seasoning the wings with salt and pepper before cooking them, and then, once they come out of the fryer, immediately toss them in a bowl with your preferred hot sauce.
You’ll also notice that I skip any oil at all on this one. At most, I spray the tray to my air fryer with some nonstick spray to help with cleanup. The baking powder is the secret here: it works extremely well with the fryer’s mechanics and delivers perfectly brown wings with crispy skin, every time. Now get the sauce, crack open a cold one, and enjoy!
I’m not willing to give up on wings entirely, so, I’ve been working on a way to make wings that is at least somewhat healthier and, most importantly, is at least as good as those that you get at a restaurant. So, here is my take on air-fryer wings.
As far as ingredients go, things are pretty simple here. All you’ll need is the number of wings you think you’d like to eat, a little bit of baking powder (trust me, I’ll explain in a minute), and a sauce of your choice. With those handy, let’s get to it: there’s nothing worse than those recipe pages that have some person’s life story.
I like to buy whole wings, as it does cut down the cost even more, which is apparently a big deal now since there’s a national wing shortage. Thus, for mine, you’ll need to make use of a meat cleaver to separate the wings into parts, but most people will probably just buy pre-cut wings.
There are two vitally important steps here. The first is to pat the wings as dry as you possibly can with a paper towel. This will aid them in crisping up: any water or moisture on the skin will boil rather than brown, which is not what we’re looking for.
Second, put the wings in a bowl, season to taste, and, when you’re done, arrange them on the tray of your air fryer so that they’re not touching. If your air fryer necessitates flipping at some point, make sure to re-arrange the wings to give them breathing room to brown.
Before you start the air fryer, dust your wings with just a tiny bit of baking powder. You want just enough to brown the wings, but not so much to make them chalky. As far as cooking goes, follow the manual to your air fryer, and have a thermometer handy. In mine, 15 minutes at 400 does the job, but since your air fryer and mine might well be different, I’m not going to give recommendations on that.
Now, onto the important bit, flavor. My method will yield crispy wings. Lately, I’ve been using dry cajun seasoning on them before cooking, and no sauce after. If you’re using sauce, then I recommend seasoning the wings with salt and pepper before cooking them, and then, once they come out of the fryer, immediately toss them in a bowl with your preferred hot sauce.
You’ll also notice that I skip any oil at all on this one. At most, I spray the tray to my air fryer with some nonstick spray to help with cleanup. The baking powder is the secret here: it works extremely well with the fryer’s mechanics and delivers perfectly brown wings with crispy skin, every time. Now get the sauce, crack open a cold one, and enjoy!
