These baked buffalo wings are ultra crispy chicken wings tossed in a classic spicy sauce and served with ranch dressing. Snack away with less guilt!
Buffalo wings are a perennial favorite, they’re perfect for parties, game day, or just when you have a hankering for a hearty snack. These buffalo wings are baked instead of fried, but are just as crispy and delicious as what you’d order at a restaurant. They are perfect crispy appetizers along with chicken taquitos and potato skins.
I absolutely love chicken wings, especially when they’re extra crispy. When I see buffalo wings on the menu at restaurants, I can’t resist! As much as I love wings, I hate the idea of frying them – so much mess and so many calories! These baked buffalo wings are my own version that are baked instead of fried, yet still come out plenty crispy. Serve them with ranch for dipping, and you’ve got an awesome snack or meal with less fat and calories.
These buffalo chicken wings are one of my favorite ways to enjoy wings along with lemon pepper wings, garlic parmesan wings and my classic baked chicken wings.
How do you make baked buffalo wings?
The secret to crispy wings without a lot of oil is baking powder. It sounds strange, but coating the chicken wings in baking powder and seasonings will help the skin crisp up nicely. You won’t taste the baking powder in the final product. Be sure to use baking POWDER, not baking SODA, there is a big difference between the two!
After the wings are coated in baking powder and spices, they go on a rack to bake. It’s important to make baked buffalo wings on a rack so that the fat can drain off and the wings will be crispy on all sides.
How long does it take to bake chicken wings?
Chicken wings take about 45 minutes to bake. It may seem like a long time, but it’s important to render out the fat from the chicken wings so that the skin can crisp up.
How do you make buffalo sauce?
To complete these baked buffalo wings, we need to toss them in buffalo sauce. Buffalo sauce is made with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, butter and a little honey. It’s that simple! The wings are coated in the spicy sauce, and then are ready to be served.
I love that I can have one of my favorite restaurant indulgences at home for less effort (and less calories!). My husband also loves these wings, and if I’m serving them as a meal I set some aside without the sauce so that my spice-hating kids can also enjoy some crispy chicken delights. A winning situation all around!
More amazing appetizer ideas
Baked Buffalo Wings Video
Baked Buffalo Wings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds party style chicken wings or whole chicken wings that have been halved crosswise
- 1 tablespoon baking powder do NOT use baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 cup hot sauce such as Frank's Red Hot Sauce
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 tablespoon honey
- celery sticks and ranch dressing for serving.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil and place a non stick oven safe rack on top of the pan.
- Place the chicken wings in a bowl. Add the baking powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.
- Toss to coat the chicken evenly with the baking powder and spices.
- Place the wings on the rack in a single layer.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until wings are light golden brown and crispy.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the hot sauce, butter and honey.
- Pour the sauce over the wings and toss to coat evenly.
- Serve with celery sticks and ranch dressing.
My family of 5 are tough food critics and each devored this recipe! However it was not nearly done at 45 mins at 400 so I put the oven setting to 450 for an additional 30 mins or so. I also flipped the wings at the 45 min before I increased the temp. The last 10 mins of baking I brushed the hot sauce over the wings on both sides and brushed the sauce again when they were done. Delicious!
I have just made these now and they tasted amazing. Followed the receipe exactly and delighted with the result. Made a dip with irish blue cheese and ceasar dressing.
This is the best hot wing recipe ever! After tossing the wings in sauce, I placed them back in oven for 10 minutes and they were delicious. My friend loved them and even asked for the recipe!!
Hi Sara. Curious how you came upon using baking powder as a coating. There doesn’t seem to be a lot online on its use as a crispy coating. Have you used it in other recipes?
Planning to use your chicken wings tomorrow.
The baking powder draws excess moisture out of the chicken skin which makes it crisp up better without the use of excess oil!
Very nice, versatile recipe. Some chicken stuck to the rack, so I might try to use Pam or such on it next time. I did bake some veggies in the pan underneath, in the drippings, though if you’re doing this recipe to lose the fat, don’t do that.
In this crisis I was looking for a good Buffalo Wings recipe. And BINGO! This is the best recipe ever!!! I tossed the wings for my daughter in a different sauce, but hubby and I absolutely loved the Buffalo sauce and the crispy wings. Who would have thought that’s its soooooo easy. Thank you!
Yummy recipe. I’m so glad I found this recipe. The key to crispy is the baking powder!! I followed recipe exactly except i cheated and bought Sweet Baby Ray’s buffalo sauce in a bottle.
Do you heat the sauce up or no?
I typically don’t since you’re starting with warm butter, the sauce ends up warm enough. But you can heat it up if you prefer!
A good sub is brown sugar instead of honey. Makes it a bit richer. You could go all out and reduce some stout and mix that in too. This recipe is a good start though! But for pete’s sake….Ranch!?? Blue cheese only. Unquestionably.
To each his own. Make and eat them your way.
Not sure why ranch is so shocking. In a restaurant they always ask if you want Ranch or Blue cheese. I am guessing they are both popular options.
This recipe is excellent however, the sauce didn’t really stick to the wings? What did I do wrong? Could it be that I used thawed whings?
The wings should be dry and crispy when they come out of the oven so that the sauce can adhere. Were your wings dry and crispy?
I will check that out the next time a make them. Thansks!
what is a good supplement for the honey?
Supplement or substitute?
We left it out, the sauce lost some stickiness, was still good. Was thinking of substituting some sort of thickener, possibly corn starch/potator starch, or xanthum gum if you want less starch. But that’s just speculation.
Can I make this recipe with frozen wings?
You can but thaw them first!
Excellent recipe. My daughter is eating keto, so just left the honey out of the sauce .if you really want to cheat Frank’s makes a wing sauce that is not as spicy hot as the hot sauce.
Do I use salted or unsalted butter?
I use salted butter.
Finger licking good!!! Excellent flavor and crispiness. 😋 I used fresh whole chicken wings and the only laborious part was chopping the wings. The rest was easy.
What kind of wings do you use, fresh or frozen?
Fresh!
These wings were really tasty! I’m currently eating keto, so all I had to do was eliminate the honey. I’m new to eating wings and I really loved these.
Can I substitute the butter for olive oil?
I don’t think olive oil would be a good substitute here!
Excellent recipe! The wings turned out super crispy. I forwarded this recipe to friends and family.
These were so so good! I was honestly surprised how well they turned out , almost exactly like restaurant quality wings. Thanks again, will be checking out your other recipes 🙂
Do you think these will reheat well? Need to make 6 lbs for a lunch.The recipe is great. Last time I baked as directed, tossed in sauce and then returned to oven to kind of “glaze” the wings. I’m thinking about baking and then dipping and reheating right before the lunch.
I think that would work just fine!