Our brown sugar baked BBQ chicken wings are easy for you to make at home. With our recipe, you can skip the oil and fryer and make amazing wings tossed in our delicious homemade barbecue sauce. These barbecue wings are sweet, smoky, and just a little sticky!
We love chicken wings, but the last thing we want to do at home is use a deep fryer. That’s why we’re such big fans of baking chicken wings at home. For this BBQ chicken wings recipe, we use the same method as our crispy baked hot wings, but instead of tossing the baked wings with buffalo sauce, we use our easy homemade BBQ sauce.
This recipe guarantees crispy and delicious wings! They are also perfect for serving a crowd. This simple recipe lets you make big batches of wings with little work from you. For more recipes like this, look at our spicy chicken wings or these sweet chili chicken wings.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken Wings: We use chicken wings already split into the drumstick and wingette. Most stores sell them this way, but you can separate them yourself if you need to. You can also leave them whole (I do this in my grilled wings recipe). The recipe works either way. If you need guidance on separating the wings, check out our tutorial on how to cut a chicken wing.
- Homemade BBQ Sauce: For the BBQ sauce, we use a sauce similar to the one we use for our oven baked ribs. You’ll need ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Sriracha, soy sauce, and cumin. It’s quick and easy. I also love this sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, which also works well with these wings.
How to Make BBQ Chicken Wings
Making BBQ wings at home is so easy. Below, we share how we make them, how long it takes to bake wings so they are crispy, and a quick and easy barbecue sauce to coat them in. There are 3 things to keep in mind for making the best wings:
- Instead of frying them, bake the chicken wings on a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet and toss in some homemade BBQ sauce. By cooking the chicken wings on a wire rack, fat drips away from them while they bake, helping to make them extra crispy.
- Bake the chicken wings at a high oven temperature (we like 400ºF) for 35 to 45 minutes. (You can bake wings at an even higher temperature, but depending on your oven, you might find the oven smokes a little.)
- Toss the baked wings with more BBQ sauce. Then, serve them with your favorite dipping sauce. We like homemade ranch or blue cheese dressing.
Easy BBQ Chicken Wings
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Sweet, smoky, and just a little spicy, the sauce for these baked BBQ chicken wings comes together in 5 minutes and is fantastic. If you have a favorite store-bought BBQ sauce, feel free to use it instead. Baking your wings on a rack inset to your baking sheet helps make them extra crispy, so if you have one, use it!
You Will Need
3 pounds (1.3kg) chicken wings, separated at joints, tips discarded
1 cup (250g) ketchup, try homemade ketchup
½ cup (100g) lightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Directions
1Heat oven to 400°F (204°C). Set a wire rack inside a large-rimmed baking sheet. Spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.
2Make BBQ sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Sriracha, cumin, and soy sauce. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust with additional soy sauce or sugar.
3Divide the sauce in half, saving half for serving the wings.
4Toss the chicken wings with the remaining half of BBQ sauce, and then place onto the prepared baking sheet.
5Bake the chicken wings, turning once during cooking, until an internal thermometer registers 165°F, 35 to 45 minutes.
6Serve the baked wings with the sauce you set aside earlier, either on the side or tossed with the chicken.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- No wire rack: If you do not have a wire rack that will fit inside a baking sheet, you can still make wings. Arrange them on the baking sheet, without the rack and rotate a few times during baking.
- BBQ sauce: You will need 1 ¼ cups barbecue sauce, homemade or store-bought.
- We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. 1 pound of wings will be 8 to 12 wings, depending on size.
Hi this recipe was great! Everybody loved it!! I will definitely be trying out some of your other recipes!
This is the very first recipe I tried, cause it’s the easiest one haha 😀 My son loves it soooo much. Gives me confidence in cooking.. Thank you, Joanne and Adam, can’t wait to try your other recipes.
Doing the ribs once again. Over the years my family truly loves your recipe. We also really love your sweet and spicy chicken sauce used on the finished ribs. Thanks again. Best wishes,Ed
Thank you.
My husband requests these for Superbowl every year and they are always amazing. The sauce is to die for!
I am going to save this recipe right now, even though this recipe is around 6 years old!
Just did it here, tasted super good. My girlfriend loved the sauce and matched good with rice and salad. Thanks!
My son loves chicken wings and I am so excited to try this recipe. Took the time to browse through several of your other recipes and I’m really excited about your site. I plan on tagging you as a favorite and I plan on visiting it often. Thank you so much.
Do I have to follow your ketchup recipe? *If I don’t though, what brand/kind of Ketchup should I use to substitute? Going to make them tomorrow!
Your favorite store-bought ketchup will be fine.
This recipe sounds great, but I would rather use boneless skinless breast meat, how will that effect the cooking time?
Thanks!
Hi Daniella, I would expect a 25 to 30 minute cooking time. You might want to reduce the oven temperature, though. The oven is set high in this recipe so the skin becomes crisp. Since you would be using skinless chicken, you should be fine with a temperature closer to 375º F – Joanne
My entire family (who can be as picky as Chopped judges) loved, loved, loved this recipe! I also put the sauce on salmon and it was amazing! Thank you!
These are THE BEST most delicious wings I have ever had in my whole life!! Everybody loves them! Finger-lickin’, lip-smackin’ good- literally! My in-laws can’t get enough of them.
Thank you!
This was so delicious. Had to make a half batch because ran out of a few key ingredients leavings hubby and I fighting over the last piece. Yummmmmmmmmmy!
I tried the recipe today and boy i loved it, i substituted the vinegar with dry white wine, it came out beautiful. Am gonna make more of it more often.
Thanks guys, for a great recipe. My 15 year old daughter is a great fan of BBQ chicken wings. I have a question though, my oven baked wings tend to dry out even when baking for the required time and temperature. What am I doing wrong? I noticed the same with even chicken kababs or tandoori (we Indians love our kababs!)
Yes – I always marinate them and they are great
I made this sauce exactly as the recipe read. My family devoured them in a heartbeat and thoroughly enjoyed them. So easy.
I really do enjoy this recipe, however I do add a lot more Sriracha Sauce than the recipe calls for, I have made this recipe 2 times so far, and I have used about half a normal size bottle, and it is still a feels like it needs a little more heat to it, however that is my preference, always taste the sauce before you put it on your wings. Also, I have Marinated the wings in the sauce for upwards of 24 hours, and had wings that I have just dipped in for a couple seconds, and can not really tell that much of a difference between them. Anyways, to recap, this is a great recipe, however remember to taste the sauce before cooking, and remember the sauce will caramelize and taste sweeter than when you dip the wings in.
My husband and I were in the mood for wings tonight, and I am very picky about the type of sauces I’ll eat wings with – and this one is excellent! I made this for myself, and my husband a Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce, and we are both thoroughly enjoying it 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe!
Haven’t made yet
Can I do ahead and just put in ziplock bags in freezer for 1 day.
Yes, that should be fine.
can i do ahead and also I have to take to another house. What is best way to transport?
You can transport in a ziplock bag or container then quickly bake them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes to “freshen them up” a bit before serving.
Does it matter of the wings are defrosted or frozen when you bake them? Sorry.. I’m a rookie at baking wings! Thank you
Hi Rick, For the crispiest wings, you’ll want to defrost them.
To do this quickly, throw the frozen wings into a resealable plastic bag, make sure it seals completely then add to a large bowl. Place the bowl with bag of wings into the sink and run cold water over the bag until thawed. It should take about 20 minutes.
If you’re concerned with wasting water, you can also submerge the bag in cold water, leave for 5 minutes then empty the bowl of now very cold water, and then refill with cold water until the chicken has thawed.
Just wondering if there is something I could substitute for the apple cider vinegar because my husband is severely sensitive to it and I just can’t cook with it- thanks!
Hi Bev, A light vinegar will work (white wine, champagne or even rice wine vinegar). If it is all vinegars that your husband has a hard time with, you could try leaving it out completely, but it won’t have that “tang”
What might you server with these wings?
Hi Lynn,
It really is personal preference but we might serve them with something fresh like a small salad. You can take a look at our side dishes page to see if there is anything that catches your eye. Our side dishes.
I’m in the middle of this recipe and I just have to say, this sauce is KILLER! can’t wait for the wings to pop out 🙂
I was licking the sauce up, before I could toss
Sooooo good
Thanks for the recipe Adam and Joanne?
Have you ever marinated the wings in the sauce? I am going to make these tonight and was thinking about doing that. Just curious if you have ever tried doing that.
We haven’t tried marinating the wings in the sauce before baking. If you marinate them you will have to let us know how they turn out.
What temperature do you bake them at?
Hi there, the oven should be at 450 degrees F.