With our crispy buffalo wings recipe, you can skip the oil and fryer and make delicious, crispy baked wings that rival your favorite restaurants.
This recipe guarantees crispy and delicious chicken wings. You are going to LOVE them! They are perfect for serving a crowd. I use my easy buffalo sauce, and love to serve them with the blue cheese dressing shared below.
This is my favorite method for making chicken wings at home, so we’ve shared a few different versions over the years. You might also enjoy these BBQ wings, spicy glazed wings, and these sticky sweet chili wings.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken Wings: Depending on where you buy them, they are sold as the whole wing or separated into a drumstick and wingette. If you can only find whole chicken wings, hop over to our tutorial for separating a chicken wing.
- Buffalo Sauce: I love using my favorite homemade buffalo sauce. It’s easy and quick to make. You can make it while your wings bake in the oven with butter, hot sauce (like Crystal), garlic powder, and a bit of honey. It’s delicious and I think it tastes better than the store-bought.
- Blue Cheese Dip: I love these served with thick blue cheese dip, so I’ve shared a quick recipe below, but if you prefer ranch, I highly recommend trying our homemade ranch. I also have this thinner blue cheese dressing.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Crispy Baked Wings
Tip 1: Use an oven-safe rack. For the crispiest wings, use an oven-safe baking rack inset into a rimmed baking sheet (like in my photos and video). This rack lifts the wings and allows some airflow around them. I use the same setup when baking crispy bacon.
Tip 2: Pat dry before baking. It’s really important to pat your wings dry, helping them crisp up in the oven even more. And don’t forget to season them with salt! I don’t use any other seasonings, but feel free to do so if you’d like.
Tip 3: Bake wings at a higher temperature. I bake my chicken wings in a 425°F oven until crispy, usually 30 to 45 minutes. Adam and I really love them when they are extra crispy, so I continue baking until they have had enough chance to render their fat and crisp up the skin. That means I usually cook them a few more minutes than necessary to reach an internal temperature of 165°F.
Tip 4: Try our homemade buffalo sauce. Once your wings are ready, toss them in your favorite sauce. Our homemade wing sauce combines melted butter, hot sauce (I use Crystal), and a little garlic powder. I also like adding a slight drizzle of honey, balancing the sauce and making everything taste even better.
Serving Suggestions
Celery, carrot sticks, and blue cheese or ranch dressing are classic sides. I love serving them alongside creamy coleslaw, refreshing cucumber salad, or creamy potato salad to turn them into a meal.
You can also serve wings with crispy baked French fries, potato wedges, or try these roasted fingerling potatoes with its creamy sauce for dipping. I also highly recommend browsing our game day recipes category for more ideas.
Crispy Baked Buffalo Hot Wings
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Skip the oil and fryer and make our baked chicken wings instead. I love using the homemade wing sauce shared below, but you can substitute your favorite store-bought sauce or use BBQ sauce.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Baked Chicken Wings1 pound chicken wings, separated at joints, tips discarded (450g)
Salt, to season the chicken
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (56g)
⅓ cup cayenne pepper hot sauce, like Crystal or Frank’s (80ml)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon honey, or more to taste, optional
Celery sticks or carrot sticks, for serving
Blue Cheese Dip½ cup sour cream (113g)
½ cup mayonnaise, try homemade mayo (113g)
6 ounces crumbled blue cheese (170g)
1 tablespoon minced parsley
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Directions
1Prepare oven and pan: Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Set a wire rack inside a large-rimmed baking sheet.
2Bake the wings: Pat dry chicken wings with paper towels, and then season with salt. Spread out in one layer on the wire rack. Bake until cooked through and crispy, 35 to 45 minutes.
3Make blue cheese dip: Stir the sour cream, mayonnaise, blue cheese, and parsley together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then refrigerate until ready to serve with the wings.
4Make buffalo sauce: Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove the saucepan from the heat, then stir in the hot sauce, garlic powder, and honey. Season with salt to taste. Set aside until the wings are out of the oven.
5To finish: In a large bowl, toss the baked chicken wings in the sauce and serve with the blue cheese dip and veggies on the side.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Wings: There are 8 to 12 wings in 1 pound (depends on size). If you need to separate the wings into the wing and drumette, see How to Cut and Break Down Chicken Wings.
- No wire rack: If you do not have a wire rack that will fit inside a baking sheet, you can still bake them. Arrange them on the baking sheet without the rack and rotate a few times during baking.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We did not include the blue cheese dipping sauce in our calculations.
I made these today for the Super Bowl. I followed the recipe exactly and they came out to be the best hot wings I’ve ever made. Definitely a keeper. Thank you for this recipe and the tips you provided. These are perfect.
These were a huge hit with the family! I am obsessed with your buffalo sauce. I used some on a chicken breast for a salad and drizzled the remainder on top and it was mouthwatering!!! Currently making the wings for the second day in a row.
I made them tonight for supper and my husband loved them I have tryed other recipes and they didn’t turn out as good as your recipe thanks for sharing will definitely make again
Wonderful! Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review. Joanne and I are so happy that you and your husband enjoyed your wings.
Who knew I could make delicious wings. This is my kind of recipe, so easy and oh, so good! My local wing place is going to miss me, because with this recipe I make better wings! Thanks for a really great recipe.
ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!! Thank you for recipe, my family and I defiantly agree these wings are the most crispy and tasty that I have made. I have used many different recipes but this will be my only go to recipe for now on!
Thank you so much for coming back and letting us know, Mindy! So happy that you and your family loved the recipe.
I love it!
So happy you enjoy it, Patrick! Thanks for coming back.
the spicy baked chicken wings turned out wonderful.
Love this, Betty! So happy it worked well for you.
I’m so hungry
me to
How long will the blue cheese dip last in the refrigerator?
Awesome. The best chicken wings by far….and no deep fat oily fryer.
We agree! Glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Wow! Very good recipe 🙂 Can I make it with other chicken pieces too? (Instead of only wings?)
Very easy thanks
Yes, absolutely.
Looks so delicious. Can’t wait to try it out!
Made this tonight was so scrumptious I used 4 lbs chicken wings. I tried others but yours are ideal. My husband keeps telling me what an unbelievable dinner. Thank you so much, Geri
These turned out better than I thought. They needed a little time in the broiler to crisp up, but turned up great! I’ll definitely make again!!
Did the same. Awesome recipe. I just served one bag of thawed wings. Lightly seasoned @ 400 degrees. Flipped 25 mins in. Seasoned other side. Cooked another 10-15 mins. Splashed with wing sauce. Broiled on high for 3-5 mins. Then let each one rest in a wing suce bath for a min before placing them all in a bowel to cool. Seved with celery n kens chunky blu. Followed up with straw berries n whipped cream. Fed 2 adults 3 kids a snack after skating on Friday night. They probably would of ate a bag and a quater… But their very happy, quiet and fed. Thanks guys.
Just wanted to say Thank you. I love cooking for myself. Share recipes, successes and disasters with family and friends through the years. From Sauerbraten, to bouillabaisse to what ever I decide to do. I Also research what dish I want to make, origins, from what culture etc…
Also when viewing the dish and various recipes from many, I see what I like and also look for a consensus, certain ingredients that are common to the dish of course, the cooking time, etc..
So Tonight I bought chicken wings already swimming in a buffalo hot sauce in the supermarket. Fine with me, yet hated the Blue cheese salad dressings. The plastic or glass bottled ones that say, ‘Chunky Blue Cheese” Uhmmmm no. Once I got one that was, now it’s like were are the chunks. So I was delighted to see the blue cheese dressing recipe. Wow after all these years never thought of making my own. Have to do it and crumble that blue cheese to my liking.
So I saw your site on when I searched for chicken wing recipes to do my cooking time etc…
Yet happily saw your home made blue cheese dressing. Never mind the care you have for this dish and no doubt many, many, more.
Oh, after the baking I switch to broil, move them up from the middle of the oven for a 30 second or 45 blast, to get that crunchy texture.
So for that I say Thank you.
I love hot wing and Frank’s Wing sauce is perfect. I make mine a bit different. I used 1 cup of Franks, 1/2 cup Kraft’s Spicy BBq sauce, 1/2 stick of butter mixed together. I cook mine at a lower temp of 380 for 35 minutes and then put the chicken into the sauce mix and shake it up in a closed container. Then back into the oven at 350 for 15-20 mins. Folks love them here, A little zing and a slightly sweet taste but nothing the overpowers the other’s flavor. (The reason for my way is that I believe it allows for the juices to caramelize together and the sauce to soak in. Think it is better than using it as a condiment such as ketchup or mustard.
I have made wings like this for a long time. Out here in Southern California, we have these awesome stores called Stater Brothers and they have one of the best meat departments in the country. One of the butchers that works there told me about baking wings and I was a bit doubtful at first but it really, really works. One of the nicer things about this market too is that they will pre-season your meats for you. I have them season the wings with a light dusting of their Malibu seasoning (it’s a little salty, a little spicy, and a little sweet – perfect for chicken) so that I don’t have to season before baking. The only change I would suggest is that, about halfway through the cooking process, kick the heat up to about 475. It really makes a difference as far as as the wings’ crispiness as the skin will get nice and caramelized. We usually do Ranch (I have a picky, “NO BLUE CHEESE” person in my family, but I have made this homemade dressing before for myself and it was so so tasty.
Hey there! Thanks for the recipe! First time making hot wings and this was easy and delicious! Husband and I loved them!
Yay! Glad you loved them!
I did. Last minute thought on superbowl today! Not a pack of wings to be found in the county. That would be Scottsbluff, NE. Anyway found some small drum stix. Cooked a little longer to compensate for size. Thanks for this easy, Less fat recipe…
Love the wingspan! Where did you get the measuring spoons?
Hmm, I think those might have been from Target or Walmart (bought a long time ago).
In the process of making this. I used less salt (the sauce is salty). I broiled then baked the wings for 15-20 minutes and seasoned the chicken with peoper, garlic powder, onion powder. Awesome so far.
I love the easy recipe but the only thing I suggest is that you spice it up a little like we do here in Nashville. Take it from someone who grew up in Cajun Country the Louisiana Style hot sauce is a good call but you should consider Crystals or Tobasco Hot Sauce and give credit where credit is due. Nobody in Louisiana would call Franks “Louisiana style.”
Thanks!
do you have to cut wings at the joint….
i cut off the lil end and the other part i cut in half at the joint; after that i put them in a bowl put in a lil oil rubbed them around in it and added some hot sauce and mix it together . after they cooked i put some honey in the microwave to loosen it up and added more hot sauce in the honey and drizzled it over the wings and it was goood by it being my first time doing it
No, not really. You can leave them attached if you like.
Ha! I LOVE that this recipe is vinegar-free! (Vinegar is great with many things, but not my chicken, tvm!) I will have to try this. 🙂
I made these tonight and they were a hit! Thank you they were amazing.
So happy you enjoyed them.
made the wings tonight ……WONDERFUL LOVE THEM
Thanks for coming back to let us know you loved them 🙂
it taste really good my kids enjoyed it very much im going to cook it again
U wanna cds c dees nuts
Love this recipe….wings came out perfect…love that they are baked.
Is it possible to make the wing sauce before hand…..or will the butter seperate?
You should be fine, you just might need to whisk things a little before tossing with the wings.
What’s with the match stick celery slivers?
We love adding celery to the plate for some crunch (plus it cools things down a bit after eating hot wings).
Just made this, got the teenager approval! Very simple and tasty!
Excellent! 🙂
i love your measuring spoons … Recipe looking so yummy
Hi! Great recipe! I will try this soon! I made your portobello mushroom fries and they were a hit! 🙂 I was wondering, where/what brand is your cooling rack? I’m trying to look for one that is oven safe.
Just a question, Any SUGGESTION for replacing the BLUE CHEESE as I am extremely allergic to it (swollen tong etc). Thanks
I usually just go with ranch dip.
Hi Rachelle — Try feta cheese, instead.
I can only see big chicken drumstick, https://signal-ward.live/8145/baked-drumsticks-with-rosemary/%3C/a%3E not like the small drumstick above. Please let me know how to look for the small drumstick pieces to try your recipe above
Hi Rajee, When you go to the store, you should see wings next to where they sell other poultry. Most likely you will find them with the drumette and wing attached, not separated. You can see our tutorial for how to separate them by going here: https://signal-ward.live/8862/how-to-cut-a-chicken-wing/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
If they aren’t there, ask someone at the store, we would be surprised if they didn’t have them.
Beautiful job on these…they look just amazing. Wings are among my favorite appetizers and snacks. Yours look so yummy!
Love your recipe! I was just wondering where you found your fun measuring spoons?
Thanks! Hmm… we have had those for so long, we are racking our brains trying to remember where they came from! If we were to guess, they probably are from Target (we had those in our college years and Target was pretty much the only place we shopped). I checked the spoons themselves and no logo.
Joanne