Chicken wings are a favorite appetizer for game days, parties, or anytime you want a tasty, casual bite However, soggy chicken wings can ruin the experience Nothing’s worse than biting into a wing expecting crispy skin and getting a limp, soggy mess. Thankfully, it’s easy to avoid soggy wings with a few simple tricks. Here are pro tips for getting chicken wings perfectly crispy every time.
Why Chicken Wings Get Soggy
Before getting into solutions, it helps to understand why chicken wings get soggy in the first place. Here are some of the main culprits:
- Not drying the wings properly before cooking
- Steaming the wings by overcrowding the pan or baking sheet
- Cooking at too low of a temperature
- Adding sauce while the wings are still hot
- Improper storage after cooking
Excess moisture is the enemy of crispiness. Wings need to be thoroughly dried, cooked at a high temp to drive moisture out, and allowed to cool before saucing to maintain that coveted crunch.
Tips for Crispy Chicken Wings
Follow these tips for foolproof crispy wings every time:
Dry Thoroughly Before Cooking
- Pat wings dry with paper towels or let air dry uncovered in the fridge for a few hours. Drying removes excess surface moisture that can prevent crisping.
Use a Wire Rack
- Bake or roast wings on a wire rack set on a baking sheet. This allows air circulation all around the wings for even crisping.
Cook at High Heat
- Bake at 450°F or higher to help drive moisture out. Deep fry oil should be 375-400°F. High heat = crispy wings.
Don’t Overcrowd
- Avoid steaming the wings by leaving space between them on the baking sheet or in the fryer basket.
Allow Wings to Cool Before Saucing
- Sauce wings after cooking when they’ve cooled slightly. Adding sauce too soon makes them soggy.
Store Properly
- Store cooled wings in an open container in the fridge. Covering traps moisture. Reheat gently before serving.
Baking vs. Frying Wings
While frying makes spectacularly crispy wings, baked wings can achieve excellent crunch too. Here’s how the two methods compare:
Baked Wings
- Healthier than fried without all the excess oil
- Require less prep and cleanup than frying
- Achieve crispy skin when cooked uncovered at high heat
- Take about 45 mins at 450°F
Fried Wings
- Deliver shatteringly crispy skin unmatched by baking
- Require monitoring oil temperature
- Need drying wings thoroughly first to avoid excess splatter
- Take 15-20 mins at 375°F
Both methods can produce crispy wings if done right! Choose based on your preferences.
Top Tips for Crispy Baked Wings
Baked wings are a great lighter option. Here are extra tips for the crispiest baked wings:
- Pat wings super dry before seasoning
- Toss with baking powder and salt
- Brush with oil or butter before baking
- Flip wings halfway through baking
- Broil after saucing to recrisp
Follow these steps for ultimate crispy oven-baked wings!
Prevent Soggy Fried Wings
For crispy fried wings, heed this advice:
- Let wings dry uncovered in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight
- Fry in small batches to maintain oil temperature
- Blot fried wings with paper towels before saucing
- Use thermometer to keep oil between 375-400°F
- Don’t let wings sit in sauce puddles after frying
With proper monitoring of time, temp, and oil quality, you can fry up amazingly crispy wings.
Ideal Sauces for Crispy Wings
The sauce plays a big role in crispy wing success too. Follow these guidelines:
- Hold off on saucing until after cooking when wings have cooled slightly
- Toss rather than heavily coat wings with sauce
- Opt for thick, clingy sauces like Buffalo, barbecue, teriyaki
- Avoid thin, runny sauces that make wings soggy
- Only re-sauce right before serving
Choose your favorite sticky, thick sauce for wings that stay crispy.
Foolproof Crispy Wings
Making chicken wings crispy rather than soggy is easy when you follow these essential tips:
- Dry wings well before cooking
- Use a wire rack and high heat
- Don’t overcrowd and let wings cool before saucing
- Store properly and reheat gently before serving
- Fry at the right temperature in small batches or bake uncovered
- Choose thicker sauces that cling rather than make wings soggy
With these tricks, you’ll be guaranteed crispy, saucy, finger-lickin’ good wings every time!
What worked to get extra crispy baked chicken wings
To make a long story short, after a few experiments, I did the following:
- Baking powder stayed. It helps a lot with getting a nicely browned, crispy skin.
- Dry chicken wings with a paper towel before tossing in baking powder.
- Stopped salting the wings before baking. Salt draws out moisture and prevents crisping and browning.
- Bumped the baking temperature to 425F convection. High temperature significantly helped reduce baking time. Convection did its magic with crisping up the skin and quickly removing moisture from the skin.
After tossing chicken wings in baking powder (1 tablespoon per 2 pounds of wings) and baking for only 30 minutes at 425F convection I got these beautifully crisp chicken wings:
Another time I baked them for 40 minutes. I liked the result better. These baked chicken wings had a thicker crust and more crispiness. Here is a picture of a wing baked at 425F convection for 40 minutes:
The interior of the wings was still tender and really moist and juicy.
Options for making the best crispy chicken wings
I knew the solution would be baked chicken wings. What I needed to find was a way to bake them such that they would come out just as crispy as deep-fried. I figured out how to bake amazingly flavorful and crispy enough chicken wings, I posted about it in my How to Bake Chicken Wings post, but they are not like deep-fried.
I experimented with different temperatures, convection, with and without oil, but couldnt get what I wanted. The solution was prompted by Serious Eats The Food Lab: In Search of the Best Oven-Fried Buffalo Wings article. Similar approach is used in the Cooks Country Oven-Fried Chicken Wings recipe.
What the recipes in the above links suggest is tossing wings in baking powder to help with browning and crisping up the skin. Then baking for 30 minutes at 250F, followed by 40 minutes at 400F. Using baking powder was genius. It really does help.
While I generally liked the results I had a couple of issues. One issue was that the wings would come out a tad too dry inside. Another issue was the crispness – the wings werent quite as crispy as deep-fried. Finally, I could not stand the length of baking. Seriously, over an hour to bake a couple of dozen wings?
How do you make chicken wings not soggy?
FAQ
How to make chicken wings not soggy?
Crispy Hack #1: Baking Powder
The kitchen science wizards at America’s Test Kitchen and Serious Eats both found this worked best for them. This was the easiest of the hacks: Just toss the wings in a teaspoon each of salt and baking powder before baking.
Why are my chicken wings soggy?
Now the main reason why your wings are coming out soggy if because your sauce isn’t thick enough and probably too watery. Just let it simmer and reduce to a point where you can tell it’s very thick.
What is the trick to getting crispy wings?
For Crispy Wings, DO THIS:
Use paper towels to blot away any moisture, pressing firmly on the wings. The less moisture left in the skin, the more crispy your wings will be! Use Baking Powder. Baking powder will help ensure that your wings brown nicely and it also helps create that desired crispy coating.
What is the secret ingredient to crispy wings?
Cornstarch Is the Key to Crispy Wings The key to crispier grilled chicken wings lies in cornstarch. Cornstarch is often used in combination with flour in fried chicken recipes to create a crispier coating, so I decided to see if cornstarch would help chicken wings crisp up on the grill as well.