Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Chicken Wings - Saucy

Recipe: Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings Recipe »

These air fryer Buffalo wings are saucy and crispy without deep frying thanks to one simple secret ingredient. Toss them in a buttery Buffalo hot sauce with a touch of honey, paprika and lemon pepper for the ultimate easy snack. Serve with celery sticks and blue cheese or ranch dressing for classic buffalo wings at home. Perfect for game day, parties or an easy appetiser!

About These Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings

Love Buffalo chicken wings but also don't want to deep fry them? Me too! Me too!! These air fryer Buffalo wings are crispy and delicious and taste like a deep fried version thanks to one secret ingredient! These Buffalo wings are cooked with just 2 teaspoons of oil and an enhanced version of a classic Buffalo sauce. These are a super easy snack you can enjoy at home - there's no need to order Buffalo wings when these are so easy to make!

So how do we get these Buffalo chicken wings as crispy as deep fried? There are two things we need to do to ensure crispiness:

TIP ONE: One tip to getting super crispy wings is to pat the wings completely dry with paper towels. Water or moisture prevents the chicken from crisping up. Remember how we dry brine chicken and turkey? Same thing!

TIP TWO: The secret ingredient to getting these hot wings super crispy is....baking powder! Baking powder breaks down skin proteins, lowers the surface moisture, and creates microscopic, crunchy bubbles - you'll see tiny little bubbles in the skin that looks as though it was deep fried!

This is my easy blue cheese dipping sauce too. I've been making blue cheese dip for years and I promise this version is super easy and only has 4 ingredients (omit the apricot jam).

Video How To Make Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings

Video: How to Make Hot Wings in the Air Fryer

Ingredients For Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings

Chicken wing nibbles - Chicken wing nibbles are where the wing and drumstick are separated (the tip is usually not included). My butcher lets customers pick how many pieces of the wing vs drumette they want (we prefer the wings).

Baking powder - Baking powder is the secret ingredient to making these so crispy! Make sure to use baking powder and not bicarb. Bicarb will taste terrible for this!

Oil - I used olive oil but you use your favourite oil like canola, grapeseed or avocado oil.

Butter - Use regular salted butter for these wings.

Hot Sauce - The classic hot sauce to make hot wings is Frank's hot sauce. I also loved these with Truff hot sauce but it is pricey and basically around 10 times the price (but provides a stronger colour). So just use your favourite one!

Garlic powder - This can be found in the spice aisle. I love this for garlic bread and for when you need a dry spice version of garlic. Tip: store it in the freezer to prevent it clumping.

Honey - We LOVE hot honey in this household so I like to add honey to Buffalo wing sauce. I think honey adds a subtle sweetness to the sauce and gives the sauce a nice viscosity and cling to the wing.

Sweet paprika - This adds a bit more colour and flavour to the sauce.

Lemon pepper - This is a bit of a secret ingredient that adds a bright flavour to the wings. This is also found in the spice aisle.

Tips For Making Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings

1 - I had to cook these hot wings in two batches as my instant pot can't fit a lot of wings in but you can do this all in one batch if you have a larger air fryer.

2 - Make sure that your wing nibbles are around the same size so they cook evenly.

3 - Some recipes specify to cook your Buffalo sauce on the stovetop. Not only is this not necessary but it also splits the sauce! Stirring the melted butter with the other ingredients ensures that your sauce doesn't split.

4 - If you don't have an air fryer you can make these in the oven on the fan forced setting at 200C/400F.

5 - Cool the wings for a few minutes before tossing in the sauce. Adding super hot wings to the sauce will split the sauce. Also I find tossing the wings twice helps to create a thicker glaze.

Other yummy chicken wing recipes to try next are: the famous Pok Pok chicken wings from Portland, baked karaage chicken wings or these drunken chicken wings. Or if you don't eat chicken try these cauliflower wings!

Air Fryer Buffalo Hot Wings Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 1-2 as a main or 2-3 as an appetiser

Ingredients Needed

For wings

• 550g/1.2lbs chicken wing nibbles (the wing and the drummette separated)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons oil

For sauce

• 75g/2.6oz Frank's hot sauce (or Truff hot sauce)
• 50g/1.7oz butter
• 2 teaspoons/10g/0.3ozs honey
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• Salt for seasoning

To serve

• Celery sticks and ranch or blue cheese dressing

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREPARE - Pat wings dry very well using paper towels and preheat the air fryer to 200C/400F. Place baking powder in a ziplock bag and add wing nibbles. Close ziplock and toss to coat the wings lightly.

Step 2 COOK - Place chicken, skin side up in the air fryer lined with parchment inserts. Drizzle with oil. Cook for 20 minutes.

Step 3 SAUCES - While they're cooking mix the hot sauce, melted butter, honey, garlic powder, paprika, lemon pepper and salt together in a bowl until you get a smooth texture.

Step 4 TOSS - Once wings are cooked, cool for 3 minutes then toss the cooked wings in this sauce. Serve with celery and carrot sticks and ranch dressing or blue cheese dipping sauce.

Substitution notes:

Ranch dressing is a popular sub for blue cheese sauce.

Personal Note

Sometimes things are worth making yourself like these wings. One day I came home from a long day out and we didn't have anything in the fridge ready. Mr NQN was out with friends so I decided that I would order some Buffalo wings in. I went on an app and it kept trying to upsell me things but all I wanted to do was order the wings. "Do you want extra blue cheese sauce?" it asked and I said no. Then I got a little niggling feeling about whether I had ordered blue cheese sauce but I looked again and the item said "Buffalo wings with blue cheese sauce". I also figured that they asked if I wanted extra blue cheese sauce so I assumed that it did.

I made the order and in the meantime I got changed and used the treadmill while I was waiting (y'all know how I'm obsessed with my steps). Within 30 minutes the wings were at my door. I opened up the bag excitedly as I had had visions of Buffalo wings powering me through my treadmill workout. I opened up my order and saw that the wings were this flaccid and soggy with a light brushing of the Buffalo sauce - they looked more golden than red. It was like the sauce got a fast glimpse of the sauce and that was it. Not only that, but there was no blue cheese sauce either!

But there was one good thing that I got from these Buffalo wings and it was the idea to use lemon pepper instead of black pepper in these wings. The lemon really brightens the wings up and gives them more dimension. So I promise Dear Reader, that if you make these yourself, not only will you get a more delicious Buffalo wings but these will be saucy and delicious too!

So tell me Dear Reader, how often do you order food delivery? Do you use an air fryer? Have you ever made Buffalo wings?