Air Fryer BBQ Chicken Wings
Wings tossed in bbq sauce and air-fried until the skin crisps and the glaze turns sticky. A single-serving, high-protein plate with no stovetop needed.
- Total
- 29 min
- Prep 5 · Cook 24
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Basting · Roasting
- Savory
- Air fryer
Instructions
-
Pat the 400 g chicken wings completely dry with paper towels. In the mixing bowl, toss them with 1 tbsp oil, 0.25 tsp salt and 0.25 tsp black pepper until evenly coated.
~5 min
Surface moisture steams the skin instead of letting it crisp, so drying first is what makes the wings brown and crunch.
Dry the wings thoroughly before oiling: surface moisture steams the skin and blocks the crisp browning the air fryer can give.
-
Set the air fryer to 190°C and preheat for 3 minutes.
~3 min
-
Arrange the wings in a single layer in the air fryer basket, skin side up, without crowding. Air fry at 190°C for 14 minutes, turning once halfway through.
~14 min
A single uncrowded layer lets hot air circulate around each wing, so the skin crisps instead of steaming.
Roasting Arrange skin side up in one layer with space between pieces. Crowding traps steam and gives pale, soft skin instead of crisp.
-
While step 3 cooks
While the wings cook, stir 3 tbsp bbq sauce with 1 tbsp water in a small bowl to loosen it for brushing.
~2 min
Loosening the thick sauce with water makes it thin enough to brush evenly and glaze without clumping.
-
Brush the wings all over with the bbq sauce mixture. Air fry at 200°C for 5 minutes, then brush again with the remaining sauce and air fry 2 more minutes, until the glaze is sticky and the wings reach 74°C at the thickest part.
~5 min
Brushing in two stages builds a sticky glaze; the final 2 minutes sets it without burning the sugars.
If the glaze starts to darken too fast at 200°C, drop back to 190°C and add the final 2 minutes there instead.
Basting Brush a thin, even coat and let the air fryer set it before adding more. Thick layers of sugary sauce burn before the glaze turns sticky.