How Long To Cook Chicken Wings For Crispy, Juicy Results

Crispy chicken wings are one of the most appealing simple comfort foods, and yet they can be elusive for a home cook. Getting the perfectly cooked crunchy chicken skin and juicy interior is usually the domain of restaurants, where chicken wings are deep fried to achieve that ideal result. Frying is certainly an option at home, but it's a messy one that means a lot of work and equipment that might be outside the realm of the normal home kitchen. Baking is the other alternative, yet that can lead to either soggy wings, or crispy outsides and dry meat. So Tasting Table reached out to chef Bradley Borchardt, a strategic account chef for Cargill Protein, to ask the best way to cook chicken wings at home for those juicy, crunchy results.

Chef Borchardt recommended a nice, balanced approach that requires precision, but should be easy for anyone to replicate at home: "400 degrees [Fahrenheit] until internal temperature is 175 degrees and then let rest for 10 minutes before eating." According to Borchardt, cooking at this temperature means your wings are done in "approximately 30 minutes," but to be certain they're perfect you should "use an instant read thermometer to make sure you get to the correct temperature." Cook time for chicken wings can vary quite a bit depending on their size, so while you might want to just go with your gut, a thermometer really is essential when making crispy baked wings.

Now that chef Borchardt has told us the ideal time and temperature, there are still some great tips that will make your baked wings crisp up even more in the oven. Most of what you will do to get the best crispy oven-baked wings will actually happen before you even start cooking them. Moisture is the enemy of crunch, so drying out your wings before they go in the oven is essential, and leaving them uncovered on a rack in the fridge for anywhere from eight to 24 hours is the best way to do that. Baking your wings on a wire rack is also a big tip, because it improves the airflow and heat around your wings to more evenly brown them and crisp up the skin.

The other secret to crispy baked wings is something you might not expect: baking powder. Dusting your wings with baking powder raises the pH level of the chicken skin and breaks down the meat proteins, both of which help browning in meat, and lead to a crispier finish for your chicken wings. Tossing a pound of wings with a teaspoon of baking powder before you let the wings rest and dry out will maximize the crunch you are already achieving with Borchardt's cooking advice, making your wings crispy enough to stand up to any wing sauce. That's something even a lot of restaurant chefs and their fryers can't do.