Main course

Air Fryer Chicken Wings

Name: Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 900g chicken wings, split into flats and drumettes; 1 tsp baking powder (not baking soda); 1 tsp fine salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 1 tsp garlic granules; 1 tbsp neutral oil; Hot sauce or BBQ sauce, to toss (optional)

Crisp skin from a teaspoon of baking powder, not a deep fryer.

25 mins total
Serves 4
Easy
American

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By Lush Editorial Team · Updated Sep 19, 2026

Good Food,
Happier You!

Ingredients

Scale

900g chicken wings, split into flats and drumettes
1 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)
1 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tbsp neutral oil
Hot sauce or BBQ sauce, to toss (optional)

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Quick Info

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time25 mins

Servings4

DifficultyEasy

Temperature400°F

We do not publish calorie or nutrition figures. Doing that properly needs lab analysis, and an estimate dressed up as data is worse than none.

Tips

Use baking powder, not baking soda. Soda in this quantity tastes metallic.
If your basket is 5 qt or smaller, cook in two batches rather than crowding one.
Sauce goes on after cooking. Applied before, it burns and glues the wings to the basket.
No baking powder? They still work, the skin is just less blistered.

Step by Step Instructions

1 Dry the Wings 3 mins
Pat the wings completely dry with kitchen paper, both sides. This matters more than any other step.
2 Season and Coat 2 mins
Toss the dry wings with the baking powder, salt, pepper and garlic granules until evenly coated, then add the oil and toss again.
3 Preheat 3 mins
Preheat the air fryer to 400°F for 3 minutes.
4 Arrange in One Layer 1 min
Arrange the wings in one layer with gaps between them. Cook in two batches if your basket is 5 quarts or smaller.
5 Cook and Turn 20 mins
Cook for 12 minutes, then turn each wing and cook for a further 8 minutes until deep golden and blistered.
6 Toss and Serve 1 min
Tip into a bowl and toss with sauce while still hot, if using. Serve straight away.

Storing and reheating. Keep cooked wings in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat at 375°F for 4 minutes straight from cold, which crisps them again far better than a microwave.

Why this works

Why baking powder

A teaspoon of baking powder tossed through dry wings raises the skin’s pH, which helps it brown and blister rather than simply dry out. Use baking powder, not soda: soda in that quantity tastes metallic.

The part people skip

Pat the wings properly dry before anything else. Surface moisture has to boil off before browning starts, so wet wings spend the first several minutes steaming themselves. Kitchen paper, both sides, thirty seconds.

Crowding

One layer, with gaps. Air fryers work by moving hot air around food, and a packed basket stops that happening. If your basket is 5 quarts or smaller you are cooking two batches, and that is fine. A two-basket model like the Ninja DualZone does both at once.

Sauce at the end, never before

Sauce applied before cooking burns and glues the wings to the basket. Toss them in a bowl after they come out, while they are still hot enough to take the sauce.