Baked Buffalo Wings

5 from 4 votes

Mom’s Crispy Baked Chicken Wings with Buffalo Sauce are super crispy and tossed in a classic spicy sauce. These wings are baked, not fried, and are delicious! Serve them with blue cheese sauce and crispy celery for the ultimate game day or party snack!

Prep Time2

Course: Appetizer, Dinner

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken wings, game day, gluten-free

Servings: servings

Calories: 190kcal

Author: Lora

Equipment

1 Mixing Bowl
1 baking sheet

Ingredients

Chicken wings:

4 pounds party style chicken wings or whole chicken wings that have been halved crosswise
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼-½ cup vegetable oil mom uses a 1/2 cup
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Buffalo sauce:

¼ cup unsalted butter or plant butter if you're dairy-free
12 ounces Frank's Original Red Hot Sauce or sub with your favorite red hot sauce
1-2 Tablespoons honey white sugar or brown sugar (adjust to suit your tastes)
1 dash of Tabasco sauce optional
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Blue cheese dip:

½ cup crumbled blue cheese softened
⅓ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

To serve:

Blue cheese dip
Ranch dressing
Celery sticks

Instructions

Prep the chicken: Pat dry the chicken wings with paper towels. Transfer the wings to a large zipped lock bag, or a medium bowl (I prefer to use the zipped lock bag so you can squeeze the spices over the wings).
Marinade the chicken: Add in the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and vegetable oil. If you have the chicken in a bowl, use a large spoon to toss to combine and let it marinade in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours (or overnight).
Make blue cheese dip: While the wings are marinading, prep the blue cheese dip. Place in a an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
When ready to cook: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 425°F for 25 minutes. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a heat-proof wire rack inside (if you don’t have a wire rack, you could put them directly on the aluminum foil).
Arrange chicken: Place the chicken on baking sheet, leaving about 1-inch of space between each wing. Cook for 25 minutes.
Make the hot sauce: While wings are cooking, in a small sauce pan, melt the butter (or plant based butter). Whisk in the hot sauce, brown sugar, and vinegar. Set aside.
Adjust heat: Lower oven to 350°F. Flip the wings and spoon some sauce on the chicken. Continue to cook until golden browned and crispy (about 35-45 minutes longer). Mom highly advises to FLIP the wings, otherwise, they’ll stick to the foil).
Toss in sauce: As soon as the wings are ready, toss them in the rest of the hot sauce.
Ready to serve: Serve wings while hot with a side of blue cheese dressing, more hot sauce, and celery sticks.

Notes

Marinading the wings overnight will result in much crispier wings.
In case you forget, you could even marinade 2-3 hours before and they’ll still crisp up.
You'll be surprised that people will end up eating more wings than you expect, so buy and make extra.
In case you have leftovers, you can enjoy them for a couple days after.

Nutrition