Everybody wants a wing with fried-crisp skin and nobody wants a pot of hot oil on the stove during the first quarter. These come out of a regular oven with skin that actually crackles, and the only equipment you need is a wire rack.
Two things do the work. The first is dry skin: you pat the wings down, toss them with a tablespoon of aluminum-free baking powder, and leave them uncovered in the fridge for an hour while the cold air pulls the last of the moisture out. The second is where the seasoning goes. Most of the Anything With Wings goes on before they bake so it toasts into the skin, and the last half tablespoon goes on hot out of the oven, where it stays bright.
Then a low oven to render the fat and a hot one to crisp what is left. That is the whole trick, and it is the reason these hold up on a platter instead of going limp ten minutes in.
Set them out with what is actually good right now. Carolina carrots and celery are coming into their best weeks, and the last of the sweet bell peppers are still at the market. Cut wide, they go as fast as the wings do. If you want a second pan in the oven, the Crispy Smashed Potatoes roast at the same heat.
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Crispy Baked Chicken Wings with Anything With Wings
Oven-baked chicken wings with shatter-crisp skin and organic Anything With Wings poultry seasoning. No frying — a wire rack and two oven temperatures do the work.
Ingredients
For the wings
- 3 lb chicken wings, split into flats and drumettes, tips removed (about 24 pieces)
- 2 Tbsp Anything With Wings organic poultry seasoning, divided
- 1 Tbsp aluminum-free baking powder (baking powder, not baking soda)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
To serve
- Carrot sticks and celery hearts, for the platter
- 1 cup blue cheese or buttermilk ranch dip
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- Lemon wedges
Instructions
- Pat the wings completely dry with paper towels, one piece at a time. Any water left on the skin turns to steam in the oven, and steam is the enemy of crisp.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 1½ Tbsp of the Anything With Wings, the baking powder and the salt. Add the wings and the olive oil and toss with your hands until every piece looks evenly dusted and slightly chalky.
- Set a wire rack inside a rimmed sheet pan and lay the wings on it skin side up in a single layer, not touching. Refrigerate uncovered at least 1 hour, or overnight if you have the time. The cold dry air pulls moisture out of the skin.
- Heat the oven to 250°F with a rack in the lower third. Bake the wings 30 minutes. They will not brown yet — this step is only rendering the fat out from under the skin.
- Move the pan to the upper third of the oven, turn the heat up to 425°F, and bake 40 to 45 minutes more, turning the pan once about halfway through so they color evenly.
- They are done when the skin is deep golden and crackles when you tap it, and the thickest drumette reads 175–185°F on a thermometer. Wings are forgiving past 165°F; the extra time renders the last of the fat.
- Rest them 5 minutes on the rack, not on a plate — sitting in their own steam softens the bottoms. Then tip them into a dry bowl and toss with the remaining ½ Tbsp seasoning.
- Pile them on a platter with the scallions and lemon wedges, and set the carrots, celery and dip alongside.
Baking powder, not baking soda
A tablespoon of aluminum-free baking powder raises the pH of the skin, which lets it brown faster and dry tighter, so you get fried-style crackle out of a dry oven. Baking soda does the same chemistry far too aggressively and leaves a soapy taste. Read the can before you scoop.
Dry skin is most of the recipe
The hour uncovered in the fridge is doing real work. If you can start them the night before, do — overnight wings come out noticeably crisper than one-hour wings, and it moves all the work off game day.
Two temperatures, on purpose
The low half renders the fat out from under the skin. The hot half crisps what is left. Skip the low half and you get wings that are brown outside and flabby underneath.
Season twice
Most of the Anything With Wings goes on before baking so it toasts into the skin. The last half tablespoon goes on hot out of the oven, where it stays bright. That second pinch is the difference between seasoned wings and wings with seasoning on them.
What is good right now
Carolina carrots and celery are coming into their best weeks, and the last of the sweet bell peppers are still at the market. Cut them into wide planks, pile them on the same platter, and they will go as fast as the wings.
Feeding a crowd
Two sheet pans fit, but swap their positions when you turn them. Finished wings hold 30 minutes on the rack in a 200°F oven without going soft — never covered, never stacked.