These Baked Chicken Wings Start With Cajun Spices

Chicken wings are always a crowd-pleasing meal choice, whether you are eating out or at home. This budget-friendly cut of meat may be a little more fiddly than a thick chunk of chicken breast, but when cooked well, the combination of a crispy exterior and succulent meat inside is hard to beat.

This baked cajun chicken wings recipe, from the kitchen of recipe developer Jennine Rye, is a simple and affordable meal option that also happens to be mouthwateringly tasty. Chicken wings are coated in a thick layer of home-mixed Cajun seasoning that is packed with the particular blend of bold, smoky, spicy, and garlicky flavors developed in the South. We add baking powder to the mix to give the wings a superior crunchy skin once cooked, and then the wings are oven-baked to juicy, crisp, golden perfection. For a little additional heat, Rye recommends serving the wings with an extra helping of your favorite hot sauce. Read on to find out how you can easily rustle up this baked Cajun wings recipe in the comfort of your own home.

To begin this Cajun chicken wings recipe, first, you will need to gather the ingredients. For the Cajun seasoning, you will want smoked paprika, ground cumin, garlic granules, onion powder, dried thyme, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper. To finish off the recipe, you will additionally need chicken wings, along with baking powder to make the wings lovely and crisp. You may also want hot sauce for serving.

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Cover a baking sheet with foil and top with a wire rack.

In a bowl, combine the baking powder, paprika, cumin, garlic granules, onion granules, thyme, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper.

Toss the chicken wings in the Cajun seasoning to thoroughly coat.

Lay the wings out on the prepared baking rack.

Bake the chicken wings for 30 minutes.

Remove the wings from the oven and turn them.

Cook for another 15 minutes until the wings are crisp and fully cooked.

Drizzle with hot sauce before serving.

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These baked Cajun chicken wings pack a real punch in the flavor department and can be easily adapted according to your individual preferences to give you the perfect wing experience. A simple way to adapt this recipe is by tweaking the heat levels. If you prefer your food on the milder side, then you can reduce or even omit the cayenne pepper from the spice mix. Alternatively, if you like things to be extra fiery, why not add some hot chile powder or chile flakes into the mix? Mixing in some brown sugar is a tasty way to balance out the heat a little whilst also adding additional depth to the Cajun spice mixture. Similarly, if you prefer your chicken wings extra garlicky, then adding some freshly crushed garlic cloves to the spice coating is a great plan.

To lean further into the Cajun flavors used in this dish, you can rustle up a Cajun-style sauce to serve with, or use to coat, your wings. Using a butter, honey, Cajun seasoning, and lemon juice mixture to coat your wings will result in a wonderfully delicious, sticky, and buttery glaze that will add balance and richness to the Cajun wings. Alternatively, mixing a little Cajun spice with some yogurt, mayonnaise, or sour cream will give you a cooler, creamier companion to enjoy alongside the bold flavors of this baked Cajun chicken wings recipe.

Baking is an excellent, low-hassle way to cook chicken wings, with minimal clean-up needed afterwards. Using an oven for your wings means you can cook a large amount in one go, and it tends to be a healthier option as less oil is needed in the cooking process. In this recipe, no oil is used at all — with the wings being elevated on a wire rack, the hot airflow cooks the wings evenly and makes them super crisp all over. However, using an oven takes a longer time than other cooking methods, so if you are looking for a quicker way to whip up this wing recipe, there are a few different options available to you.

Frying wings using a deep-fat fryer is a much faster way to prepare your chicken wings. They will be ready to eat in under 10 minutes, less than a quarter of the time they will take in the oven, and they will likely have a more deeply crispy exterior as well. However, this cooking process does introduce the wings to more oil, and will also leave you with a much messier clean-up job on your hands.

Using an air fryer is another way you can cook up chicken wings that are crispy and delicious. While this method does take longer than frying, it will still be quicker than oven baking, with your wings being ready anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your preferred crispiness.

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