Ditch The Fryer: Make Wings Just As Crispy In The Oven

There are some foods that one can never hope to make as well in the oven as they could with a fryer — but wings aren't one of them. Despite not being battered or breaded, the best wings are still perfectly crackly on the outside to provide a pleasing textural contrast to the tender meat. At your favorite bar, this is normally done quickly and easily by deep frying. While it's definitely possible to do that at home and make restaurant-quality wings, some people are tentative about deep frying on their stovetop, or they just don't want to deal with the mess and gallons of oil. If you're one of those people, all you need is baking powder.

It's the kind of chicken wing hack that sounds too good to be true, but simply tossing wings with baking powder or adding it to a dry rub can produce crispy, craggily chicken wings that are every bit as good as fried. This works because baking powder raises the pH of the chicken skin. When the pH level of any food is raised, amino acids become more likely to react with sugars. This accelerates the browning process known as the Maillard reaction, and leads to both more flavor and a crunchier texture. With the threshold for browning lowered, you don't need the same intensity of heat to get the same result, so you can achieve crispy baked chicken wings in the oven.

While you can toss wings with baking powder and put them in the oven quickly and still get a good result, the best way to get crispy wings in the oven is to combine that with an overnight rest in the fridge. Using 1 teaspoon of baking powder and kosher salt for every pound of wings, mix everything together, then put the wings on an elevated wire baking rack — this will allow the oven air to circulate around all sides of the chicken. Then, store the wings overnight in the fridge uncovered for up to 24 hours.

Letting the wings air dry overnight like this compounds their crisping potential by driving off water before they ever hit the oven. The baking powder will also absorb the chicken juices the salt pulls out to form a bit of crust. Once the wings feel some heat in the oven, the reaction between the baking powder and juices will form air bubbles, which add more surface area and crunch to the wings. Just make sure you are baking your wings on the same elevated wire rack you dried them on and baking them until they're crispy and juicy.

Resting wings with baking powder combines three different effects that all result in an amazingly crispy result, with almost no effort at all. Your oven wings will be so crunchy they'll even stand up to your favorite store-bought wing sauce without getting soggy. Sometimes the easiest way to make something is also the best.