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So, I was working on a recipe for chicken wings when not long after I started, my husband basically took over. Just for the record my husband CAN cook, and I love it when he does – it just doesn’t happen all that often anymore! So I did not argue and said, “Yes, I’d love for you to take a shot at developing this baked chicken wings recipe” (i.e. make dinner tonight – wink wink).
Recipe for The Best Oven Baked Chicken Wings
And I must say they turned out to be the best oven baked chicken wings I’ve had and definitely rival the smoked wings we recently fell in love with at one of our favorite Charlotte restaurants, Rooster’s.
How to Get the Taste of Smoking Chicken Wings
Baking this knock-off version at home by emulating the flavor of their wood burning fire with smoked salt makes our house smell almost as good as their amazing restaurant, and it only takes 45 minutes to bake (instead of hours to smoke…not to mention you don’t have to tend a fire!). So, just in time for the Super Bowl – enjoy!
What to Serve With These Homemade Wings
Chicken wings make for an awesome family meal that just about everyone loves! Here’s a few ideas for side dishes you can add to make it a complete, whole food meal to satisfy even the hungriest diners. Try some slow cooker baked beans, oven baked cheese fries for some extra crunch, and Mexican street corn salad to bring it all together!
Here’s a video on how to make our best oven baked wings:
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The Best Oven Baked Chicken Wings!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken wings (about 3 dozen wings total)
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (or honey)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked salt ((this recipe would not be the same without the SMOKED version versus regular salt…I found it at our grocery store and it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t already own some))
- 1 teaspoon thyme (dried)
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano (dried)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper ((ground cayenne))
Optional Accompaniments
- celery
- ranch dressing (homemade (see link in notes))
Instructions
- Place the cooling rack on top of a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Pour the maple syrup into a large mixing bowl. Add the wings and mix with your hands to evenly coat the wings. (Note: If your wings are fairly wet, pat dry with a paper towel first, otherwise don’t waste your time.) Arrange the coated chicken wings on top of the rack, thick-skinned side down.
- Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and with a dry hand, evenly spread about half of the spice mixture on top of the wings. With your other “wet” hand, press the spice rub into the wings and then flip them over (we want the thick-skinned side up during baking for extra crispiness). Evenly spread the remaining spice mixture on top with your dry hand.
- Bake for 45 minutes on the middle oven rack. Serve warm and enjoy!
I used an electric smoker for this. Thanks for sharing this awesome information.
How can you make these in the air fryer?
Hi, we haven’t tried them in the air fryer yet. Let us know if you have any luck. – Nicole
I’ve made these several times and we love them! Question though. My butcher didn’t have any fresh so I bought frozen. Should I thaw first or can I coat and cook frozen?
Make sure you thaw them out before cooking. – Nicole
I made these last week (got the recipe from your cookbook) and they were absolutely delicious. This recipe makes the best home-cooked wings I’ve ever made and just as good as fried. I love the flavor of the coating, and they taste great the next day too. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
Is that rack you are showing in the picture, oven safe? Where did you get it? I have a cooling rack for bakinh but not it oven safe.
I have to finally leave a comment here after cooking this tens of times and surprising everyone with the “best wings they ever tried”! We actually have special wing days now that just happened because of this recipe. Smoked salt is a MUST and I also use smoked paprika! We absolutely love the healthy ranch too!!! We can’t eat any other wings now haha! We tried both – oven and grilled these wings too, comes out amazing!
These wings are amazing but we are now doing Whole 30 and can’t have any sweeteners. Wondering what we could replace the maple syrup with to make the dry mix stick. Anyone have any ideas?
Hi. That is just red pepper/cayenne.
I’ve made these a few times and they are absolutely delicious. I always have one question though what do you mean by the ingredient red pepper? I never can find that except crushed red pepper is that what the ingredient is supposed to be?
It is Cayenne pepper.
I made these wings as part of an appetizer buffet, and they were great! For anyone who would assume this dish would be gluten-free (like I did), please check your smoked sea salt. I found the smoked salt in my regular grocery store but didn’t notice it had wheat in the ingredients until I was preparing the wings. Smoked paprika worked great along with kosher salt and the other ingredients. Will definitely make these wings again – thank you!
I only baked them for 40 minutes instead of 45 and they’re all nonedible. They’re too burnt! Dinner wasted
Check your oven temp. Most ovens are off by at least 25 degrees.
Super yummy! The only problem I had was my smoke alarm kept going off because the fat and spices dripping onto the foil underneath the chicken kept burning and smoke was pouring out of my oven! Wondering if anyone else had this trouble and, if so, did they find a solution?
Readers?
I’ve never had this problem. I’ve made them several times.
I have made these several time and love them but for some reason tonight they are burning up! No clue!
Put parchment paper on the bottom of the pan so drippings land on the paper instead of the hot metal.
These are by far the best wings I’ve had. My guests thought so too. THANK YOU!!!
Thy are very good but the instructions are silly. Mix your spices into the maple syrup in a large bowl and then stir the wings in with a spatula. No need to sprinkle spices on wings and then turn them to repeat.
This waa awesome and easy! I used fake maple syrup and honey (that’s what I had), oak smoked salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, and some southwest seasoning. I baked it for only about 15 minutes because my oven runs hot. So yummy
Added a few drops of liquid smoke to the maple syrup smells great
I’m not sure about the “cooling” racks. Shouldn’t we use “baking” racks? I read the comments under the product on amazon.com.
I now see that there are 2 separate links for the cooling racks. One’s okay to use. The other is not.
Used liquid smoke, ground thyme, and leaf oregano. Ten thousand stars! These were crispy and had a wonderful smoked flavor. Super easy to throw together too. Superbowl meal win! Make the queso too friends. You won’t regret it.
Do you use dried thyme & oregano leaves or ground?
They are dried and ground.
I have been making these wings for a year now and they are delicious and easy to make! The house smells so good while they are cooking. I don’t make any changes to this recipe and we don’t need any dipping sauces. Make them, you won’t be sorry!!!
These sound amazing! I haven’t seen smoked salt in my store, but I might try a few drops of liquid smoke. I liked the commenters idea of smoked paprika too!
I am going to try this for superbowl, except I am going to use smoked paprika instead of smoked salt, should work hopefully :)
EVERYBODY loves these! I throw the 1.5 lbs wings in a baggie, dribble in some maple syrup, shake it up, then add the spices (sans thyme…yucky). Then just throw them on a cookie sheet and in the oven. They turn out crispy and delightfully tasty! Plus, they only take two seconds to prepare this way. :)
Do you not use a cooling rack? I use my cooling rack for cookies, etc after they come out of the oven. I don’t want to use it for the chicken in the oven. I’d rather just use a baking tray/cookie sheet. Is that what you did?