The Best Baked Chicken Wings

Dry brining makes these The Best Baked Chicken Wings, with much less fat than the restaurant version. And with three sauce options, you can please all palates!

With Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I went in search of the best wings to make at home without using oil. Since there is fat in the skin of the chicken, there has to be a way to still get perfect crispy skin and juicy chicken without deep frying.

Baking Vs. Air Frying

Of course, air frying is an option, and I’ve tried that before. I used The Food Network’s cooking method, which is very good.

The problem is that I haven’t found a way to get 2 pounds of wings to fit in the basket of my extra-large air fryer. This means that I’m cooking in 2 batches, which takes more time than if I just use my oven.

If you want to use your air fryer, I recommend still following the dry brine steps in this recipe, and then follow the Food Network’s cooking temperatures and times. In my experience, the wings come out just as crispy and juicy if I use the oven. This requires much less fuss, so I’m going with the oven method.

How to brine the wings

In the world of recipe experiments, J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT is a god. He is pretty much a food scientist. I love reading his deep-dives into various cooking methods and recipes.

So when I saw that he has a whole post devoted to baking chicken wings, I knew I would use his method and switch things up to make it work for me. He puts together a mixture of baking powder and salt, coats the wings in that, and lets them sit overnight in the refrigerator.

This process draws out a lot of the moisture from the skin so once the chicken hits the oven, it’s not just steaming its own juices. That would lead to rubbery skin, which we definitely don’t want.

I wanted to impart as much flavor as possible, so I added some spices to the mix. This really seasons the chicken from the inside out, so we don’t need to douse them in tons of sauce (which would add points and unnecessary sugar/fat/calories). Just brush a light coating of sauce on your baked wings, and you’re good to go!

The best baked Chicken wings, three ways

BUFFALO: If you’re looking for a classic Buffalo style, you can’t go wrong with Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce. Make sure you get the actual Buffalo sauce (orange bottle) and not the original hot sauce (red bottle).

I use a pastry brush to lightly brush about 1/4 cup of the Buffalo sauce on 2 pounds of cooked wings, straight from the bottle. This is zero points!

SWEET BBQ: Some of you might not be able to handle the spice of Buffalo sauce, so I recommend using your favorite store-bought BBQ sauce to keep things easy. Use 1/4 cup thinned out with 2 tsps water, then lightly brush on 2 pounds of cooked wings.

My favorite is Sweet Baby Ray’s. 1/4 cup so 8 SP, so that will add 1 SP per wing. If you want a 0 SP BBQ sauce option, try out my vinegar-based recipe.

GARLIC PARMESAN: This is decadent twist if you want something a little different! Melt 3 tablespoons of light butter (I use Earth Balance Whipped) with 1 tsp garlic powder. Lightly brush this mixture over 2 pounds of cooked wings.

Sprinkle the wings with some chopped fresh garlic, grated parmesan cheese, and minced parsley. I only needed about 2 tablespoons of grated cheese for 2 pounds of wings. This entire mixture adds 1 SP per wing.

How to count points for your wings

When I say that the bare wings are 1 SP each, that is really an estimate. I can’t know for sure how much meat is on your wings, how big they are, how many come in a pound, etc. I can only go off of the size of the wings I bought.

This might be confusing, but I think it’s safe to say these are 1 SP each. The range of difference between my wings and yours probably won’t be that great.

However, if you want to be as exact as possible with your points, use this genius idea that my friend Rosie over on Instagram (@Rosie.in.real.life) came up with! She weights her wings on a kitchen scale BEFORE she eats them. Write that number down, in ounces or grams. Then, she weighs what’s left over after she eats them (i.e. the bones, cartilage, etc.). Subtract that number from the starting number. Now you know exactly how many ounces or grams of dark meat with skin that you consumed.

Look up “cooked dark meat chicken with skin” in the WW app, and plug in your number. Add a couple of points if you ate BBQ or Garlic Parmesan, and you’re all tracked!

I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there.