BBQ chicken wings are easy to make at home. With our method, you can skip the oil and fryer and make amazing wings tossed in our delicious homemade sauce. These barbecue wings are sweet, smoky, and just a little sticky!
We love chicken wings, but the last thing we want to do at home is use a deep fryer. That’s why we’re such big fans of baking wings at home. For this BBQ wings recipe, we use the same method as our crispy baked hot wings, but instead of tossing the baked wings with buffalo sauce, we use our easy homemade BBQ sauce.
Our BBQ chicken wings recipe guarantees crispy and delicious wings. They are also perfect for serving a crowd. This simple recipe lets you make big batches of wings with little work from you.
How to make BBQ wings
Making BBQ wings at home is so easy. Below, we share how we make them, how long it takes to bake wings so they are crispy, and a quick and easy barbecue sauce to coat them in. There are four things to keep in mind for making the best wings:
- It’s up to you whether you separate the chicken wings. Some grocery stores sell them already separated into the drumstick and wingette. If the wings you buy are not, you can do it yourself. Or leave them unseparated like we do when grilling wings. The recipe will work both ways. Here’s our tutorial for how to cut a chicken wing if you want to see how to do it.
- Instead of frying them, bake the chicken wings on a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet, tossed in some homemade BBQ sauce. By cooking the chicken wings on a wire rack, fat drips away from them while they bake, helping to make them extra crispy.
- Bake the chicken wings at a high oven temperature — we like 400ºF. The wings bake for 35 to 45 minutes. (You can bake wings at an even higher temperature, but depending on your oven, you might find the oven smokes a little.)
- Toss the baked wings with more BBQ sauce. Then, serve them with your favorite dipping sauce. We like homemade ranch or blue cheese dressing.
Quick and easy BBQ sauce for wings
For these wings, we use a BBQ sauce similar to our popular oven-baked ribs. You will need ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Sriracha, soy sauce, and cumin.
This is a quick sauce, so all you need to do before tossing with the wings is stir the sauce ingredients together and heat over medium until the sugar dissolves. For another favorite homemade BBQ sauce, see our sweet and tangy bbq sauce.
Bake the chicken wings with roughly half of the sauce and then save the rest to toss or dip the baked wings in later. Easy!
More chicken wing recipes
We love chicken wings around here and have shared a few recipes. Here are our classic Buffalo hot wings, or for something different, take a look at our sweet chili wings, which use Thai chili sauce.
We’ve shared a few grilled wings: our Pho-inspired and lemon parmesan grilled wings. And if you love hot wings but want something meatless, try our buffalo-baked cauliflower wings!
Brown Sugar BBQ Wings
-
PREP
-
COOK
-
TOTAL
Sweet, smokey, and just a little spicy, the sauce for these baked BBQ chicken wings comes together in 5 minutes and is fantastic. If you have a favorite store-bought BBQ sauce you love, use it instead.
Makes approximately 5 servings
You Will Need
3 pounds chicken wings, separated at joints, tips discarded
1 cup ketchup, try homemade ketchup
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Directions
1Heat oven to 400°F (204°C). Set a wire rack inside a large-rimmed baking sheet. Spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.
2Make BBQ sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Sriracha, cumin, and soy sauce. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust with additional soy sauce or sugar.
3Divide the sauce in half, saving half for serving the wings.
4Toss the chicken wings with the remaining half of BBQ sauce, and then place onto the prepared baking sheet.
5Bake the chicken wings, turning once during cooking, until an internal thermometer registers 165°F, 35 to 45 minutes.
6Serve the baked wings with the sauce you set aside earlier, either on the side or tossed with the chicken.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- No wire rack: If you do not have a wire rack that will fit inside a baking sheet, you can still make wings. Arrange them on the baking sheet, without the rack and rotate a few times during baking.
- BBQ sauce: You will need 1 ¼ cups barbecue sauce, homemade or store-bought.
- Nutrition facts: We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. 1 pound of wings will be 8 to 12 wings, depending on size.
Nutrition Per Serving
Calories
571
/
Total Fat
24g
/
Saturated Fat
6.4g
/
Cholesterol
239.2mg
/
Sodium
880.4mg
/
Carbohydrate
38.7g
/
Dietary Fiber
0.1g
/
Total Sugars
34.6g
/
Protein
29g
