Hot Ones hot sauces makes a number of tremendously tasty hot sauces. They aren’t all over-the-top spicy, either. More, they concentrate on flavor over heat. I am addicted to their chili maple hot sauce. It has a low eat level. It’s a little sweet thanks to maple syrup, which also adds an amazing flavor. The spiciness comes from Fresno chilis. With just the right amount of vinegar, this sauce makes for tremendous chili maple wings!
Easiest Sauce Ever
While my wings are cooking up, I like to just mix a little hot sauce with butter. That’s it. It’s the world easiest wing sauce. With such a wide selection of hot sauces available, it’s the best way to make totally different-tasting wings every day of the week! These chili maple wings are a great example! I made mine the ‘mild way’ but all variations are great!
In general, the ratio of butter to hot sauce is as below. For example, if the ratio is 3:1 that means you use 3 parts of butter for every 1 part hot sauce. For a mild sauce: 3:1For a medium sauce: 2:1For a hot sauce: 1:1
I’m not particular when it comes to cooking my chicken wings. Baked, deep-fried, grilled, it makes no difference to me. As long as I’m eating wings I’m one happy guy! During the week, though, if I want wings for lunch I gotta go with a technique that gets wings done with minimum fuss so I can get back to work. That usually means air frying them. I prefer to start with fresh wings, but sometimes they just can’t be found, so I grab some out of the freezer. This is my go-to method. This is how to cook frozen wings in an air fryer.
It’s really easy
This is not a complicated process. There’s nothing fancy about cooking frozen wings in an air fryer. No defrosting. Just cook them up a bit, season them, finish the cooking and sauce them. I sometimes also add more seasoning at the end.
Wing selection
Frozen wings come ‘pumped’. That means they are injected with a broth-like solution that plumps them up and keeps them juicy after cooking. Most frozen turkeys come the same way so don’t let the words ‘contains chicken broth’ scare you off.
I prefer sections when I buy frozen wings. Drumettes and flats, separated. Whole wings are fine, but they’re a bit harder to put into a small air fryer without them overlapping. You don’t want your wings to overlap, you want nice even cooking.
Seasoning
I like to season my wings with a light hand at first. I don’t want the seasoning to burn in the air fryer. So I add a little after the wings have cooked just a bit. When they are done I can add more, along with sauce if I’m using it.
I usually use salt and pepper for my seasoning, but I like store-bought ones too. If I want to make a mix at home, my fire-eater seasoning is my favorite.
Do not add the seasoning when the wings are still fully frozen. It’ll just roll right off the wings.
Saucing
You can use any sauce you want, of course. For homemade Buffalo-style sauces, I’m a big fan of my copycat’s of Hooter’smedium and hot wing sauces.
Dipping
Blue cheese dressing or my copycat of Wingstop’sranch dressing make for great dipping sauces for your air-fried wings.
Cleaning up
I wipe my air fryer basket out after each ‘fry’. Every few cooks I’ll put the basket into the dishwasher for a good cleaning. But, I never put it directly into the dishwasher without wiping it out first. I don’t want all of that chicken grease in my dishwasher or my pipes. Check your air fryer’s cleaning recommendations for further information about cleaning your particular model.
Add wings to the fryer basket and cook for 10 minutes. Do not overlap the wings. Try to not let them touch each other or the sides of the basket so that they cook evenly.
Use tongs to remove the wings to a bowl. Sprinkle with your wing seasoning and toss to coat.
Return to the air fryer and continue cooking another 10 minutes or until the wings are golden brown.
Remove from the air fryer. Toss with more seasoning and/or sauce and serve.
Notes
Do not thaw the wings ahead of time. You will cook them directly from the freezer.
I’ve been wanting to make these charcoal grilled crispy Cajun wings for a while. It’s not that I don’t make wings over charcoal often. I do. But I use a thing called a Vortex BBQ. It helps me get amazingly crispy skin using very high temperatures. That’s not what I’m doing here, though. I wanted to prove that I can make fantastically crunchy skin wings without my Vortex. And boy did I. These great wings take just a little effort, just a little time, and come out fantastic. And the sauce is nothing to sneeze at either! These are great tasting wings too!
It’s Super Easy
There are just two simple steps to making charcoal grilled crispy Cajun wings. First, you need to air dry the wings coated in seasoned baking powder (not baking soda) overnight in a fridge on a wire rack. This helps dry out the skin, making it easier to get it crispy later. And second, when it comes time to cook the wings, make sure you have a pile of super-hot coals on just one side of your grill. That leaves you a less hot zone, called indirect grilling, to cook your wings without worrying about burning them. The high heat circulates around the wings helps crisp up the skin. And of course charcoal adds such a great flavor that you just can’t get in an air fryer, deep fryer or oven!
Don’t Forget The Sauce
Sure, you can use any sauce you want on these wings. But you’ll want to keep that Cajun theme going and make a batch of the sauce below. It has a nice spicy kick to it with a great flavor that compliments the seasoned wings perfectly.
I do still highly recommend a Vortex BBQ. It’s not only great for wings but also ‘fried’ chicken, ribs and oh so much more!
Place the wings in a large bowl or resealable container.
Combine the baking powder and Cajun seasoning.
Sprinkle half of the seasoning mix over the wings. Using your hands, toss the wings to coat.
Add the remaining seasoning and repeat.
Transfer the wings to a wire rack over a baking sheet. Place in the fridge 12 hours or overnight to dry out the skin.
Load up the charcoal chimney about 3/4ths of the way with charcoal and light. Once the charcoal is all lit and lightly covered in ash, dump the coals into the grill along one side. This will create two zones: a hot direct heat zone over the coals and a cooler indirect heat zone for the wings.
Add the charcoal grate and close the grill. Open the top and bottoms vents all the way. Let the grill preheat for 5.
Place the wings on the indirect heat side of the grill. Close the lid and turn so that the vent is above the wings.
Cook until the wings are lightly browned and crispy, usually 45 minutes. While the wings are cooking make the wing sauce.
Whenever my wife and I are in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, area we always make it a point to swing by a Pepper Palace store. They have several stores in the area, including a new one in Sevierville in an area called The Island. The store, as always, was busy, with people everywhere enjoying samples of the hot sauces and salsas, from the hot to the mild. Me, I headed straight to the wing sauces and in particular, Pepper Palace’s own line of Wing Master sauces, including this Garlic Parmesan wing sauce.
I couldn’t wait!
As soon as we returned from our trip I threw a few seasoned wings onto my Weber Performer grill outfitted with the Vortex insert. When the wings were done I tossed them with the Garlic Parmesan wing sauce and dug in. The sauce is mellow, cheesy, and definitely garlicky. Not overwhelmingly garlicky, but really good. Yes, there’s a slight wing sauce kick, but again, not overwhelming. It’s a very enjoyable sauce, and a favorite around our house. Furthermore, I definitely wish that I’d picked up a few more bottles!
Get to a Pepper Palace now!
Pepper Palace has a wide range of sauces, from the extremely hot to the nice and mellow. The Garlic Parmesan wing sauce is nice and mellow with not a lot of heat. I seasoned the wings with your standard Ranch dressing seasoning mix, which complemented the sauce flavors perfectly.
Pepper Palace makes a ton of great sauces and seasonings, not just for wings. Find a store near you and spend an hour or two wandering the shelves. They always have an area where you can sample sauces and spices, too. It’s like flavor heaven. Instead, if there’s not one near you, take a road trip (it’ll be worth it) or order online.
These fire-eater chicken wings from Steven Raichlen’s The Barbecue! Bible are absolutely amazing (as are the other recipes in the 575 page book). Yes, they have some kick, but it’s not overwhelming at all. They’re perfect. I plan on using the rub recipe on whole roasted chickens and turkey from my Big Easy, it’s just that good.
Great Flavor In Every Bite
I cooked the wings for about 30 minutes in my Char-Broil Big Easy, then I tossed them onto a hot grill for a few minutes to crisp up the skin. You can skip that final step and still enjoy really fantastic wings.
I served my Fired-Eater wings with plenty of Ranch dressing for dipping. But you can skip that dippin’ and just enjoy the tremendous wing flavors as they are!
I store my leftover homemade sauces in squeeze bottles. If refrigerated, I set them out an hour before using so they come to room temperature. You don’t want to put cold sauce on hot wings!
Oh how many thousands of wings have I eaten? I sure do love my wings. But you know, maybe a little something was missing. Once you get inside the wing, well, there’s just chicken. Good tasty moist chicken, sure. But no sauce. What if instead of tossing my wings with sauce I injected them with it instead? So I did. Buffalo sauce-injected wings are crazy good and fantastically different. Crispy skin on the outside with a burst of wing sauce in the middle. No lame wings here.
Different. And Cool.
I really enjoyed these Buffalo-sauce injected wings. It’s like I get the best of all the tastes. I get to enjoy my wing seasoning. None of it is diluted after the wing has been covered in sauce. And I get my wing sauce, and lots of it. I didn’t end up with a lake of sauce at the bottom of my plate. It was definitely a chicken wing win, and a real attention-getter at a party.
Of course, you don’t have to use just Buffalo wing sauce like I did. Any wing sauce will work, but you’ll want to try and use ones that are thin enough to make it through your injector. And don’t skimp on the injector either.
Insert an injector into the bottle of wing sauce and fill the injector. Alternatively, pour some of the sauce into a tall glass or cup and fill the injector from it.
Insert the end of the needle into each wing and gently push down on the plunger to fill the wing with sauce. Slowly remove the needle and inject the remaining wings. Serve.
Bourbon Street sauce has quickly become the go-to sauce in our house. It’s a very easy sauce to make, using ingredients I always have on hand. I put it on a lot of dishes, like these outstanding Bourbon Street wings. The sauce has a hint of Bourbon, with a little sweetness, and a little heat. Everything you want in a sauce.
A Great Sauce on More Than Wings
I make chicken wings in a variety of ways, from deep-fried, to cooked in my Char-Broil Big Easy, to grilled. I recently picked up a Vortex, an insert for your charcoal grill that really concentrates the heat, which makes it possible to make crispy, tasty wings on a grill. What a great invention!
I tossed a family pack (3 or 4 pounds) of wings with a little oil and our Fire-Eater rub and let them ‘get happy’ while I lit up the charcoal. Then the wings went onto the grill, while I made up a batch of Bourbon Street sauce. In less than an hour we were enjoying Bourbon Street wings, and moaning in delight over just how great they were.
I store my leftover homemade sauces in squeeze bottles. If refrigerated, I set them out an hour before using so they come to room temperature. You don’t want to put cold sauce on hot wings!
I love blackened chicken. I make a mean blackened chicken Alfredo dish. Being that I’ve been on a major chicken wing kick lately (ever since discovering dry wings), I wanted to get that great blackened seasoning flavor on a wing. And I did. Oh, did I. Blackened dry wings are truly a great thing. Spicy, with hints of onion and garlic. Great eats. I found myself licking all the seasoning off my fingers and still craving more.
More is Better
This is one time I was not shy with the seasoning on my blackened dry wings. I usually like to be a little light, just so I can still taste the chicken. But blackened seasoning has to be over-the-top. It can’t be done lightly or there just isn’t any point to it. After all, I love dry wings, and this is a great reason why. You get fantastically seasoned wings and you can taste it. Since there’s no sauce, the flavors aren’t buried away.
I fired up my Char-Broil Big Easy oil-less fryer, made these fabulous spicy Bayou Blast wings with a dipping sauce, and kicked back and enjoyed a great meal. There’s a little heat from the wings, but not too much. They’re nicely sauced, but not overly saucy. You know what I mean. No one wants wings that are swimming in a pool of sauce. You want just enough for flavor, enough to get your fingers messy. Them’s good wings.
Cooked Any Way, They’re Great
I’ll eat wings any time, anywhere, but wings like these Bayou Blast wings off my Char-Broil Big Easy are one of my favorites. It is the easiest tool in my grilling stable, though technically it isn’t a grill at all. It’s a load-and-go cooker so it doesn’t require constant attention or checking. I also love cooking wings in my air fryer, or on my charcoal grill. Or in the deep fryer. Or on the gas grill. Ok, I’ll eat wings cooked on anything!
These baked maple wings are a fantastic wing for a party. Any party. Or the big game. They are easy to make and come out tasting absolutely fantastic. If you make the recipe as stated the wings are slightly sweet, with a slight hint of spiciness. They are impossible to stop eating. The skin doesn’t get crunchy but it has a nice bite to it. Not ‘weird’ like some baked wings can get.
Make It Several Ways
The beauty of the recipe for these baked maple wings is that you can make a minor change or two and have slightly different wings. That’s what makes these so great for a party. You can make several batches at once, letting your guests decide what variation they prefer.
For a spicy version add more pepper flake or add some hot sauce. For a more Buffalo-inspired version, add a cup of Buffalo sauce. The sauce recipe is very flexible.
Twist And Turn
As easy as these wings are to make, make sure you don’t ignore the instructions to turn them every 20 minutes during the first part of the cook. During the second part, where you’re cooking them using higher heat, definitely don’t ignore the wings for long. They’ll get golden brown quick. A little color is great. But don’t burn them!
Place the wings in a large disposable pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet to help support the pan. Use the baking sheet to take the wings out of the oven and you don't have to worry about the disposable pan collapsing.
Combine all of the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and pour over the wings. Turn the wings to coat well.
Bake the wings for 1 hours, turning every 20 minutes.
Turn the oven up to 425 F.
Bake the wings for up to another 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes. You don't want the wings to burn. You want a nice golden color to them.
Remove wings to a platter and drizzle with the sauce from the pan.
