We found the secret to crispy chicken wings and we’re sharing it with you in this air fryer Honey Garlic Chicken Wing recipe. They’re a good enough excuse to gather friends for a party.
Have you heard of KFC before? No, not the red and white chicken in a bucket. The real KFC. Korean Fried Chicken. It’s crispy and crunchy and majorly delicious.
Secret To Crunchy Chicken Wings
We found out the delicious secret: potato starch! Potato starch is traditionally used in Korean Fried Chicken and it gives an incredibly crunchy crust to the wings. We dove a little bit into the science behind why the starch makes the wings so crispy. It gets a little wonky, but according to Cook’s Illustrated, there are two main reasons that the starch results in crispy foods. The most simplistic reason (and all we really need to know here) is that starch absorbs water, then when it’s cooked, the starch molecules are “locked into place”, which results in a rigid structure, aka the crunchy coating.
If you love crunchy wings, you’ve got to try out this method. The tricks for getting the best Crispy Chicken Wings in your air fryer apply here, too. Don’t overcrowd the basket and cook at two temperatures so that the wings have time to cook evenly and THEN get crispy.
Print
Air Fryer Honey Garlic Chicken Wings
We found the secret to crispy chicken wings and we’re sharing it with you in this air fryer Honey Garlic Chicken Wing recipe. They’re a good enough excuse to gather friends for a party.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 pieces 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ lbs. chicken wings
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- ¼ cup potato starch
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 3 Tbsp. honey
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. red pepper flakes (less if you don’t want it spicy)
Instructions
- Toss wings with soy sauce and set aside.
- Preheat air fryer for a few minutes. Put the potato starch in a large zip top plastic bag and add wings to bag. Shake until wings are evenly coated with potato starch. Grease air fryer basket with a bit of oil (don’t use cooking spray!) and arrange wings in basket, shaking off any excess potato starch and being careful not to crowd the basket. Cook in batches if necessary.
- Cook at 360°F for 12 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 12 minutes. Turn temperature up to 400°F and cook another 5-6 minutes to crisp.
- Microwave garlic and butter for 30 seconds, or until melted. Stir in honey and season with a pinch of salt and red pepper flakes. Toss wings in sauce and serve.
This post originally appeared in December 2018 and was revised and republished in June 2020.
Leave a Reply