Oven-Fried Breaded Chicken Wings

These oven-fried breaded chicken wings are a family-favorite because of they’re crunchy outside and juicy inside. Bonus: they’re super-easy to make!

Why Should I Bake Breaded Wings?

These are oven-baked for a couple of simple reasons. 

• Amount of oil needed. Deep-fried chicken wings taste great but that uses a lot of oil and can cause a smell in the house. 
• No need to work in batches. You can only fry 8-10 wing pieces at a time. If I’m cooking for my family, I don’t want to stand over a fryer doing multiple batches. This way, they cook in the oven all at the same time and it’s hands off.

If you love baking your wings, you’ll also want to try our recipes for BBQ baked chicken wings and zesty lemon pepper chicken wings.

What Do I Bread Chicken Wings With?

This breading is similar to what we use for shake and bake chicken. The oil is mixed with the bread crumbs, instead of being sprayed on or applied after breading. This ensures that each crumb is coated in a very small amount of that helps it to brown and crisp up really well.

You could bread the wings by putting the breading in a bag and tossing, however, I find that the breading is quite wet with the oil and it needs a little help sticking on. Plus, I don’t like to dirty a zip-top bag when I’ve already got a bowl I’m using. Once the wings are baked, the breading stays on perfectly. But it just needs that little push explained in the recipe to really stick well, which is what I do for my Breaded Boneless Wings as well.

How To Make Oven-Fried Breaded Chicken Wings

Start by preheating your oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with an oven-safe wire rack. Oil rack lightly to help prevent the wings from sticking. Use our how to cut chicken wings guide to cut the wings into drums, flats, and wing tips. Discard the wing tips or save them for a future use such as using to make chicken stock.

Note that the breading mixture in the recipe makes enough for 10 wings. What we mean is 10 wings that you have cut into drums and flats, discarding the wing tips. You can instead leave them whole, just note that there may not be enough breading since you are also coating the tips. You tehrefore should make an extra half batch of breading. Similarly, make extra if your wings are particularly large.

In a large bowl, make your breading mixture by combining the plain bread crumbs, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and cayenne. Add the oil and stir well until it’s thoroughly mixed and looks like wet sand. It is best to use an oil with a neutral flavor like grapeseed oil or vegetable oil rather than something with more pronounced flavor like olive oil.

Put 3-4 wing pieces into the bowl at a time. Spoon some bread crumb mixture over them and pat down to help bread crumbs adhere to the wings. This gets a better coating on them than a simple toss in the mix. Flip and repeat so they are fully covered in a light coating. Transfer coated wings to prepared baking rack. Repeat with all wings.

It might seem like the crumb coating will come off since there is nothing sticking it to the wings other than a bit of dampness and the pressure you applied. But don’t worry – once the wings are done, that coating is firmly on there.

Bake the breaded chicken wings at 425°F until cooked through to an internal temperature of 165°F and well-browned, 40-45 minutes.

Serve with your favorite dips like blue cheese or ranch dressing or make some of our homemade buffalo sauce to go with your oven fried chicken wings.

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