Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Wings Recipe: Best Method!

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Crispy buffalo wings are synonymous with football season. They're the perfect appetizer for your game day celebrations! This recipe is my favorite way to make chicken wings for many reasons:

• Foolproof method for crispy baked buffalo chicken wings utilizes the Instant Pot to pre-cook the wings and the air fryer to crisp the skins.
• Easy clean up. Less mess than deep fried wings.
• Fall-off-the-bone tender.
• Gluten-free and grain-free, suitable for someone with celiac disease or a gluten-intolerance.
• No breading, which means no flour, baking soda, or cornstarch.
• Toss in your favorite sauce: classic buffalo wing sauce, garlic-parmesan sauce, or my tasty, semi-homemade Honey Sriracha BBQ sauce.

Planning a super bowl party? Check out this gluten-free game day menu for more gluten-free ideas, like this gluten-free chili or Chicago-style shredded Italian beef. Both are absolute crowd pleasers!

Methods for Cooking Chicken Wings

I have tried so many methods for making crispy chicken wings and to me there was a clear winner.

• Deep Fryer: This method is a classic, but deep frying anything tends to be a mess.
• Baked: This is a common alternative but in my opinion, they never get quite crisp enough, unless you have a convection oven.
• Air Fryer: The air fryer actually does an awesome job at making crispy wings. The only downside was the wings render out so much fat while they are cooking that it is quite a mess.
• Instant Pot to Air Fryer: This is my preferred method. The idea is to pre-cook the wings in the instant pot. This renders out a lot of the fat and cooks the wings. Then you transfer them to the Air Fryer to crisp up the skins. The result is a crispy wing without so much of the mess.

*If you don't have an instant pot or air fryer, you can still make this recipe. Check the FAQ's below for modifications!

Equipment

Need and Instant Pot or Air Fryer? Here are the ones I use and love and some more recipe inspiration that uses them.

• Get my Instant Pot: Make corn on the cob in the instant pot and you'll never make it any other way. These gluten-free chicken tinga tostadas are so easy and a family favorite!
• Get my Air Fryer: Make some gluten-free cheese curds, just like Culver's or some gluten-free chicken nuggets that get nice and crispy in the air fryer! Air fryer shrimp is another super simple dinner idea!

Simple Ingredients

• Chicken wings: You can use either fresh or frozen wings.
  • Often times you can find party wings in the freezer section, which are already separated.
  • If you purchased whole chicken wings, you will need to separate them into pieces; the drummettes, wingettes, and then discard the wing tips.
  • If you don't know how to separate whole wings, this article shows you how to separate the wings.
• Sauce of choice: You can use store-bought sauce or make your own, it's really up to you.
  • If using a store-bought sauce, always check the labels to make sure it's gluten-free.
  • Also, see below for five simple sauces you can make at home!

*Find the full list of ingredients in the recipe card below!

1. Homemade Buffalo Sauce:

• ½ cup hot sauce (like Frank's RedHot)
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Mix the hot sauce, melted butter, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the sauce until they're evenly coated. Serve this classic appetizer with Ranch dressing or Bleu Cheese dressing.

2. Spicy Honey BBQ Sauce:

• ½ cup bbq sauce
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions:
Combine the barbecue sauce, melted butter, honey, apple cider vinegar, sriracha, and garlic in a bowl. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the sauce until well coated.

3. Teriyaki Glaze:

• ¼ cup gluten-free soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• Optional: sesame seeds and chopped green onions for garnish

Instructions:
Whisk together the soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, grated ginger, and minced garlic in a bowl. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the teriyaki glaze and garnish with sesame seeds and chopped green onions.

4. Garlic Parmesan Sauce:

• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon dried parsley
• ¼ teaspoon fine salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:
Combine the grated Parmesan cheese, melted butter, garlic powder, dried parsley, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the sauce until they're coated with the cheesy mixture.

5. Lemon Pepper Sauce:

• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 fresh lemon)
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon fine salt

Instructions:
Whisk together the butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the lemon pepper sauce until they're well covered.

Store Bought Gluten-Free Wing Sauces

If you're not feeling up to making a homemade wing sauce, like this epic homemade gluten-free ranch dip, there are plenty of gluten-free options available. Many are dairy-free as well. Some popular choices with great flavor are:

• Frank's Original Buffalo Wing Sauce
• Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce
• Noble Made Buffalo Sauce
• Kinder's Buffalo Wing Sauce

How to Make Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Wings

Step 1: Pre-Cook the Wings in the Instant Pot

1. Place the wings in the Instant Pot fitted with a trivet.
2. Pour in 1 cup of water.
3. Put the lid on and turn to sealing.
4. Set to Manual or Poultry for 5 min.
5. After a 10-15 min natural release (NPR), flip the valve to venting and remove the lid.

Step 2: Crisp Up the Wings in the Air Fryer

1. Remove the wings from the Instant Pot allowing any excess liquid drip off.
2. Place chicken wings in a single layer the air fryer basket. Cook in batches if necessary.
3. Set the air fryer to 400°F and cook for 10-15 min, shaking occasionally.
4. Cook the wings until they reach your desired crispiness.

Step 3: Toss in Your Favorite Sauce

Now it's time to sauce them up! As soon as you remove the wings from the air fryer, place them in a large bowl, toss them in your favorite wing sauce, and serve immediately.

Recipe FAQ's

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