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    Home » Recipes » Appetizers & Snacks

    Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Wings Recipe: Best Method!

    Published: Jan 8, 2019 · Updated: Aug 15, 2023 by Katie Olesen · This post may contain affiliate links, through which I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

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    Crispy gluten free chicken wings in bowl.
    A platter of gluten free chicken wings in spicy honey barbecue sauce.

    These gluten-free chicken wings are better than deep fried and finger-licking good! Utilize the Instant Pot to air fryer method for the most crispy wings at home without the deep fryer. Once baked, toss the wings in a traditional buffalo sauce, spicy honey barbecue sauce, or any of your favorite gluten-free sauces!

    A platter of gluten free chicken wings in a barbecue sauce garnished with green onion.
    Jump to:
    • Why You'll Love This Recipe
    • Methods for Cooking Chicken Wings
    • Equipment
    • Simple Ingredients
    • Simple Sauce Recipes for Chicken Wings
    • Store Bought Gluten-Free Wing Sauces
    • How to Make Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Wings
    • Top Tips
    • Recipe FAQ's
    • More Gluten-Free Recipes You'll Love
    • Recipe
    • Comments and Ratings

    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!

    Crispy gluten free chicken wings in bowl.

    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: These gluten-free cheese curds are just like Culver's! These gluten-free chicken nuggets get nice and crispy in the air fryer!

    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!

    Simple Sauce Recipes for Chicken Wings

    Here are a few simple sauce recipes that you can easily make at home to toss chicken wings in:

    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.

    1. 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.

    1. 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.

    1. 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.

    1. 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.

    Gluten free chicken wing with bite taken.

    Store Bought Gluten-Free Wing Sauces

    If you're not feeling up to making a homemade wing sauce, 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.
    Chicken wings in an instant pot, set to 5 min, showing raw then cooked.

    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.
    Chicken wings in air fryer basket.

    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.

    Dousing chicken wings in sauce.

    Top Tips

    • You can cook the fresh or fully frozen wings in the instant pot.
    • Pre-cook the wings in the instant pot up to one day in advance. Then, keep refrigerated until ready to air fry.  

    Recipe FAQ's

    What if I don't have an air fryer?

    Place the wings on a large rimmed baking sheet, lined with parchment paper and fitted with a wire rack. Place the chicken wings in a single layer on the wire rack. Bake the wings in 450°F oven, using the convection setting if you have it, 10-15 minutes or until the wings are cooked through and crispy. Turn the wings halfway through the cooking time.

    What if I don't have an instant pot?

    Par-boil the wings in boiling salted water for about 7 minutes. Drain and pat the wings dry with paper towels before proceeding to the next step.

    A platter of gluten free chicken wings in spicy honey barbecue sauce.

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    Recipe

    Crispy gluten free chicken wings in bowl.

    Crispy Gluten-Free Chicken Wings: Best Method!

    Katie Olesen
    Indulge in gluten-free chicken wings, tender and crispy! Coat them in your favorite buffalo sauce or our zesty honey barbecue sauce recipe!
    5 from 1 vote
    Pin Recipe Print Recipe Save Saved!
    Prep Time 20 minutes mins
    Cook Time 20 minutes mins
    NPR 15 minutes mins
    Total Time 50 minutes mins
    Course Appetizer, Main Course
    Diet Gluten Free
    Servings 24 wings (approximately)
    Calories 65 kcal
    Prevent your screen from going dark.

    Ingredients
      

    • 2 pounds chicken wings, portioned into drummette and wingette, tip discarded
    • 1 jar preferred sauce, or sauce ingredients (as listed below)

    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
     

    Prepare Spicy Honey BBQ Sauce:

    • Mix sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

    Pre-Cook Wings in Instant Pot:

    • Place trivet in Instant Pot.
    • Pour in 1 cup of water and place the wings on a trivet.
    • Seal lid, press Poultry or Manual, set timer for 5 min.
    • After 10-15 minutes of natural pressure release, release valve.

    Finish in Air Fryer:

    • Remove the wings from the Instant Pot, drain excess liquid.
    • Place wings in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Cook in batches if needed.
    • Set air fryer to 400°F, cook 10-15 min, shaking occasionally.
    • Remove wings when they are crispy and golden-brown, toss immediately in prepared or preferred sauce.
    • Serve immediately.

    Notes

    • Pre-cook the wings in the instant pot a day in advance and keep refrigerated until ready to air fry.  
    • You can use fully frozen or fresh wings in the Instant Pot step.
     

    Nutrition

    Calories: 65kcal
    Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and star rating below!

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    1. Ashlee

      November 29, 2019 at 5:11 am

      What if I don’t have an instant pot or air fryer?

      Reply
      • Katie Olesen

        December 02, 2019 at 10:00 am

        You can make the wings according to your favorite method and use the sauce to coat them.

        Reply
    2. Kathy

      May 30, 2019 at 5:43 pm

      5 stars
      Great idea on using Instant Pot first, and frozen wings! Mine turned out perfect. My wings went from freezer to table in less than a half hour. Yay!

      Reply
      • Katie Olesen

        May 30, 2019 at 5:46 pm

        Woohoo! Glad you liked it!

        Reply

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    Crispy gluten free chicken wings in bowl.
    A platter of gluten free chicken wings in spicy honey barbecue sauce.
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    Hi, I'm Katie! I'm the blogger behind Wheat by the Wayside. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2018 and have been following a strict gluten-free diet ever since. The goal of WBTW is to share tried and tested, easy, and delicious gluten-free recipes to give you confidence in the kitchen! 

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