What You’ll Need

Chicken Wings – Pick up 3 pounds of either drums, flats, or a combination of both for this chicken wing recipe. I typically reach for the “party pack” of wings at the grocery store, but honestly anything you can find/prefer will work. Once you unwrap your chicken wings, make sure you pat each wing dry with a paper towel before cooking. Getting the wings as dry as possible will ensure they bake up super crispy in the oven (or air fryer!).

Lemon Pepper Seasoning – You can either purchase a jar of lemon pepper seasoning, or simply make it yourself! I couldn’t find any pre-made seasoning near me, so I quickly threw together a homemade batch of my own. To do this, I cooked lemon peels in the oven at 170° Fahrenheit for 1 hour until super dried out. Then, I added the peels to a blender along with some whole black peppercorns and a pinch of salt. There are plenty of lemon pepper seasoning recipes out their on the internet, so do a little research and follow one that’s easiest for you! Or, of course, just buy lemon pepper seasoning from the store if you’d like.

Top Tips

Don’t crowd your baking sheet/rack with chicken wings before baking. Place each wing at least an inch apart to ensure that all sides crisp up evenly!

Switch up this lemon pepper chicken wings recipe however you’d like! For a little more spice, add in an extra pinch of freshly cracked black pepper. For extra tang, finish off with an extra squeeze of lemon juice. And for a bit more sweetness, use an additional teaspoon or two of honey!

Avoid using frozen chicken wings! If your wings are frozen, thaw them completely in the fridge before baking.

Adjust This Recipe to Your Dietary Needs

Make it Dairy-Free: Sub the melted butter in this recipe for non-dairy butter to have a completely dairy-free and delicious appetizer!

Make it Paleo: For paleo lemon pepper chicken wings, simply use ghee instead of butter and make your own seasoning by drying out lemon peels in the oven and grinding them with black peppercorns and salt.

How to Cook Chicken Wings in the Air Fryer

Pat chicken wings dry with a paper towel, then add to a bowl along with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Toss to coat wings in oil and seasoning.

Transfer chicken wings to air fryer tray or basket in an even layer (work in batches if necessary), cook at 360° Fahrenheit for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, flip the wings over then cook for another 12 minutes.

Once all wings are cooked and crispy, toss in your homemade lemon pepper sauce and enjoy!

The Best Baked Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings

5 from 2 votes

Recipe by Samantha Course: AppetizersDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes

Incredibly zesty lemon pepper chicken wings are super quick and easy to make in the comfort of your own home! Bake ’em in the oven or air fryer, then finish off with a simple 4-ingredient lemon pepper sauce. These wings are irresistibly crispy and loaded with delicious flavor!

Ingredients

For the wings:
3 pounds chicken wings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For the lemon pepper sauce:
1/4 cup melted butter, I used non-dairy
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons lemon juice
chopped parsley, for serving
lemons, sliced

Directions

Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with foil, and top with a wire baking rack.
Pat chicken wings dry with a paper towel, then add to a bowl along with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Toss to coat wings in oil and seasoning.
Transfer wings to an even layer on the prepared baking sheet with baking rack and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Mix together all lemon pepper sauce ingredients in a large bowl, then once wings are cooked toss them in the sauce until evenly coated.

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Like this recipe?

These air fryer buffalo chicken wings are incredibly crispy and EXPLODING with flavor. This recipe features both air-fried and oven-baked options, along with a dairy-free buffalo sauce. With just a few simple steps, you’ll have healthier restaurant-quality buffalo chicken wings.

I love restaurant buffalo chicken wings, but restaurant buffalo chicken wings don’t love me. Can anyone relate?? Time and time again I’d order buffalo chicken wings while out to dinner and end up with a massive stomach ache. I think it was a bad combination of them being deep-fried, then smothered in a spicy dairy-filled sauce. So what did I do? I stopped ordering/eating buffalo chicken wings. But, man did I miss them!

Then I got my hands on an air fryer and ran through all of the possible recipes I could create using it …and that’s when it happened. Air fryer buffalo chicken wings, I thought! YES. Once I set my mind on a new recipe, it’s gotta happen. Lucky for me, I nailed these wings on my first try. The air fryer truly makes the entire process SO easy. So finally, for the first time in a very VERY long time, I was able to enjoy my buffalo chicken wings sans stomach ache!

What You Need To Make Crispy Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Wings

Chicken Wings -There are two kinds of chicken wings, a drumette and a flat. They’re both cut from the wing of a chicken, but yield a different shape and slightly different tastes. A drumette will taste a bit more mild and is made up of mostly white meat, whereas a flat is entirely dark meat and has more flavor. If you ask me, you need both on a plate of chicken wings. But I know some people prefer one kind over the other. Use whichever cut you’d like in this recipe!

Non-Dairy Butter – Any and all non-dairy butters will work in this recipe. I prefer Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter, it is just all-around a superior non-dairy butter in my opinion. And if you’re not dairy-free, go ahead and use regular butter instead.

Hot Sauce – Most people and recipes will tell you that Frank’s RedHot is the only way to go with buffalo sauce. But I’d argue that any hot sauce will work. I used Cholula Original hot sauce in my buffalo sauce and it came out incredibly tasty! The only recommendation I’d make when picking a hot sauce, is to go for something a bit thicker in consistency. This will contribute to a thick buffalo sauce that clings to your wings.

Honey – This is my secret ingredient, it really does take these air fryer buffalo chicken wings to the next level. All that spice needs something to balance it out, and honey does the trick. Trust me, it’ll just be that ingredient in there that has people saying, WOW this is soooo good.

Adjust This Recipe To Your Dietary Needs

Make it Vegan: Use cauliflower instead of chicken wings! Chop a head of cauliflower into florets, keep the recipe the same except reduce the cook time to 15-20 minutes. You can also substitute maple syrup for the honey in the buffalo sauce.
Make it Paleo: Use ghee instead of non-dairy butter and your favorite paleo hot sauce.
Add Dairy: Feel free to use regular butter instead of non-dairy butter in this recipe!

Crispy Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Wings (GF/DF)

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Samantha Russo Course: AppetizersCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes