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Saucy, crispy Air Fryer Honey Hot Wings are the perfect sweet and spicy finger food for the big game, any type of party, or a light dinner! Pair it with carrots, celery sticks, ranch dressing, or your favorite dipping sauce.
Making these sweet and spicy chicken wings in the air fryer is a sure way to get the best crispy wings without unhealthy deep frying methods. It is sure to become one of your favorite Air Fryer Recipes.
Apart from preparing the orange-honey spicy sauce, this delicious Appetizer recipe requires no more from you than adding chicken wings to the air fryer and flipping them midway for maximum crispiness!
These Air Fryer Honey Hot wings are not your typical buffalo wings because they have a homemade sauce that you can make as spicy as you like with slight adjustments in the preparation of the Guajillo chilis, serve them as-is for tasty finger food, or add a side of veggies, rice, potato wedges, or whatever else your heart desires for a hearty family meal.
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Why This Recipe Works
- What You’ll Need To Make Air Fryer Chicken Wings
- Ingredients
- How To Make Air Fryer Honey Hot Wings
- Directions
- How Long To Cook Chicken Wings In The Air Fryer
- How To Make Honey Hot Wing Sauce
- Recipe Tips
- Variations
- What to Serve with Air Fryer Honey Hot Wings
- FAQs
- Recipe
- Reviews
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthy: Ditch the deep frying method and enjoy these air fryer spicy honey chicken wings for a much healthier meal option while still enjoying the same flavor profile and crispy texture as oil fried chicken wings.
- Budget-friendly Basic Ingredients: This recipe calls for basic ingredients that are inexpensive – great for a weekday family meal or when you're trying to be financially conservative without compromising on best flavors and textures.
- A favorite For Everyone: Who doesn't love spicy crispy chicken wings? They're loved by kids and adults alike, even the pickiest eaters, and are great as party snacks or to enjoy as a main meal! It's unlikely that you'll have any leftovers.
- Quick and Easy: You can have crispy air fryer spicy honey chicken wings ready to serve your family or guests within 35-40 minutes from start to finish!
Why This Recipe Works
- Easy Instructions. You can easily follow along with my simple step-by-step recipe instructions with photos to ensure that you end up making the best tasting air fryer spicy honey chicken wings!
- Recipe Tips. Pro recipe tips and questions have been added for your convenience, particularly helpful if you've never cooked chicken wings in an air fryer before.
- Recipe Variations. I've included recipe variations and suggestions on how you can adapt these air fryer spicy honey chicken wings as a helpful guide and inspiration for your own cooking efforts!
- Serving suggestions are listed below should you want to pair these air fryer spicy honey chicken wings with delicious side dishes that will easily bulk up the meal – great if you are serving a larger crowd.
- Tried and True Recipe. I've been making air fryer spicy honey chicken wings for the Super Bowl, parties, and as a delicious addition to backyard barbecue meals for quite some time which means that you can trust that I'm guiding you from tried and true techniques and processes.
What You’ll Need To Make Air Fryer Chicken Wings
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- Food Processor or Blender.
- Air Fryer. I used a Ninja Foodi Air Fryer for this recipe.
- Chef's Knife
- Cutting Board
- Saucepan
- Serving Platter
- Bowl
Ingredients
Below, I discuss the ingredients and possible substitutions if you don't have a specific ingredient. However, if you are looking for the specific measurements of each ingredient, scroll down to the bottom of this article, just above the comments, for the printable recipe card, which includes all the ingredients and the specific amounts of each one.
Chicken Wings
- Olive oil. You could also use avocado oil or your favorite oil of choice.
- Chicken wings. Always opt for high quality chicken wings for best overall flavor and texture. You can use whole wings, or just drummettes, or even boneless wings, whichever you prefer.
- Salt and Pepper. Adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. I recommend starting with a little, maybe a 1/4 teaspoon each and then adding each until you like it. You can always add more salt and pepper but you can never take it away.
Honey Hot Wing Sauce
Since this chicken wing recipe does not use buffalo sauce, and instead uses a homemade sweet and spicy sauce, it will require a few additional ingredients.
- Orange Juice. The addition of orange juice in the sauce for these air fryer chicken wings is true to Chinese-American orange chicken recipes.
- Lime Juice. Be sure to use the fresh juice of limes rather than the bottled variety. It'll always be better tasting.
- Guajillo Chilis. These will need to be cleaned with no seeds or veins, unless you want these peppers to be very spicy – then leave two of them with seeds and veins. If you can't find these chilis, the next best option would be Ancho chilis.
- Apple Cider Vinegar. I recommend using apple cider vinegar. However, you could also use white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar.
- Paprika. You can use smoked paprika or regular paprika.
- Garlic – I recommend using garlic cloves instead of minced garlic. It is all going to be going in a blender or food processor. So you can save yourself some work.
- Onion. I used a white onion. However, a sweet onion, yellow onion, or Vidalia onion would work. I would save any green onions for a garnish.
- Water.
- Honey.
How To Make Air Fryer Honey Hot Wings
Directions
How Long To Cook Chicken Wings In The Air Fryer
- Clean the chicken wings and place in a medium bowl. Pat them dry with a paper towel. Season them with salt and pepper, together with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Mix until evenly combined.
- Preheat your air fryer to 390 degrees and for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how crispy you want them.
- Place the wings in a single layer on the air fryer rack and begin cooking once it is preheated. (If you have a small air fryer, work in batches if needed.)
How To Make Honey Hot Wing Sauce
- In a small saucepan add the guajillo chilis with 1/2 cup of water and let it boil for 6 minutes.
- Pour the chilies with the water that is left in the saucepan into a blender, Vitamix, or food processor.
- Blend together with the lime juice, and vinegar, orange juice, garlic, onion, and paprika into a blender or vitamix.
- Blend until smooth.
- In a medium saucepan, add one tablespoon of olive oil.
- Use a strainer to make sure you remove any pieces of chili, so it is completely smooth.
- Let it the saucepan heat up and pour the sauce into the pan and heat over low heat until it thickens a bit, about 10 minutes. Stirring constantly.
- While it’s heating up, add in the honey, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Mix until combined.
- Remove the chicken wings from the air fryer and place them into a large mixing bowl. Pour the sauce on top and toss until evenly covered. Serve immediately.
Recipe Tips
- If you don't have an air fryer you can still fry your chicken wings in oil in a pan or bake them at 350F in the oven for 25 minutes.
- You only need to spray the air fryer basket lightly with cooking spray or a brush of olive oil. No need to overdo it.
- Spread the chicken wings out on the air fryer basket with adequate space between them so that they can crisp evenly without overcrowding. You may need to cook in batches depending on the size of your air fryer basket and how many chicken wings you intend to make.
- Leftover stored air fryer spicy honey chicken wings can be reheated in the air fryer at 350F for 7-10 minutes or in the oven at 350F for 20-25 or until heated through.
- Flipping the chicken wings half way through the air frying time will ensure that you get a beautiful crispy crunch on all sides of the wings.
Variations
- If Chinese-American spicy honey chicken wings aren't your favorite, pair a different sauce like a BBQ sauce with these crispy air fried chicken wings.
- Make a honey sriracha sauce to coat your air fryer chicken wings by combining melted butter, honey, sriracha sauce, soy sauce, and lime juice.
- Increase the level of spicy heat in these spicy honey chicken wings by keeping the seeds and veins in the Guajillo chilis and adding a tablespoon (or two) of sriracha to the sauce.
- Make the sauce of this air fryer spicy honey chicken wings recipe very mild by removing all of the seeds and veins from the chilis.
What to Serve with Air Fryer Honey Hot Wings
These air fryer spicy honey chicken wings are saucy enough so there's no need to serve them alongside any dipping sauce. In fact, these air fryer chicken wings are absolutely divine on their own as a great snack while watching a game of football or when entertaining guests. Simply garnish with cilantro and serve with blue cheese dressing. These Honey Hot Wings are delicious with my Meatball Pizza.
If you intend to serve these air fryer spicy honey chicken wings as a tasty main meal, consider adding a side of air-fried vegetables such as cauliflower, carrots, or broccoli.
FAQs
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY CHICKEN IS COOKED THROUGH?
The last thing you want is to be serving raw chicken wings to your guests or the family! If you're unsure whether your chicken is cooked through, take an instant-read thermometer and test the chicken by inserting the thermometer in its thickest section.
The internal temperature of the chicken wings should be at least 165℉ for them to be safe to eat.
HOW SHOULD I STORE THESE AIR FRYER SPICY HONEY CHICKEN WINGS?
You can store leftover air-fried chicken wings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze them for up to one month.
CAN I MAKE THESE AIR-FRIED CHICKEN WINGS AHEAD OF TIME?
Yes, you can. I recommend that you cook the chicken wings in the air fryer to store in the refrigerator for a few days, leaving the addition of sauce just after reheating the wings for serving purposes.
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Recipe
Ingredients
Air Fryer Chicken Wings
- 2.2 pounds of chicken wings
- 1/2 teaspoon each Salt and Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon of Olive oil
Honey Hot Wing Sauce
- ½ cup of orange juice
- Juice of 3 limes
- 6 Guajillo chilis cleaned with no seeds or veins. If you want them spicy, leave two of them with the seeds. It is important to see my notes for this.
- 2 Tablespoons of paprika
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons of apple vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 Tablespoons of chopped onion
- 1/2 cup of water
- 2 Tablespoons of honey
Instructions
Air Fry Chicken Wings
- Clean the chicken wings and place in a medium bowl. Season them with salt and pepper, together with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Mix until evenly combined.
- Preheat your air fryer to 390 degrees and for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how crispy you want them. Place the wings in one layer on the air fryer rack and begin cooking once it is preheated. (If you have a small air fryer, work in batches if needed.)
Spicy Honey Wing Sauce
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan add the guajillo chilis with 1/2 cup of water and let it boil for 6 minutes.
- Pour the chilies with the water left in the sauce pan, together with the garlic, onion, paprika, orange juice, lime juice, and vinegar into a blender or vitamix. Blend until smooth. Use a strainer to make sure you remove any pieces of chili, so it is completely smooth.
- In a medium saucepan, add one tablespoon of olive oil. Let it heat up and pour the sauce into the pan and heat over low heat until it thickens a bit, about 10 minutes. Stirring constantly. While it’s heating up, add in the honey, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Mix until combined.
- Remove the chicken wings from the air fryer and place them into a large mixing bowl. Pour the sauce on top and toss until evenly covered. Serve immediately.
Claudia Lamascolo says
These air-fried wings are fantastic and so much easier and healthy just love them.
Dannii says
I love the colour on these. Such a great way to use the air fryer.
Ieva says
Hi, I am a complete novice at cooking in an air-fryer (only had it a couple of months), but these wings turned out amazing! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂