Air Fryer Whole Chicken Wings

Make air fryer whole chicken wings super crispy and tender, perfectly seasoned and coated with a buttery Frank's Red Hot Sauce. We also give you lots of other seasoning ideas for a variety of options that are a Whole Lotta Yum!

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Whole chicken wings in air fryer

In this classic version, we took the full size chicken wings (instead of the smaller wingettes and drumettes) and cooked them up in a classic buttery buffalo sauce. They're terrific as an appetizer or for a quick and easy dinner.

Honestly, cooking the entire wing is so much easier than trying to trim it into wingettes and drumettes! Plus it's just sort of fun to eat a extra large, super juicy and crispy wing instead of the smaller morsels.

There are SO many ways to season these wings, so feel free to just use our air fryer chicken wings temperature and cooking time for whole chicken wings and add your favorite seasoning. NOTE: We do give you a TON of seasoning ideas further down, so keep reading for inspo!

Another option would be to use our chicken wing dry rub and to coat them with BBQ sauce, we make this version just as often. Regardless of which seasoning and sauce idea you use, wings are always delish served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing (or Ranch dressing)!

Looking for even more air fryer chicken wing recipes? Try our lemon pepper air fryer wings, air fryer boneless wings, air fryer chicken wings dry rub, and air fryer frozen chicken wings.

What you'll need

Fresh chicken wings, a few kitchen basics, and your favorite buffalo sauce are all that you need to air fry delicious buffalo whole chicken wings.

ingredients for how to air fry whole wings

whole chicken wings (also known as full chicken wings) - often wings are separated into wingettes and drumettes. You can still use those too for this recipe, they just might take a little less time to cook.
extra virgin olive oil - avocado oil works well too and has a high smoking point, which makes it a great alternative for the air fryer
sea salt - fine sea salt was used in the recipe. If you only have common table salt like Morton's it's about 25% stronger than sea salt and you might want to cut back a bit.
ground black pepper
Frank's Red Hot Sauce - or your favorite brand of buffalo sauce, either the regular kind or the buffalo wings sauce. This is optional, the wings are perfectly seasoned without it.
unsalted butter - melted
we didn't add garlic powder, but a sprinkle of that would be tasty as well

Get the full quantities and instructions down in the recipe card

More seasoning ideas

Some of these seasoning ideas are for other air fryer chicken wings recipes, others are just general ideas that would be easy to guestimate. Either way, whether you prefer sweet or savory wings, we got you covered.

With a dry rub: You can add this before adding the Frank's or you can just make dry rub whole wings.
BBQ: Use a dry rub and coat the air fryer chicken wings with BBQ sauce in the last minute or two.
Season with lemon pepper like we did in our honey lemon pepper wings
Use store-bought seasoning like McCormick's
Use Cajun seasoning like we did in our baked Cajun wings.
Garlic parmesan: Combine grated Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, parsley, salt, and a bit of olive oil.
Honey garlic: Mix honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, and ginger for a sweet and savory flavor. Honey burns quickly in an air fryer so we'd recommend adding this towards the end of the cooking time.
Teriyaki: skip the hot sauce and brush on teriyaki sauce during the last 1-2 minutes

Equipment

An Air Fryer- We used a Cosori air fryer, we also have an Instant Pot Omni Plus oven style air fryer and a small 3.2L Farberware basket style air fryer. Either an air fryer basket style or air fryer oven works with this recipe.

How to cook whole chicken wings in air fryer

cooking air fry whole chicken wings in the air fryer basket

Step 1: Preheat the air fryer to 400 F for 5 minutes. Pat the chicken wings dry with paper towels to remove the excess moisture and to get crispy wings.

Step 2: In a medium-sized bowl, add the whole chicken wings, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Mix to combine.

How long to cook whole chicken wings in the air fryer?

Step 3: Spread the wings in an even, single layer in the air fryer basket, leaving room on all sides. Air fry the wings topside down at 400 F for 9 minutes and then flip them over.

Step 4: Continue air frying the chicken wings for 8-10 additional minutes until they're cooked completely and crispy.

Step 5: Meanwhile, melt the butter in either a microwave or on low in a small saucepan on the stove. Combine the melted butter and the Frank's Red Hot Sauce and then add the wings until coated with the sauce.

Step 6: Add the wings back to the air fryer for 1-2 more minutes. Serve the air fryer chicken wings immediately with blue cheese and celery sticks. Enjoy!

whole chicken wings in air fryer on a black plate ready to serve

Recipe tips for air fried chicken wings

Don't skip patting the chicken wings with paper towels, this really helps make sure your chicken wings get extra crispy.
If you have extra time, you can brine the chicken wings to get extra juicy meat.
We always preheat our air fryer while we're prepping ingredients. This helps to cook food evenly. If you skip the preheat, you'll need to add more cooking time to the recipe.
Do not overlap your chicken wings and be sure to give them some space in the air fryer unit so your wings will cook up and crisp properly.
Air fryer models cook differently, the first time you go to make a recipe, check the temperature a couple of minutes early by chance your model cooks hotter than our test recipe.

More Chicken Wings Recipes

Most of these are air fryer chicken wings, a couple are baked in the oven.

Be sure to join our healthy recipes email list to get lots of meal prep ideas, plus free meal planning printables. We're here to make meal time simple!

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📖 Recipe

Air Fryer Whole Wings

Easy and crispy air fryer whole wings cook up super fast and are easier than cutting up whole wings yourself at home! Coated in seasoning and a buttery buffalo wings sauce, you'll love air frying whole chicken wings as an appetizer or for a simple dinner.

Course Air Fryer

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Total Time 25

Servings -7 whole wings

Author Jen @ Whole Lotta Yum

Ingredients

1.25 lb whole chicken wings
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
½ cup unsalted butter melted

Instructions

Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes.
Pat the chicken wings dry with paper towels. In a medium sized bowl add the whole chicken wings, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Mix to combine.
Spread the wings in an even layer in the air fryer basket, leaving room on all sides. Air fry the wings topside down for 9 minutes and then flip them over.
Continue air frying the chicken wings for 8-10 more minutes until they're cooked and crispy. Meanwhile, melt the butter in either a microwave or on low in a small saucepan on the stove.
Combine the melted butter and the Frank's Red Hot Sauce and then add the wings until coated with the sauce.
Add the wings back to the air fryer for 1-2 more minutes.
Serve immediately with blue cheese and celery sticks.

Notes

If you only have regular salted butter, omit the sea salt in the recipe, otherwise the wings can turn out a little too salty.

Don't skip patting the chicken wings with paper towels, it helps to get them extra crispy.

To add wing hot sauce you can use something like Franks red hot sauce or Frank's red hot buffalo wings sauce.

You can skip the buffalo red hot sauce and just add a chicken dry rub, lemon pepper, or your favorite chicken wings seasoning or sauce.

Add honey to the butter and buffalo sauce mix to add a sweet touch.

Air fryer models cook differently, the first time you go to make a recipe, check the temperature a couple of minutes early by chance your model cooks hot.

Sea salt is not as strong as Morton's table salt, if you're using common table salt, reduce the salt about 25% in the recipe.

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