How Long to Bake Chicken Wings at 400? Easy Recipe!

How Long to Bake Chicken Wings at 400? Easy Recipe!

How long does it take to bake chicken wings in oven at 400 degrees? Let’s find out the best recipe!

What pops into your mind when you think about chicken wings? I really do hope for some sticky sauce, some dipping, drinking some coke with it, and fresh salty fries, a Saturday night movie, and friends coming over. Those are the kinds of wings we should do! 

Wings are typically made to be sticky on your fingers, crispy and tender, melting in your mouth, and served with a matching dipping sauce. Deep frying them is also a great way to make tasty chicken wings, but that’s what people usually do, so let’s be more creative this time. 

In any recipe for chicken wings, you need ingredients that caramelize the outer layer. Savory ingredients add a basic layer of flavor and acidity to bring out the best in savory foods and add depth of flavor.

You don’t have to rush to Taco Bell to enjoy some tasty chicken wings when you have this recipe; you can make the best ones at home. There is a whole world full of flavors waiting for you past the Buffalo Chicken Wings.

What is the best time and temperature to bake chicken wings?

Chicken wings cooking time and temperature

To create a bunch of absolutely crispy chicken wings, you don’t need much. A batch of creativity, fantasy, some basic ingredients, and 10 fingers to shove them into your face later on any game or movie night. 

The best cooking temperature for chicken wings is between 400 and 450 degrees fahrenheit, and the cooking times vary between 40 and 60 minutes. Preparing takes just a few minutes of your time, and there is not much active work involved in baking chicken wings, except eating them enthusiastically.

When baking frozen chicken wings, you have to add an extra 30% of cooking time, whether you grill, oven-bake, air fry, or roast them. You might lack the time to thaw them but to make the ultimate heavenly crispy wings, try to take the time and bring them to room temperature before cooking.

Furthermore, never ever deep fry frozen chicken wings; that’s a recipe for disaster. 

How long does it take to bake chicken wings at 400 degrees?

How long does it take to bake chicken wings at 400 degrees

It takes 40–60 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees for the best crispy chicken wings to be tender and perfectly caramelized. It’s a good idea to flip them over at halftime to ensure that both sides bake evenly.

Pan-fried chicken wings take slightly less time to prepare, about 10–18 minutes.

Frozen or refrigerator-cold wings require approximately 20–30% more time to properly oven-bake, and it is always risky. They may not bake evenly throughout, let alone have that crispy outer skin. That’s not going to happen as well on frozen wings after they’ve been baked in the oven.

That will fall apart, become mushy, and steam until the meat falls off the bones rather than crisp up.

How Long to Bake Chicken Wings at 400? Easy Recipe!

How Long to Bake Chicken Wings 400ºF

This recipe is proof that you don’t need a pellet grill to make perfect wings. They can be eaten as an appetizer or as a main course.
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 8 People

Ingredients
  

  • 8 Chicken wings
  • 5 tbsp Butter
  • 3 ounces Dark beer (the darker the better, unfiltered is top choice)
  • ½ tbsp Ground ginger
  • ½ tbsp Ground white pepper
  • A pinch of nutmeg
  • A pinch of cumin
  • 2 tbsp Garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp Salt
  • 3 tbsp Finely grated parmesan

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  • If you have frozen wings, thaw them overnight in the fridge. Let them come to room temperature before proceeding to cook, which should take around 30-45 minutes after taking them out of the fridge. 
  • Mix the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring them to a boil on low heat on the stove, then simmer for 5–6 minutes on low heat. Let the sauce cool down to room temperature.
  • Pat the wings dry with paper towels. Mix them thoroughly into the sauce in the saucepan, and transfer them to a baking pan. Pour every ounce of that sauce onto them. 
  • Bake them on one side in the preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn them to the other side and bake them for an additional 25 minutes until they are crispy brown.
  • Take them out of the oven, and let them cool down just a notch before serving. They taste totally mind-blowing!

Notes

Crispy oven-baked chicken wings are best served with potato salads, pasta salads, coleslaw, fried potatoes, and mashed potatoes. Don’t make this recipe from frozen or wet wings, because it will be disappointing. The parm-butter-beer triangle will give it a good brown, crispy exterior. These wings are to die for!
Keyword Bake Chicken Wings at 400 Degrees

Can I bake the chicken wings at 424?

Restaurants typically use two-phase baking to make oven-baked wings. In the first stage, you bake them at 400 degrees for 30–40 minutes, then crisp them golden at 424 degrees for 15 minutes.

You can, of course, bake them entirely at a higher temperature, at 424 degrees or even above. It might be a good idea if you have to cook frozen wings for some reason. If that is the case, wrap them first in foil for the initial 30 minutes of oven baking, then bake uncovered for the remaining 25 minutes. 

Although high heat is good for goldening the exterior of wings, some ingredients can easily burn at high heat, such as mustard, honey, or chili. These are all very common ingredients used on wings. 

How can I cook tender chicken wings?

There are some tricks to making wings the utmost tender. One of them is putting the baking powder and salt on the raw wings, leaving them for 3–4 minutes, then patting them dry, and going forward with the seasoning and baking process. The wings will absorb much more sauce this way. 

Adding a small amount of acidic ingredient to the sauce when baking chicken wings makes them extra tender. It can be any vinegar that is compatible with the sauce such as red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar.

Citruses might come to mind, but they are risky and easily turn wings into sour bites of flesh

Cutting the wingtips can also help you in making chicken wings more tender. The meat takes up the heat more evenly this way. And keep in mind that chicken skin gives that crispiness, so go for lots of chicken skin on wings.

Final Words

Nothing speaks more than the utter popularity of chicken wings; there are entire subreddits and websites dedicated to making the absolute best wings available, giving tips and tricks. Anytime you cook a new dish or want to freshen up an old one, you should also turn to those channels for tricks of the trade. 

It’s a no-brainer that chicken wings are one of the most popular dishes on this planet besides pizza, burgers, and spaghetti, but I bet that didn’t stop you from asking the question: Are chicken wings healthy?

  • The good news is that, while chicken is a very healthy ingredient in general, even as an everyday dish, this includes wings as well.
  • The bad news is that the unhealthy component of chicken wings is typically the sauce or marinade used to prepare them. Most often, they contain way too much sugar, and salt to balance out the healthiness of chicken.

If you can cope with the harsh truth of chicken wings not being the ultimate healthiest meal, you might want to reheat them.

Reheating chicken wings in the air fryer is probably your best option. Wings reheated this way will taste just like they were freshly baked. This also holds true for most meats, not just chicken wings.

So, do you already know how long does it take to bake chicken wings at 400 degrees in oven? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below!

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Candy Seideman has been cooking for most of her life. In fact she is referred to as "The Chef" by most of her close family not only because she attended culinary school and was an actual chef, but also because she has a passion for cooking for friends and family.