Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings are great as an appetizer or a main course. Healthier then deep frying, these wings are so crispy and delicious.
Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings
These Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings have just become my favorite chicken wings of all time. They look deep fried, but they are not.
I know I told you that my favorite wings are my Better Than Hot Wings Cafe, Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Wings. They have been my favorite for years. This recipe is the combined effort of my husband and me.
Potato Starch is Key!
He created and made the sauce. I had the idea for the wings, with the timing and he executed this whole recipe.
Potato Starch is the secret ingredient.
Don’t be tempted to use flour instead of Potato Starch. You won’t get the same effect or taste. Do you remember years ago, sitting down at a Chinese restaurant and perusing the menu?
The waitress or waiter would bring each guest an eggroll, a fried shrimp and a cup of soup. Remember the crunch of that shrimp? It was light, but crackly and crunchy and delicious?
That is the texture and feeling you will get with these Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings.
Oh, and if you love that shrimp, you must try my Bang Bang Shrimp (Bonefish Grill) recipe. It is heaven in your mouth.
Lots and lots of garlic infused in butter with sweet honey, make these wings so delicious. There are only a few ingredients and you may be thinking, yeah right, how can this be as good as This Old Gal says.
Keep reading and watching. They are not your everyday Honey Garlic Chicken Wings….they are not!
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Coat the Wings with Potato Starch
Make sure your wings have been patted dry. Set them aside for now. For timing purposes, start making the sauce first. While the sauce is cooking, place dried Chicken Wings into a large mixing bowl. Dump the Potato Starch on top of the raw Chicken Wings.
Completely Coat the Wings with Potato Starch
Use tongs so that the Potato Starch does not stick to your fingers. Completely coat the wings with the Potato Starch. No, you may not use flour! 🙂 No, No, No!!!!!
Trust me, you’re going to thank me if you use Potato Starch.
Use Silicone Tongs, not your fingers to handle the wings. You want to make sure that the Potato Starch does not gunk up and get sticky. You also don’t want to scratch your Air Fryer.
Properly Seasoned Air Fryer Basket
Shake Off Any Extra Potato Starch
Using Silicone Coated Tongs, shake off any excess Potato Starch and place the Wings into the Air Fryer.
Gently Place them in the Air Fryer
This recipe is for 16 chicken wing parts, so I used my smaller Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer.
Generally we use our Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer, but I wanted to show you that this Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer works wonders!
Allow the Chicken Wings to cook for 25 minutes, shaking them every five minutes or so.
Melt the Butter
Using a small saucepan, heat it on low heat. Add the butter after the pan is hot. Adding a fat to a hot pan, makes the pan non stick!
Add Minced Garlic
Add the minced garlic to the saucepan. Allow the garlic to infuse into the butter on low heat for 5 minutes.
You don’t want to sauté or burn the garlic, so be careful to watch the heat. Whisk the butter mixture about every couple of minutes.
Pour in Honey
At this point, the butter will be nicely infused with garlic and the aroma will be delightful.
Add the honey to the Saucepan and Whisk to incorporate into the butter. Continue Whisking every so often for about 20 minutes. You don’t need to stir constantly, just make sure nothing burns.
The mixture should be at a very, very low simmer.
Shake the Wings at the Half Way Point
Shake the wings at the half way point. When the Buzzer sounds, give the wings another shake. Raise the temperature and put them back into the Air Fryer. You can see how nice and puffy and delicious the Wings look, even before the Sauce is added.
Gorgeous Caramel Color
The sauce will turn a gorgeous caramel color. That is how you know it is just about ready. It will become syrupy.
Thickened Sauce
It now looks like a caramel sauce. Turn off the heat on the stove. The wings are almost ready.
They are ready after just 8 more minutes
Look how crispy they look. They are so crunchy and crispy and not oily at all. Don’t they look wonderful? The Potato Starch really allows the wings to crisp up beautifully.
Make sure each wing is dry and crisp. If there are any soft parts, let them cook a bit longer. If you need to shake more for your particular brand of air fryer, do. There is nothing worse than soggy wing skin!
Place the Chicken Wings into a Large Bowl
Place the Air Fryer Chicken Wings into a Large Serving/Mixing Bowl and pour on the hot Honey Garlic Sauce. There will just be enough syrup (sauce) to coat the wings.
Toss the wings to coat completely. There won’t be any sauce left over for dipping as all the sauce should stick to the wings.
These Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings are not a saucy type of wing. They will be a syrupy, sticky nature.
Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings
Enjoy the Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings with Air Fryer Seasoned French Fries or Thai Triple Coconut Rice and a green vegetable. For another delicious flavor, try my Air Fryer Crispy Old Bay Chicken Wings with Warm Lemon Butter or my Air Fryer Chinese Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings, which are amazing!
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer
- J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk– a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
- Rösle Silicone Flat Whisk
- Cilio Olivewood Spatula
- Porcelain & Bamboo Salt Box with Spoon
- Bellemain Porcelain Ramekins
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
- Kuhn Rikon Kitchen Shears
- Corelle Large Serving Bowl
- Silicone Coated Tongs
- Potato Starch
- Stainless Steel Saucepan
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Here is the handy printable recipe:
Ingredients
- 16 Pieces Chicken Wings
- 3/4 cup Potato Starch
- 1/4 cup Clover Honey
- 1/4 cup Butter
- 4 Tablespoons Fresh Garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/8 cup Fresh Water (or more as needed)
Instructions
- See my article on How to Prepare and Properly Season Your Air Fryer Basket.
- Rinse and dry chicken wings. Add Potato Starch to bowl and coat chicken wings. Add coated chicken wings to Air Fryer.
- Cook at 380 degrees for 25 minutes, shaking the basket every five minutes.
- When Timer sounds, cook at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes. All skin on all wings should be very dry and crisp.
- Heat a small stainless steel saucepan on low heat. Melt butter and then add garlic. Sauté the garlic for 5 minutes.
- Add honey and salt and simmer on low for about 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes, just so the sauce does not burn. Add a few drops of water after 15 minutes to keep Sauce from hardening.
- Remove chicken wings from Air Fryer and pour over the sauce.
Notes
PIN this Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings!
Air Fryer Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings
Looks good to me I’ll try it.
HI, I want to make these for a party ahead of time. Do you think I could put them in a crock pot to stay warm or do you think they will get too soggy?
They will become soggy in a slow cooker.
Where do you find the potato starch? It looks so inviting to sink my teeth into. Thanks Peggy
I link to it in the recipe. Jill
LOVE THE RECIPE FOR THE GARLIC HONEY WINGS! JUST TRIED TONIGHT AND NOW I CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE TIGHTEN AGAIN.
These sound great! Going to make them today for the Super Bowl
Is potato starch the same as potato flour?
No, Juleen. Jill
Hi Jill,
Thanks for the hint. My first chicken with the Philip air fryer turned out great. I looked at lots of recipe, and I think yours. Y far is the best. However, I toss them in lemon pepper and honey busier sauce. Love them. Thanks again.
Tiffany
Where do you buy potato starch?
Hi Pat. In the recipe, if you click on the potato starch link, it will take you right to Amazon to purchase. The price is very reasonable. Jill
You, my dear lady, are a genius! Fairy dust indeed. That is the most amazing coating ever. I did not use the sauce, I love wings, just not saucy wings. The Mr. and I prefer to just dip in good ol’ fashion blue cheese with hot sauce. I did marinate overnight in milk and Badia complete seasoning and added seasoning to the potato starch. They were beyond expectation. My for ever go to recipe. Still not a health food, but so much better for you than frying in oil. I will never need to go out for wings again. The best ones ever are right here at home – thanks to your genius addition of potato starch to my kitchen.
Thanks, Suzanne. The “sauce” for this, really is not a sauce as it completely sticks to the wings, more of a coating. If you love wings and garlic, I’d love it if you would add the coating. Jill
Hi Jill,
I just ordered the secret ingredient through your link and can’t wait to try this. I have been experimenting with cooking wings sous vide first and then finishing in the air fryer to crisp. Do you think that would work here, and if so how much time should I adjust for since the meat is already cooked? (And does that merit increasing the temperature?)
could I use corn starch instead of potato starch?
I have not tried the cornstarch for this recipe. Jill
I used cornstarch and they came out nice and crispy
For the first time last night, I made chicken wings in an air fryer. I was too lazy to make my own sauce so I used a bottled bbq sauce. This technique developed by Jill was absolutely perfect to achieve crispy, decadent wings. The potato starch truly is the key, it’s like coating your chicken wings in fairy dust, it’s so light and airy. I used a little more than a pound of chicken wings, 12 pieces, and I cooked them for 30 minutes (they were not frozen), shaking every five minutes. Also, knowing I wasn’t using the flavorful sauce in the recipe, I seasoned my chicken prior to coating the wings in the potato starch. I’m kind of a chicken wing snob, and truly, these were the best to come out of my kitchen. Thank you, This Old Gal, for all the time and research you put into each of your recipes, they always are amazing!
Hi Pam. Fairy Dust, I love that and it fits perfectly. I am so glad you enjoyed the wings. We are having these for dinner tonight. We love the extra crunch that the Fairy Dust gives the wings. Jill
This was my first recipe in my new air fryer and oh my heaven these wings were so delicious! That potato starch flour really made them crisp up perfectly! I ended up eating many without the honey garlic drizzle, but it too was delish! Thank you for this recipe and the tip about seasoning the basket!
Hi Charles. I am so glad you enjoyed these wings. We love them too. Jill
Made this tonight and was a hit with the family. Thanks for the step by step instructions with pictures. Sauce was a bit sweet so I added a teaspoon of soy sauce. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks for sharing your secret, although I normally do use potato starch for traditional frying, I’m new to air frying.
Love your recipe… at least the part with the potato starch. I’ve made wings twice and each time they have turned out perfect.
My only variation since I was using BBQ sauce was to add 1 tsp each of onion powder, garlic powder and Hungarian paprika. Also added 1/2 tsp of Cayenne pepper. 30 minutes at 360 shaking about every minutes .
Thanks and to anyone who hasn’t tried it, give it a try… you will love the results.
Amazing, amazing … AMAZING!!
(And I don’t even eat chicken wings!) .. I did double the sauce.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks, Tami. Did you make a double batch of wings too? Jill
Thanks for how you did it it turned out perfect
Susan, yay, wonderful! Glad you enjoyed. Jill
Thank you for this recipe! I will definitely be trying it. Do you think I would be able to use corn starch instead of potato starch? I already have this in my pantry, Thanks!
I made these earlier in the week and they were delicious. I changed the sauce just a little by adding some BBQ sauce, pouring it over the wings, then returning to airpot for a few minutes. The sauce carmelized and was perfect!! My sweetie took some to work and shared with a friend, who now wants a whole plate full for himself!
Can I use corn starch instead of potato starch? I don’t have any on hand and I don’t live in town.
Thanks!