We shared how to boil chicken legs with you before, now we are on to boiled chicken wings recipe. Cooked to enjoy or make your drumettes and wingettes crispy in an air fryer or oven with our dry rub makes a delicious appetizer or fun dinner finger food.
These take a lot less time than How to Boil a Whole Chicken as they are smaller and done in no time. A protein packed healthy snack for some and others lather with sauce and enjoy as a complete meal. Either way you’ll love boiling chicken wings.
How Long to Boil Chicken Wings
Timing is less than How Long to Boil Chicken Thighs because of their smaller size of course. Now with that said you can’t say exactly the cook time because every piece and batch varies. Organic will always be smaller so keep your eyes open and pay attention near the end.
Typically I wouldn’t recommend submerging any food in hot water since it tends to leach a lot of the flavor out. If you use broth though, or season your liquid you can actually add quite a bit of punch. Up to you depending on what you are making with them and your desired outcome.
When we make Boiled Fish it is nice to add a bit of heat in there that somewhat marinates the meat as it cooks and the result is super tender meat with a punch.
Ingredient Notes
In this case we were able to fit 8-10 chicken wings in our pot, or however many you can fit with pot being no more than half full. Have a thermometer handy to check internal temperature. They need to reach a safe 165F. before serving.
And then obviously you are going to want water or some sort of liquid for boiling in your pot over high medium heat. I mean if you wanted to add more flavor I would go with some vegetable or chicken broth instead and then you wouldn’t need any other seasonings though a sliced onion is a nice addition in there too.
with Dry Rub
This is just for the first step by step directions for cooking the meat in a large pot on the stovetop. There are several choices beyond that for crisping below for you too. Buffalo sauce or barbecue are most common for adding flavor at the end or a sprinkle of Dry Rub for Chicken Wings works too.
Boiled Frozen Chicken Wings
Can You Boil Frozen Chicken? Yes, you can! Actually, it doesn’t take much longer if the chicken wings are straight out of the freezer or fresh. You will get a bit more ick on the top, but you can spoon that off and discard it along the way. Typically, if the wings are rock hard to begin with, once done, they will fall off the bone and won’t stay intact, just FYI. Fresh is best but this is a great way of How to Cook Frozen Chicken if that is all you have
Boiled Chicken Wings Recipe
Equipment
- 1 pot
Ingredients
- 8-10 chicken wings
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 small onion, sliced
- 1 olive oil spray, is air frying later
- water, or broth
Instructions
- Put the wingettes and drumettes in a saucepan, add the onion cut into pieces, bay leaf, salt and any spices.
- Cover the wings with water or broth (cover 1/2 inch above the top so they are submerged) and cook for 10-15 minutes after the water boils at a steady rate with a lid on. (will likely take 3-5 minutes longer if wings are frozen)
- They are done when meat is tender enough to pull away from the bone and white in color AND 165 degrees F. in the thickest part.
- Remove the boiled wings from the broth. The broth can be strained and used in soups, sauces, or stew. If you want to crisp the skin lay on paper towels to absorb the moisture on the skin first before crisping in air fryer or broiler. (directions for that extra step below)
Video
Notes
How to Make Chicken Wing Skin Crispy After Boiling
To make the wings browned with crispy skin, you can fry them over high heat in a pan with a bit of oil for 2-3 minutes on each side. Or put into a preheated air fryer at 400 F. Arrange in a single layer with a spray of olive oil on top, or brush of sauce on top if you’d rather. Fry for 5 minutes or until crispy as you’d like. In the oven you would set the oven to broil for 1 minute on each side.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tips
The best thing to do with them once done if you want to enjoy them right out of the pot, drained, is to toss or drizzle with a sauce like our Honey Lemon Pepper Wings. Use homemade sauces, bottled, bbq is great, or Franks Red Hot gives you some spicy heat! If you want to crisp the skin remember to blot outside with paper towels to remove the moisture first.
How to Make the Skin Crispy
You can put into a preheated air fryer at 400 F. Arrange in a single layer with a spray of olive oil on top, or brush of sauce on top if you’d rather. Air fry for 5 minutes or until crispy as you’d like, like our Air Fryer Chicken Wings. Step by step instructions are below in our printable recipe card you can keep handy too if you’d like.
If you wanted to add breading to the outside you would instead of boiling in water you would instead submerge in a pot of hot oil. We show you Deep Fried Chicken Wings here that then you can toss with a sauce for added yum.
If making Boiled Chicken for Dogs you would ONLY use water and nothing else during the heating process. Either way you start by putting the wingettes and drumettes in a saucepan.
If making your dinner yourself, then add the onion cut into pieces, bay leaf, salt and any spices. The difference between the two is the drums look like legs with more meat on them on one end and chunkier. Wing portion is the skinnier piece that has meat all the way across. Use one or a mix of both.
