How to Bake Frozen Chicken Wings

How to bake frozen chicken wings in the oven, air fryer or in a pressure cooker. Great appetizer to make even if you forgot to defrost them. This is just one way of how to cook frozen chicken because yep, I’m forgetful and need it.

Cooking Frozen Chicken Wings

I don’t know about you but I have forgetful moments, a lot. Knowing how to cook frozen chicken has been a game changer for dinnertime, and nobody has ever known the difference. That is right, my mistake flies under the radar with my husband and kids which means a major win for me. 😉

First I made air fryer frozen chicken wings a while back because it was necessary. The kids gobbled them up and even I thought there wasn’t a whole lot of difference vs. if they had been defrosted. Sometimes there’s just not time for that anyway.

I mean you definitely want crispy chicken skin but dipping sauce for chicken wings is a must too so generally you won’t even see the outside. Unlike making pressure cooker frozen chicken wings these will definitely have an opportunity to get golden brown on the outside at the end.

First you will need to steam them a bit to get the meat tender though. Encapsulating them in two pieces of foil will do the trick. Make sure it is is well sealed all the way around before popping them in. A bit of oil on the bottom and outside will help keep them moist and get the right texture.

At the end the top piece needs to be removed to brown the tops. If you just want to use a dry rub of sorts you can just sprinkle that on at this time and skip the sauce.

We do that when making our popular dry rub air fryer chicken wings and there is definitely NO need for bbq or teriyaki beyond that. If you need a quick dinner idea in under 15 minutes that is a great one to try too.

Should you thaw frozen chicken wings before baking?

I mean ideally yes. That is the easiest, quickest, and best way of how to bake crispy chicken wings. But that isn’t always possible if dinner is in an hour and this is what you have on hand. You can just use your oven like we explain here, or cook them wrapped in foil and throw them into your air fryer at the end to get REALLY crispy.

Best Baking Temperature to Use

425 degrees F is ideal as far as we are concerned. The timing is for separated, not whole chicken wings. For those you’d need to cook longer at the end to ensure they’re done and crispy on outside too. I have an entire printable recipe card at the bottom to follow and keep handy if you want but here is a quick step by step to peek at:

If you did not separate them and are cooking whole chicken wings you would need to increase the timing by a few minutes but not double.

Some wing sauce choices for the outside that are yummy could be barbecue of course, buffalo sauce for spicy buffalo wings, teriyaki is one of my favorites, garlic butter or just salt and pepper for a low carb version.

How to Bake Frozen Chicken Wings Crispy

After you follow our step by step instructions here there are a few ways you can make the chicken skin crispy. Make sure you have a preheated oven, then set to broil at the end for a few minutes which will do the trick and the easiest. Another option is to transfer into a preheated air fryer at 400 degrees for a few minutes as well. Then serve with favorite sauce!

Shopping and Storage Tips

If you like to shop sales these are great to buy in bulk and freeze yourself. That way you can make hot wings year round for super cheap. What I do is buy several trays when they are super cheap. Throw about 8 per person into a gallon freezer bag. Zip and lay it flat so they don’t stick together as much.

Stack these into your freezer so you can pull one or more out for a Super Bowl party later. Please do not throw these into boiling water to thaw or cook, that makes the skin super icky. You can even cook a frozen whole chicken in Crockpot now if you want to try all the things from rock hard to fork tender. Works like a charm y’all.

Have leftovers?? You can save them for sure, I mean I hate to waste food per say. Just make sure you allow them to completely cool down first. If possible it is best to not sauce the pieces you aren’t going to eat right away. Instead, save that separately, they will get crispier without it.

Then you should reheat chicken wings in air fryer for the best results. This works for fresh wings or leftovers. It not only is the fastest method but even after a day in a bag in the fridge you can get the skins pretty crispy again. Just preheat to 400 and spray with olive oil. Shouldn’t take longer than about 4 minutes flipping once to get them right again.

After you get them perfect, brush or toss with hot sauce or whatever you want. If they are already sauced it can’t penetrate the outside quite as well so it won’t get as crispy. You’d want to add more to the outsides either way though because it will dry out a bit when heating for a second time.

Want to try another “different method” some night? This is how to cook frozen chicken thighs in slow cooker too. Easier than you think I bet.

Can you put baking powder on frozen chicken wings?

Not really, it won’t stick. The reason people do this is to make them very crispy because it will absorb moisture on the outside of the skins. The only way to do this would be to remove halfway thru the baking process to sprinkle some on, but wouldn’t work as well as if they were thawed ahead of time so I wouldn’t bother.