Air Fryer Vs Oven: Which Is Better For Crispy Chicken Wings?

Among poultry creations, it's hard to top a batch of chicken wings. Whether coated in the classic Buffalo sauce or flavored with a creative twist, it's a dish that's all about texture. So when you're keen to craft wings at home, there's one central aim: crispiness. Sure, deep frying is the classic method to achieve such a texture, but it's simply a little too messy for many a home cook. And that sets up the battle of two more domestically-friendly candidates: air fryer vs. oven.

Rest assured, with the right technique, the perfect chicken wing can result either way. You just need to achieve the conditions for crisping: high heat that evaporates water and melts fat from the skin, turning the wing crunchy while the interior remains succulent. Uniform blazing temperatures are also necessary for the golden brown, crackly exterior.

An air fryer's intensely heated circulation streamlines such qualities. Through convective heating, the device achieves crisping quicker — reducing cooking time by over a third — but also alleviates stress regarding prep.  Conversely, the oven, which for many Americans is not a convection device like the air fryer, heats using only top and bottom elements in a bigger space. There's less concentrated heat, which means specialized techniques, additional ingredients, and potential oil splatters to compensate. Overall, there are more mistakes to be made while baking chicken wings, making the air fryer a breezier choice for crispy wings.

With fryer in the name, it's logical to think this device delivers crispier wings. And the cooking method does lend the better texture of the two options. If you're not familiar, the device works like a small hyper-efficient convection oven, circulating hot air at a fast pace in a small space. As a result, the wings cook in a shorter duration, thereby promoting crisping. Short of heating up a vat of oil, this method achieves the tastiest wings, even when chicken wings are air-fried from frozen.

Furthermore, air frying chicken wings is straightforward. The main prep work entails drying the wings, then seasoning with salt, and adding an optional coating of baking powder to boost crispiness. Preheat the air fryer, and make sure to not overcrowd the basket with too many wings, and that's it. After around 20 minutes, you can coat the batch in sauce. You can't craft a lot of wings at a time, but the ones that come out will be superior.

The oven doesn't offer the same crispy intensity as an air fryer. Employ the same technique for the cooking method — say just a simple seasoning — and the chicken wings won't come out as texturally pleasing. There's not enough concentrated heat to render fat before unappetizing dryness settles in. And if you remove them before crisping, oven-baked wings can become disappointingly soggy once sauce is applied. Not to mention conventional ovens don't heat evenly, so not every wing cooks the same.

Although the air fryer is generally a more convenient choice, you can still achieve crispy chicken wings in the oven with the right technique. As with the air fryer, applying baking soda to chicken wings helps with browning. If you have one, you can run the convection setting, mimicking the effects of an air fryer, but the heat's still delivered slower and less concentrated due to the oven's larger size. 

Other improved methods include adding a generous pour of oil into the sheet pan to mimic frying, but this method can cause unfortunate splatter.  Alternatively, you can air-dry the wings in the fridge overnight or use the broiler function to achieve desirable crispness. The oven enables you to cook more wings at one given moment, but at the cost of more laborious efforts for a crispy result.