Sweet chili chicken wings made in the air fryer are a simple, easy and tasty snack you can make at home. Great for parties or for a side dish. Quick, healthy cooking of the chicken wings in the air fryer makes super crispy wings which are coated in a beautiful sweet chili glaze.
Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
Air frying chicken wings provides an easy and healthy way to cook chicken wings at home. It makes them come out super crispy, with minimal effort. The cooking time is also quite quick when compared to cooking chicken wings in an oven.
Sweet chili chicken wings are a great flavor of chicken wings to make using the air fryer. The wings, once nice and crispy from the air fryer, are tossed in a flavor packed sweet chili glaze and cooked a bit longer to make them nice and sticky. The glaze is sweet, spicy and a little bit tangy. A good balance of flavors.
Sweet chili chicken wings make for a great snack or side dish. Great for parties!
Sweet Chili Glaze
The Sweet chili glaze contains sweet chili sauce, garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Mixing in a cornstarch slurry, made from combining cornstarch and water, helps to thicken the glaze up. This will help the glaze stick to the wings and make them sticky and glossy.
The sweet chili glaze mostly comes from sweet chili sauce. Use whichever sweet chili sauce you like best, I find that Thai sweet chili sauce works quite well. Use either store bought or homemade sweet chili sauce when making the glaze. A nice homemade sweet chili sauce will add lots of delicious flavor to the glaze, but it is also much easier to use a store bought sauce, which still contains lots of flavor.
You can substitute the rice wine vinegar for any other vinegar you have on hand. Substitute the brown sugar for regular white sugar if needed.
This glaze is super tasty and can be used in a variety of different ways, besides just air fried chicken wings. For example, grilled chicken breast or thighs go really well with the glaze.
Making Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
The first step is to get the chicken wings as dry as you can. Dry wings will result in crispy wings once cooked. Pat the chicken wings with paper towel to get them as dry as you can.
Once dry combine the wings with baking powder and salt in a large bowl or bag. Make sure you do NOT use baking soda, that is different and will not turn out well. The baking powder helps the wings get even crispier.
Place the chicken wings in the basket of a preheated air fryer. Cook for 20-24 minutes, turning the wings halfway through. The chicken wings should be cooked through and crispy after this time.
Once cooked, toss the wings in the cooked sweet chili glaze. Place them back into the air fryer to cook for another 2-3 minutes. Take the wings out and garnish with any combination of sesame seeds, red chili flakes and spring onions. Serve warm.
If there is any leftover glaze you can brush some more of it onto the chicken wings, or dip the wings into if if you would like. I find there is already heaps of flavor with these wings though.
Storing Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
Keep cooked chicken wings in an airtight container or bag. In the fridge they will last up to 4 days and in the freezer they will lay up to 6 months.
The glaze can be made ahead of time and stored for later (or if you make too much of it you can save some). Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. The glaze will thicken slightly as it cools in the fridge. Heat the glaze up when going to use it, this will allow for easier coating of the chicken wings.
For more great chicken wing recipes see:
Air Fryer Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
Equipment
- Air Fryer (affiliate link)
Ingredients
Wings
- 1 lb / 500 g chicken wings (about 10 pieces) split into wingettes and drumettes
- 1 tsp baking powder NOT baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Sweet Chili Glaze
- 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
Garnish
- sesame seeds
- red chili flakes
Instructions
Chicken Wings
- Preheat the air fryer to 380°F/190°C
- Pat the chicken wings dry then mix with baking powder and salt in a large bowl or bag.
- Place wings in a single layer in the air fryer basket and cook for 20-24 minutes, turning halfway, until golden, crispy and cooked through.
Sweet Chili Glaze
- Combine all of the ingredients for the sweet chili glaze, except the cornstarch and water, together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
- Meanwhile mix the cornstarch and water together in a separate small bowl.
- As the mixture in the saucepan is just starting to simmer, add in the cornstarch water mixture. Stir to combine it.
- Once the glaze thickens and looks glossy, after about a minute, turn off the heat.
- Toss cooked chicken wings in the glaze, until well coated.
- Cook glazed chicken wings in the air fryer at 400°F/200°C for 2-3 minutes, until nice and sticky, being careful not to burn them.
- Garnish the sweet chili chicken wings with sesame seeds and/or red chili flakes, if desired. Serve warm.
