Our brown sugar baked BBQ chicken wings are easy for you to make at home. With our recipe, you can skip the oil and fryer and make amazing wings tossed in our delicious homemade barbecue sauce. These barbecue wings are sweet, smoky, and just a little sticky!
We love chicken wings, but the last thing we want to do at home is use a deep fryer. That’s why we’re such big fans of baking chicken wings at home. For this BBQ chicken wings recipe, we use the same method as our crispy baked hot wings, but instead of tossing the baked wings with buffalo sauce, we use our easy homemade BBQ sauce.
Our BBQ chicken wings recipe guarantees crispy and delicious wings. They are also perfect for serving a crowd. This simple recipe lets you make big batches of wings with little work from you. For more recipes like this, look at our spicy chicken wings or these sweet chili chicken wings.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken Wings: We use chicken wings already split into the drumstick and wingette. Most stores sell them this way, but you can separate them yourself if you need to. You can also leave them whole (I do this in my grilled wings recipe). The recipe works either way. If you need guidance on separating the wings, check out our tutorial on how to cut a chicken wing.
- Homemade BBQ Sauce: For the BBQ sauce, we use a sauce similar to the one we use for our oven baked ribs. You’ll need ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Sriracha, soy sauce, and cumin. It’s quick and easy. I also love this sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, which also works well with these wings.
How to Make BBQ Chicken Wings
Making BBQ wings at home is so easy. Below, we share how we make them, how long it takes to bake wings so they are crispy, and a quick and easy barbecue sauce to coat them in. There are 3 things to keep in mind for making the best wings:
- Instead of frying them, bake the chicken wings on a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet and toss in some homemade BBQ sauce. By cooking the chicken wings on a wire rack, fat drips away from them while they bake, helping to make them extra crispy.
- Bake the chicken wings at a high oven temperature (we like 400ºF) for 35 to 45 minutes. (You can bake wings at an even higher temperature, but depending on your oven, you might find the oven smokes a little.)
- Toss the baked wings with more BBQ sauce. Then, serve them with your favorite dipping sauce. We like homemade ranch or blue cheese dressing.
Easy BBQ Chicken Wings
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Sweet, smoky, and just a little spicy, the sauce for these baked BBQ chicken wings comes together in 5 minutes and is fantastic. If you have a favorite store-bought BBQ sauce, feel free to use it instead. Baking your wings on a rack inset to your baking sheet helps make them extra crispy, so if you have one, use it!
You Will Need
3 pounds (1.3kg) chicken wings, separated at joints, tips discarded
1 cup (250g) ketchup, try homemade ketchup
1/2 cup (100g) lightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Directions
1Heat oven to 400°F (204°C). Set a wire rack inside a large-rimmed baking sheet. Spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.
2Make BBQ sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Sriracha, cumin, and soy sauce. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust with additional soy sauce or sugar.
3Divide the sauce in half, saving half for serving the wings.
4Toss the chicken wings with the remaining half of BBQ sauce, and then place onto the prepared baking sheet.
5Bake the chicken wings, turning once during cooking, until an internal thermometer registers 165°F, 35 to 45 minutes.
6Serve the baked wings with the sauce you set aside earlier, either on the side or tossed with the chicken.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- No wire rack: If you do not have a wire rack that will fit inside a baking sheet, you can still make wings. Arrange them on the baking sheet, without the rack and rotate a few times during baking.
- BBQ sauce: You will need 1 ¼ cups barbecue sauce, homemade or store-bought.
- We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. 1 pound of wings will be 8 to 12 wings, depending on size.
Hi this recipe was great! Everybody loved it!! I will definitely be trying out some of your other recipes!
This is the very first recipe I tried, cause it’s the easiest one haha 😀 My son loves it soooo much. Gives me confidence in cooking.. Thank you, Joanne and Adam, can’t wait to try your other recipes.
Doing the ribs once again. Over the years my family truly loves your recipe. We also really love your sweet and spicy chicken sauce used on the finished ribs. Thanks again. Best wishes,Ed
Thank you.
My husband requests these for Superbowl every year and they are always amazing. The sauce is to die for!
I am going to save this recipe right now, even though this recipe is around 6 years old!
Just did it here, tasted super good. My girlfriend loved the sauce and matched good with rice and salad. Thanks!
My son loves chicken wings and I am so excited to try this recipe. Took the time to browse through several of your other recipes and I’m really excited about your site. I plan on tagging you as a favorite and I plan on visiting it often. Thank you so much.
Do I have to follow your ketchup recipe? *If I don’t though, what brand/kind of Ketchup should I use to substitute? Going to make them tomorrow!
Your favorite store-bought ketchup will be fine.
This recipe sounds great, but I would rather use boneless skinless breast meat, how will that effect the cooking time?
Thanks!
Hi Daniella, I would expect a 25 to 30 minute cooking time. You might want to reduce the oven temperature, though. The oven is set high in this recipe so the skin becomes crisp. Since you would be using skinless chicken, you should be fine with a temperature closer to 375º F – Joanne
My entire family (who can be as picky as Chopped judges) loved, loved, loved this recipe! I also put the sauce on salmon and it was amazing! Thank you!
These are THE BEST most delicious wings I have ever had in my whole life!! Everybody loves them! Finger-lickin’, lip-smackin’ good- literally! My in-laws can’t get enough of them.
Thank you!