Simple Sous Vide Chicken Wings Recipe and Master Guide

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• Chicken Wing Times and Temperatures
• Best Simple Sous Vide Chicken Wings Master Recipe
• Other Sous Vide Chicken Wing Recipes
• Detailed Cooking Directions
• What Are Chicken Wings
• How Do Sous Vide Wings Compare to Traditional Wings?
• How to Dry Wings
• What Wings Can I Sous Vide?
• Simple Sous Vide Chicken Wing Recipe

Detailed Sous Vide Chicken Wing Directions

Sous vide chicken wings with a great honey-chipotle BBQ sauce or a bacon bourbon jam are one of my favorite foods to snack on while I'm watching sports. Using sous vide to tenderize them before frying results in moist, amazing wings.

It also gives you precision control over the wings and then you just need a quick fry afterwards, so the skin never gets overcooked.

How to Prep Chicken Wings

Buying wings for the first time can be confusing. What are normally sold on menus as "chicken wings" are actually the drumette and the flat from whole wings. And in grocery stores you will often see "chicken wings" which are the whole wing.

It's easiest if you can find them already broken down, but otherwise it's relatively easy to do it yourself by running a sharp paring knife around the joints.

Once the wings are broken down into drumettes and flats, season them with salt. Place them in a sous vide bag in a single layer and seal.

What Time and Temperature for Sous Vide Chicken Wings

Because wings are so versatile you have a lot of time and temperature options you can explore. They all turn out great, but most people end up with a favorite they go back to time and time again.

A lot comes down to how tender you want your wings. My favorite sous vide wings temperature is 150°F (65.6°C)for a few hours. It's tender, juicy and amazing!

At the lower end, you can cook them at 140°F (60°C) for a few hours. This will cook them through and lightly tenderize them, but the resulting wings will still have a lot of bite to them.

For more fall apart wings, you can increase the temperature to 156°F (68.9°C). This will start to break down the collagen and connective tissue more.

If you really want them to be super-tender, just sous vide them at 176°F (80°C) for several hours and they will fall right off the bones. I also really enjoy 165°F (73.9°C) for an in-between texture.

The cook time is usually 1 to 2 hours, but the longer you cook them, the more they will tenderize and break down. So you can play around with longer times if you are looking for a specific result.

How to Finish the Wings

Regardless of the method you use to finish your wings, you first need to make sure the wings are really dry. This is best done by blotting them dry with paper towels and then placing them in the refrigerator over night on a wire rack to fully dry out.

At this point, you can actually use the principles of the sous vide cook, chill, and reheat method and freeze the wings. You can then resume the following steps to finish them whenever you want.

Once the wings are dry, you have several options to finish them. While wings do have some nuances that I discuss below, you can learn some more about the best ways to sear sous vide foods.

Deep Frying

The fastest way to crisp up the skin, and the one that results in the best texture and more crispness is to deep fry the wings. It also involves a lot of really hot oil, so please be VERY careful.

Heat up some oil to around 375°F to 400°F (190°C to 204°C). It's best with a large pot of oil, but I have also successfully shallow fried them in 2" to 3" of oil in a deep saute pan. If you have a dedicated deep fryer this is much easier.

Carefully place the already sous vided wings in the oil. Because they are already fully cooked through you just need to cook them long enough to crisp up the skin and reheat throughout. This ideally takes 1 to 2 minutes, though sometimes it may take longer if the oil dropped in temperature or the wings were frozen.

Once the skin is crisped up, carefully remove them from the oil. Season them and they are ready to eat!

On the Grill or Smoker

While I love a perfectly cooked deep-fried chicken wing, I don't always feel like dealing with a lot of hot oil. When that is the case I turn to my second favorite method, which is grilling.

When grilling sous vide chicken wings, the skin won't get nearly as crisp, but the added flavor from the grill (especially if you toss on some wood to add smoke) is worth it to me. Plus I love being outside and it's just a tad healthier than frying the wings :).

To grill the wings, heat your grill to high heat. Add the wings and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes per side. They should be good to go at that point!

To smoke your wings, you will usually need to trade off the amount of smoke you add with the crispness of the skin. The hotter the grill, the crisper the skin but the less time you will have for them to be in the smoke.

Under the Broiler

I can't always get outside and so I'll often turn to the broiler in my kitchen. It gets up to 550°F (290°C), which is pretty good for searing. The broiler also works great if I'm applying a BBQ sauce that I want to caramelize.

To broiler your sous vide wings, just turn it up to high. Place the wings in a single layer on a sheet pan, ideally on a wire rack, and place as close to the broiler as you can get while still heating them evenly.

You want to keep the broil time as short as possible, ideally 1 to 2 minutes per side.

Air Frying

I personally haven't air fried my wings before since I don't have one, but many people swear by it. As with all finishing methods, you want to use the highest heat you can for the shortest amount of time.

Torches

Searing chicken skin with torches is often hit or miss for me. Sometimes it works great, other times it just renders the skin completely, and it'll fall apart. If you want to give it a shot, there's a good chance it will work pretty decently.

If you do use a torch to sear your sous vide chicken wings, you'll want to make sure you re-heat the wings first. The torch doesn't transfer enough energy to raise the temperature very much.

How Do Sous Vide Wings Compare to Traditional Wings?

Using sous vide to make your wings does a great job of replacing the traditional "bake in the oven" or "fry once" wings. The sous vide pre-cook breaks down the collagen in the wings without over cooking them at all. Then the final frying stage simply crisps up the skin.

This is similar to the traditional double fry method (which sous vide delivers very similar results to). Similar to that method, you first cook the chicken wings at a relatively lower temperature to break down and tenderize the meat. Then you cook them at a higher temperature to crisp up the outside.

Traditionally, the double fry method uses oil in both steps, which was always too much of a hassle for me since I've never had a dedicated fryer. Being able to offload that initial cook to the sous vide machine greatly simplifies the entire process for me. It does take longer though, so if you have a dedicated fryer, you may be better off cooking them in there the whole time.

Best Simple Sous Vide Chicken Wings Master Recipe

Chicken wings are the perfect bar snack food, but with this simple sous vide chicken wing recipe you'll be able to make them at home whenever you want. This time and temperature results in tender wings that fall off the bone but still have some bite to them.

Recipe Info

• Published: 2021-09-22
• Prep Time: 35 Minutes
• Cooktime: 1 to 2 Hours
• Total Time: 1 to 2 Hours
• Serves: 4
• Calories: 402 Calories
• Tags: sous vide wings, sous vide chicken wings, chicken wings, chicken, sous vide, easy, simple

Ingredients Needed

• For the Chicken Wings
• 3 pounds chicken wings
• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoons spice rub or herbs (optional)
• To Assemble
• Sides (optional)
• Sauces (optional)
• Garnishes (optional)

Recipe Instructions

Preheat the Water Bath: Start your sous vide machine preheating. I prefer 150°F (65.6°C) for a perfect braise-like texture that is extra juicy but many people want a more shreddable, fall version at 165°F (73.9°C).

Season the chicken wings: Trim off any fat or gristle. Salt the chicken wings then coat with any spices.

Seal in Sous Vide Bag: Place the chicken in a sous vide bag then seal the bag.

Cooking the chicken wings: Place the sous vide bag in the water bath and cook until tenderized, 1 to 2 hours.

Dry the chicken: Remove the sous vide bag from the water bath. Take out the meat and dry it off well. You can use paper towels or dish cloths, both work well.

Sear the wings: Quickly sear the chicken for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until just browned, then remove it from the heat.

Time to Plate: The plating will depend heavily on the final dish, but the chicken wings is now ready to be served with the other components of the meal.

Tips for Drying the Wings

The key to getting your wings crispy without overcooking them is to make sure they are completely dry. This can be accomplished in a few ways.

The first is after you sous vide them, remove them from the pouch and pat them dry with paper towels or a dish cloth. Then put then on a cookie sheet, plate, or wire rack and place them in the refrigerator for several hours, or even overnight.

The fridge is a perfect environment to remove the moisture from them. In addition, if the wings are cold when you go to crisp up the skin you have much more leeway.

Some people also recommend just frying them after you dry them off, but I've found that it definitely overcooks them. The wings still turn out great, but because they have been perfectly cooked already, and are hot, it is hard to get a crispy skin in a short enough time to prevent the temperature from raising.

Cooking Frozen Chicken Wings

You can easily sous vide frozen chicken wings. Just add 30 to 60 minutes to your original cook time and they will be just fine. It makes it really convenient since you can store them in the freezer and pull them out when you want.

Classic Buffalo Sauce for Sous Vide Wings

Buffalo sauce is a classic sauce for chicken wings.

It is a spicy, hot, and tangy sauce that is made from butter, hot sauce, and cayenne pepper or Franks hot sauce. The hot sauce can be replaced with other sauces such as Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce. Other ingredients can also be added to the recipe such as vinegar or Worcestershire sauce depending on how you like it.

The original buffalo wing sauce recipe was created by Teressa Bellissimo in 1964 at her restaurant Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

The recipe for the sauce is not complicated, but it does require some time for it to simmer. The ingredients are Franks hot sauce, butter, and chicken wings. You can make the sauce either mild or spicy depending on your preference.

Mix all the ingredients together and cook them over medium heat for about 5 minutes, letting them simmer to meld. Once you've finished cooking it, you can serve it with some celery sticks or blue cheese dressing as a dipper.

What Wings Can I Sous Vide?

The directions in this article are optimized for drumettes and flats but they will work with most types of wings, or "wing-like" preparations.

I have successfully made sous vided and deep fried chicken thighs and legs by increasing the cooking time to 2 to 3 hours. This would also work well for turkey legs.

Duck legs could also be cooked in this manner, though they may need some extra tenderization time.

Simple Sous Vide Wings Recipe

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