We’re a wings family. It’s no exaggeration that we eat this dish every two weeks. Served simply with a side of grilled corn doused in melted butter and a simple slaw. They’re so delicious, crispy and fall off the bone tender, with a BBQ hot honey wing sauce that’s crazy good.

Wings are the ultimate party food for entertaining. Making them is actually so easy! I bake them in the oven, that’s my preferred method, but I also have included instructions for the air fryer and for smoking on the grill (my husband's preferred method).

How good is hot honey? I’m hooked. I love adding it to anything I can really. Halloumi is a fave, but also to pizza, focaccia, yum. So adding hot honey to your wing sauce is kind of a no brainer. This BBQ wing sauce combines the sweet, spiciness of hot honey (runny honey and hot sauce), with the smokiness and complexity of a good quality BBQ sauce, a bit of salty umami from soy sauce and a little tang tang of ACV.

Why you’ll love this recipe:

• Simple prep with only a few ingredients and steps.
• Dial up or down the spice level in the hot honey wing sauce.
• Insanely delicious, crispy & sticky.
• Your friends will be jealous of your wing cooking skills.

How to make chicken wings super crispy

• Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel absorbing as much moisture as you can.
• Baking powder in the spic mix helps to dry out the chicken.
• Baking on a wire wrack allows the fat to drip away from the wings and crips up.
• Lay out the wings with space around each wing to get airflow and not steam together.
• Cook them long enough so the fat in the skin is rendered down.

Making the BBQ hot honey sauce

Now, calling out here, we use a store bought BBQ sauce for the hot honey sauce for this recipe. Yes you could make one from scratch (and that is cool when you have time) but I want this recipe to be weeknight friendly, We're cheating a bit ;)

The flavours of this spicy honey BBQ glaze are so well balanced, but you can tweak it slightly to make it more spicy, tangy, sweet or salty.

When the wings are almost done, add the honey, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, apple cider vinegar and soy sauce to a small saucepan and bring it to a light bubble. That’s literally it. Just make sure you don’t bring it to a raging boil because the honey will harden when cooled, and I’m not sure if candied wings is a vibe.

What to serve with BBQ Hot Honey Chicken Wings

For a finger food / appetizer, serve them on a platter (with some damp kitchen towels for cleaning up!) but to make more of a meal, serve with this grilled corn recipe and my purple cabbage slaw or peach caprese salad.

Cooking methods for crispy chicken wings

- For oven baking: Cook at 200 C / 400 F for 60 minutes, turning every 20 minutes. - For air fryer: Cook at 200 C / 400 F with wings on a single layer, for 25 minutes turning half way through. - For smoking on the grill: 300 F for 1.5 hours turning half way through.

Other variations to try:

For an asian twist add a dash of five spice and grated ginger to the hot honey sauce and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds as a garnish. It’s so yummy! And goes nicely with a bowl of rice and and fresh cut vegetables.

Tools & equipment:

• Baking rack and tray/pan

Cooking tips

• Pat them dry with paper towels
• Lay them out skin side up and allow space around each wing to get airflow.
• Make sure to not over do it with the baking powder, the taste is pretty intense if you add too much.
• Taste the sauce and adjust heat and sweetness. Add more hot sauce for a spicer mix, or add more soy sauce to temper the sweetness, but do this with small increments to get it just how you like it.
• If you don’t have baking racks, a simple trick is just use a lined baking tray and angle them slightly so that the fat collects in one area, and move your wings up so they’re not sitting in the fat.

More hot honey recipes

Love some hot honey? Try this Hot honey halloumi or my Hot honey halloumi wraps, you'll thank me later ;-)

For more delicious appetizers, these are a must:

• Smoky Garlic Prawn Tacos
• Kingfish Mezcal Ceviche Tostadas
• Crispy Fried Enoki Mushrooms
• Seared Scallops with Yuzu Garlic Butter.

But if easy weeknight chicken recipes that you can throw together for dinner is more your thing, check out my Coconut lemongrass chicken, Marry me pesto chicken, Oven baked tandoori chicken, Easy chicken caesar salad, Chicken katsu and Weeknight sticky chicken recipes for a good time, not a long time.