Chicken wings in an air fryer

Manufacturer figures with no state given

Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.

Whichever it is, this comes first: Poultry must reach 70°C in its thickest part and stay there for two minutes, or an equivalent pair from the FSA's published table.

• Cookworks 9L Dual Air Fryer: 190°C for 15 min

  A single published figure, not a range, against a stated 1.15kg. The manufacturer publishes a point estimate and AirfryerHQ has not invented a range around it.

• Breville Halo Rotisserie Air Fryer Oven VDF127: 180°C for 35 min

  A single published figure against a stated 1kg, on the manufacturer's air flow racks. More than twice the fifteen minutes another manufacturer prints for a similar weight.

• Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer & Grill Multi Cooker 5.5L: 180°C for 23–28 min

  Published range, with the manufacturer noting that cooking time depends on size.

• Philips Airfryer XXL HD9650 series: 180°C for 14–18 min

  Published range for 2–8 wings of around 100g each, in one layer.

• Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 200°C for 15–20 min

  Published range for a kilogram of wings. The row prints no count.

• Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 250°C for 9–10 min

  Published range for fourteen wings weighing a kilogram between them.

• Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 1: 200°C for 22 min

  A single published figure of twenty-two minutes in drawer 1 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer for up to a kilogram or eight to nine wings, not a range.

• Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 2: 200°C for 22 min

  A single published figure of twenty-two minutes in drawer 2 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer for up to 400 g or four to five wings, not a range.

• Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 1, with the divider in: 200°C for 22 min

  Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 1, the larger side, with the divider in: up to 1 kg, or 8–9 wings.

• Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 2, with the divider in: 200°C for 22 min

  Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 2, the smaller side, with the divider in: up to 400 g, or 4–5 wings.

• Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — The whole drawer, with the divider out: 200°C for 30 min

  Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, the whole drawer, with the divider out: 1 kg. The same kilogram that zone 1 is given 22 minutes for.

Questions people ask about chicken wings

Do wings need oil to go crispy?

No. Wing skin carries its own fat, and that is what crisps it once it has rendered. What matters more is a dry surface: pat the wings thoroughly with kitchen paper, because wet skin has to steam off its water before it can begin to colour.A general cooking principle, not a measurement. What actually makes food crispy

Should the sauce go on before or after cooking?

After. A wet, sugary sauce stops the skin crisping and the sugar in it scorches in fast hot air well before the wing is done. Cook the wings plain or with a dry seasoning, then toss them in the sauce while they are hot.A general cooking principle, not a measurement.

Can I pile wings in, or do they need to be in one layer?

One layer gives the best skin. Where wings touch or overlap, the skin stays pale and soft because no air reaches it. If the load has to be deeper, the shake the charts call for matters more, and the cook runs to the long end of the band.From the figures on this page.

What usually goes wrong

Flabby skin. The meat is safe well before the fat under the skin has rendered, so a wing cooked to temperature and no further is pale and soft. The fix is time at a moderate temperature to render, then heat to crisp — not more heat from the start, which burns the skin over unrendered fat.

Running the appliance safely

The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.

Chicken in fast-moving hot air

Lean chicken muscle holds little intramuscular fat, so once its water has gone there is nothing left to keep it palatable — which is why a breast passes from juicy to dry within a couple of minutes and a thigh does not. Skin behaves as a separate material: it needs sustained heat and dry air to render its fat and crisp, and it will stay flabby at a temperature that cooks the meat underneath perfectly well. Bone conducts heat slowly and shields the meat around it, which is why bone-in cuts finish later than their weight suggests.

More on chicken

Where to go from here

The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.

• Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
• How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
• Cooking from frozenUsually cooler and longer than the same food fresh, and never worked out from the fresh figure.
• Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
• Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
• How air frying actually worksIt is a small convection oven with a very fast fan, and every useful thing about it follows from those two facts.
• What air fryers are good at, and what they are bad atAn honest list, with the conditions attached. Most claims about air fryers are true for one or two portions and false for a family meal.
• Are air fryers healthier? What can honestly be saidLess oil than deep frying is a real and narrow claim. Almost everything built on top of it is not, and one genuine chemical question is worth knowing about.
• Basket or oven style?A drawer crisps harder and holds less. An oven-style cavity holds more, sees the food, and asks you to think about shelves.
• Your oven's air-fry mode versus a real air fryerIt narrows the gap and does not close it, and the reason is the size of the cavity rather than anything the manufacturer did wrong.
• Shake it, turn it, or leave it aloneShaking is for loose pieces, turning is for flat ones, and a few foods are ruined by both. The distinction is about what is touching what.
• Smoke, grease and smells: one problem, three symptomsSmoke, a lingering smell and a machine that seems to have got worse are usually the same fat in the same place, and one of them is an emergency.

If it went wrong

What tends to go wrong with chicken wings, each with the fastest thing to check first.

• Food cooks unevenly — Airflow is not reaching every surface equally, and where it does not, food does not cook.
• A burning smell from the air fryer — The question is not what is burning but what KIND of burning. Food and fat smell one way; insulation smells another, and only one of those is a cooking problem.
• Food is not crisping — Almost always moisture that cannot get out, and almost always because there is too much in the basket. One manufacturer says so directly.