The best Crock Pot Chicken Wings Recipe that is SO easy to make! Learn how to make the best slow cooker chicken wings for snacking on!
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Wings are the ultimate party food/appetizer and while we love our Parmesan Chicken Wings and Thai Chicken Wings, it was time to make traditional buffalo wings in the crock pot!
If you’ve never made wings in your crockpot, they are so simple to make and get perfectly crispy during the final cooking in the oven.
You only need 5 ingredients and about 3.5 hours to get the most delicious slow-cooked chicken wings!
The Best Crock Pot Wings
Here are just a few of the reasons to try cooking your wings in your crock pot:
- Easy to make – While it does take over 3 hours to make these wings, like the majority of crock pot recipes, it’s pretty much just dump-and-cook other than the final cooking time in the oven to get perfectly crispy skin.
- Super tender – Because they are cooked low and slow, the chicken gets incredibly, fall off the bone tender!
- Lighter than frying – The fat on the wings cooks off, so it’s a little bit lighter than the traditional frying method of cooking wings.
Crockpot Chicken Wings Ingredients
To make these crockpot wings you will need:
- chicken wings
- buffalo sauce
- orange juice
- garlic powder
- black pepper
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.
How many Chicken Wings in a pound?
Individual raw chicken wings weigh roughly 3 oz each, so there are about 5-6 wings in each pound.
How many chicken wings per person?
I personally find it’s best to do 3/4- 1 lb of raw wings per person when serving. This recipe is made to feed 3-4 people as written, but can easily be doubled or tripled to feed a crowd!
How to make Chicken Wings in Crock Pot
- Toss chicken wings, buffalo sauce, orange juice, and spices in your crockpot
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
- Before serving, prepare a lined baking sheet. Add chicken wings to the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 425 or until golden brown.
- *Optional: before serving, toss with 2 tablespoons of additional buffalo sauce.
How long to cook Slow Cooker Chicken Wings
For this recipe, the wings are cooked in the crockpot for 3-4 hours on low then 30 minutes in the oven to crisp them up.
How do I make my wings more crispy?
Baking powder can help make your wings more crispy but we don’t recommend it in this recipe. Baking them on a cookie rack that allows the grease to drip away from the wings also helps make them more crispy!
How to cut Chicken Wings
We find it’s best to buy precut chicken wings. If you’re feeding a crowd, it’s much easier and will save you so much time!
You can make this recipe with whole chicken wings, but we don’t recommend it, so if you did find a great deal on whole chicken wings and want to cut them to the traditional drumette, wingette, and tip, here is a helpful video.
We love to get our chicken wings from ButcherBox because they are precut and such good quality!
Substitutions for Crock Pot Chicken Wings
Chicken Wings: You can substitute chicken wings for drumettes. We have not made this with boneless chicken wings.
Buffalo Sauce: You can substitute buffalo sauce for your favorite BBQ sauce, hot sauce or any other wing sauce you like. A warning: sauces with sugar may burn when you bake them in the oven so just watch them carefully.
Orange Juice: The orange juice helps balance out the sweetness in the recipe. You could use pineapple juice, or no salt added chicken broth in place.
Garlic Powder: Garlic powder is optional and used for flavor. You can substitute with onion powder or omit it.
Pepper: Pepper is optional and used for flavor. You can omit it.
How to cook frozen Chicken Wings in Crock Pot
We do not recommend cooking frozen wings in the crock pot. This is a food safety issue. If your chicken wings don’t thaw properly, your chicken could be undercooked.
How to reheat Crockpot Wings
Reheating crock pot chicken wings are very easy!
- Oven: On a parchment-lined baking sheet for 400° for 5-10 mins
- Airfryer: 400° for 3-5 minutes
- Toaster oven: Until warmed through
- Microwave: We don’t recommend it!
What goes with Chicken Wings?
Crock pot chicken wings are traditionally an appetizer for game day and would be great served with ranch or blue cheese dressing next to our Healthy Spinach Artichoke Dip or our Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip.
However, if you are wanting to make them as a meal, we think they would go great with:
- Crispy Smashed Potatoes
- Dijon Roasted Potatoes
- Corn Tomato Avocado Salad
- Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad
- Easy Farro Salad
How to store Slow Cooker Chicken Wings
How to serve – We love these crock pot chicken wings served as an appetizer. Before serving, toss with 2 tablespoons of additional buffalo sauce for an extra kick
Refrigerator – These crock pot wings will last up to 4 days in the refrigerator. We recommend storing them in an airtight glass container.
Freezing – We don’t recommend freezing these wings.
Reheating – You can reheat your crock pot chicken wings on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven for 400° for 5-10 mins or toaster oven until warmed through.
Crockpot Chicken Wings FAQ
Yes, you do need a little bit of liquid in the crock pot for chicken. The water helps steam the chicken and prevents it from burning.
It’s better to cook chicken on low in the crockpot. Cooking food low and slow in the crock pot helps the food be moist, delicious and tender!
It’s best to sauce wings before and after cooking. When you sauce wings before it allows the flavor to soak into the wings. When you sauce the wings after it makes them even more flavorful!
If you love your crockpot check out these Healthy Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes.
Other healthy appetizer recipes:
Here are some of our other favorite appetizers and snacks:
Slow Cooker Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken wings
- ½ cup buffalo sauce
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a crockpot, toss chicken wings, buffalo sauce, orange juice and spices until evenly coated
- Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.
- A half hour before serving, preheat the oven to 425.
- Prepare a nonstick foil lined baking sheet. Add chicken wings to the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Optional: before serving, toss with 2 tablespoons of additional buffalo sauce.
Gabriela says
These are so good and SO easy! I added lots of extra sauce to mine too. Thank you for such an easy dinner recipe!
Natalie H says
These wings are delicious! Super easy to throw together on game day! I did substitute the Orange Juice for Chicken Broth per the swap suggestions but followed everything to a T and they turned out perfect. Don’t be alarmed at the way they look before the oven because that is what makes them look and taste so good! Perfect mix of crispy and juicy and the last touch of buffalo sauce – sooo good! The only downfall is they were so good that my husband ( who does most of the cooking) now thinks I can cook! 😊
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked them, Natalie! Thank you so much for trying them!
Pam weber says
Can you use bbq sauce?
The Clean Eating Couple says
Yes you can – this is written in the blog post under substitutions!
Laura says
These were a huge hit with my family! The crockpot cooked them to perfection. The meat was falling off the bone, The last 30 minutes in the oven made the outside skin crispy and pure perfection! Who knew you could make wings in the crockpot!
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked them! Thank you so much!
Tyler says
Great wings, super easy to make!!
Michele says
So easy and delish!! Will definitely be making these again!!
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked them! Thanks, Michele!
Katie P says
Wings have long been overwhelming to me… these we so easy and so delicious! I accidentally bought the whole wing, but the video link to cut them was super easy. My 12 year old son is asking when I’m making them again! Definitely on the super bowl day menu. They taste great and they aren’t fried. Thank you! Definitely making these again!
The Clean Eating Couple says
So happy you liked them, Katie! Thank you!
Carrie says
Never have made wings before and decided to try these for the Super Bowl – they were super easy with only needing a few ingredients and turned out great!
Joe says
Great tasting and very easy to make
Emily says
I’ve never added orange juice to wings, but this was delicious! Quick and easy way to make a favorite appetizer for game days, and everyone loved them!
Lynne says
Hello?? Best wings ever! So many options, perfectly done!
Cheryl N says
I was skeptical about doing wings in the crockpot but wow these did not disappoint! I followed the recipe exactly as written. Served it with your homemade ranch dressing and celery sticks! I am so glad I found a easy wing recipe that is truly spectacular. Even my husband said they were better than any take out he has had!!
Lynne says
These were the most delicious , yummy wings! Love the variety’s and plan on experimenting further!
J says
The easiest and most tasty wings ever! The skin was crispy the meat was falling off the bone. Excellent recipe and I will be making again!