Sous Vide Chicken Wings

Sous vide chicken wings are tender and juicy with a delicious crunch. This recipe helps to break down the proteins in the chicken wings for a perfectly cooked wing without worrying about overcooking.

I know what you’re thinking. This is one of those “smoked bacon wrapped Oreos, you’ve got it so you’re doing it, even if it’s weird” things.

It’s not!! I swear!

Cooking chicken wings sous vide helps to break down the collagen and connective tissue to avoid chewiness while producing juicy, tender wings. This cooking method solves the chicken wing conundrum, as I like to call it.

Many times, and with many recipes and traditional cooking methods, by the time the collagen in the chicken wings is broken down to a desirable, palatable texture, the meat is overcooked and dry.

Not this time! We’ve solved for x! Sous vide chicken wings are perfection.

This sous vide chicken wings recipe is dedicated to solving conundrums!

Jump to:

• Tips + Tricks
• Key Ingredients
• What Temperature To Sous Vide Chicken Wings
• How To Make Sous Vide Chicken Wings
• How To Finish Sous Vide Chicken Wings
• Our Preference:
• Make-Ahead Information
• Batch + Storage Information
• More Sous Vide Recipes To Love
• Variations + Substitutions
• Recommended Equipment
• 📖 Printable Recipe

Tips + Tricks

No. 1 –> New to sous vide cooking? Check out my Sous Vide 101 Guide to familiarize yourself with the sous vide method!

No. 2 –> This recipe can be made with fresh or frozen chicken wings. If your wings are frozen, add an extra 45 minutes to the cook time.

No. 3 –> Many sous vide recipes call for seasoning the chicken wings before sealing them in vacuum sealed bags. I don’t. For a number of reasons – but mostly that we buy in bulk because we love chicken wings, and I never know what I’m going to do with them. Maybe they’ll turn into smoked dill pickle chicken wings, or air-fried wings, or these sous vide wings.

No. 4 –> Make it easier on yourself and buy split chicken wings over whole wings. This not only saves time but also your knives (and maybe your fingers!).

Key Ingredients

Chicken wings: Use good quality chicken wings, either fresh or frozen. If cooking from frozen, add an extra 45 minutes to the water bath time.

What Temperature To Sous Vide Chicken Wings

There are generally two temperatures that people cook chicken wings.

• 145f: This temperature will result in a chicken wing with more bite and texture. This temperature can also come with a more “undercooked” looking protein.
• 160f: This temperature results in super tender, nearly fall-off-the-bone cooked chicken wings, with a more familiar-looking protein.

BUT!! Chicken isn’t “cooked” until 165f, right?

This is a “yes” with a caveat. Chicken is considered cooked once it reaches an internal temperature of 165f because pasteurization, or the elimination of pathogens, occurs immediately at 165f. This makes 165f a fool-proof temperature for cooks everywhere.

Here’s the caveat: pasteurization is a function of temperature and time. This gives sous vide cooking the flexibility to play with temp and time more than other traditional cooking methods. Basically, a vacuum-packed bag of chicken wings that’s 1 inch thick will be pasteurized in 75 minutes once it reaches 145f and instantly once it reaches 165f

Personally, I think that perfect sous vide chicken wings are cooked to 160f. Only because the mind is a strong tool and I cannot overcome the appearance of chicken cooked to 145f. I’m working on it, but we aren’t there yet! HA

Further reading: Baldwin’s Pasteurization Chart gives more in-depth information about pasteurization.

How To Make Sous Vide Chicken Wings

1. Prepare a sous vide water bath. Set the temperature to 145f or 160f, depending on the texture preference. See above for more information.
2. Once the water bath reaches temperature, vacuum seal chicken wings in a single layer, then lower them into the preheated sous vide bath.
3. Cook the chicken wings sous vide for 2 1/2 – 3 hours at your desired temperature.
4. When done, remove the sous vide bag from the water bath and plunge it into an ice bath. This step is not strictly necessary, but gives you a bit more lenience in finishing the wings, especially if you like them extra crispy, without worrying about overcooking the perfectly cooked protein!
5. Once cooled, remove the chicken wings from the sealed bag, place them on a baking sheet with a wire rack on top, and blot them dry with paper towels.
6. Finish with one of the methods below.

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How To Finish Sous Vide Chicken Wings

There are a couple of options when it comes to finishing steps. All of them require the chicken to be well-dried before finishing, so don’t skip that step!

• Broil: Place a rack on the highest level in your oven and preheat the oven to the highest broil setting (mine is 550f). Broil the chicken wings under high heat for 3 minutes, flip and broil again. This method is awesome if you’ve got a sugary sauce on the wings that you’d like to caramelize and thicken. It also works great if you love plain wings too.
• Grill: Heat up your grill till it’s ripping hot (around 550f), then toss the wings on the grates for 1-2 minutes, then rotate for another couple minutes until cooked to desired crispness.
• Pan Fry: Add 2-3 inches of oil to a deep cast iron pot. Heat it until it reaches 375f, carefully add the wings to the oil, and fry on each side until golden brown.
• Air Fry: Preheat your air fryer to 400f. Toss the wings in a small amount of oil, then add to the air fryer and cook for 6 minutes, shake the basket, then cook for another 6-8 minutes.
• Deep Fry: If you’ve got a dedicated deep fryer, this is a great method. Preheat the oil to 375 – 400f, before deep frying the wings in batches for 3 minutes per batch.

Our Preference:

I’m going to preface this with a couple of things; a) The Crave house LOVES crunchy food. Can’t get enough. The crispier the better. b) We have a dedicated deep fryer that’s always set up and aside from plugging in, takes no work to use.

After sitting down with the whole family and sampling one wing from each finishing method that we tried; deep-fried, air-fried, and oven broiled, the resounding favorite in this house was the deep-fried ones.

We loved that they had incredibly crispy skin, but were so moist and tender on the inside. Kevy declared that I made the best chicken wings he’d ever had. Which is high praise because he’s a bit of a hot wings junkie!

Now, if I didn’t have a dedicated deep fryer, I don’t know that I could be arsed to fry these in a pan with oil, based on the mess alone. That said, it would be the best way to duplicate that perfect crispy wings.

My second choice was actually oven broiled. I broiled them for 3-4 minutes on each side on the highest rack in my oven as hot as the broiler would go. This was the next best skin, and for convenience, it’s probably the easiest method.

The air fryer, while great, didn’t really impress me for this recipe. I found it took longer and still didn’t crisp the skin as much as I’d have liked. So for that reason, the air fryer finishes 3rd.

Make-Ahead Information

This is a really make-ahead-friendly recipe. You can make it days or weeks in advance.

Once sous vide, the chilled wings can be kept in their plastic bag in the fridge for up to 4 days before being finished as desired. They can also be frozen directly from the ice bath, then thawed and finished whenever you’re ready for wings – this is massively convenient if you host a lot!

They can also be blotted dry, then placed on a rack and tossed in the fridge overnight to dry, even more, giving an even crispier skin. This is a great way to party prep for football season! Hello game day 🙂

Batch + Storage Information

Batch:

A batch of these chicken wings for us is about 24. We buy in bulk and vacuum seal 24 wings in a bag before they get tossed in the freezer for later use. That said, you can cook as many as you have room for or as few as you like!

Storage:

After sous vide, the wings can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days before finishing. If the wings have been sous vide and finished, they can also be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days total in an airtight container.

After sous vide, the wings can also be frozen for up to 6 months for a quick and easy-to-prepare appetizer whenever you need it. I would not recommend freezing wings that have been finished, they’ll get soggy and weird.

To use cooked frozen wings, remove them from the freezer the night before and thaw in the fridge overnight, or thaw in a sink of cold water for 1 hour. Then finish as desired.

More Sous Vide Recipes To Love

Variations + Substitutions

There are a few great ways to make this recipe your own.

• Sous vide buffalo chicken wings: Finish the wings as desired, then toss in a simple buffalo sauce before serving with blue cheese dressing.
• Sous vide hot wings: Finish the wings as desired, then toss in a large bowl with your favorite hot sauce and serve with ranch dressing and celery sticks.
• Sous vide honey garlic wings: Toss your cooked wings in honey garlic sauce before finishing in one of the methods mentioned above.
• Sous vide dill pickle wings: brine the wings in dill pickle juice for 24 hours before draining and vacuum sealing. Sous vide and finish as per the recipe.

Recommended Equipment

Sous vide:  My SOUS VIDE CIRCULATOR is an awesome little unit. They add the functionality of a whole new appliance to your kitchen while fitting in a drawer. I wasn’t 100% sure I’d love sous vide, so I dipped my toe in with a reasonably priced Instant Pot Slim – and it’s a great little sous vide machine! Check out my other SOUS VIDE RECIPES!

Container: When I started with sous vide, I didn’t have a fancy container, I wasn’t even sure if I’d like it, so I used whatever I had on hand with straight sides that would hold what I was cooking. A huge stockpot, my ceramic fermentation crock, the liner of my Instant Pot. Then I splurged on a Cambro (and then another one) and while it’s really only used for sous vide, I really love them both. We modified a lid and it’s easy and painless to set up and put away.

📖 Printable Recipe

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