No need to fry… these baked chicken wings are SUPER crispy! Coated in a flavor-packed copycat Jack Daniels sauce, they’re the perfect appetizer!
These wings get so crispy, you won’t miss the fryer, and you’ll have a hard time convincing everyone that they’re baked!! Once they are baked to crispy perfection, they’re tossed in the most delicious sauce you’ve ever tasted!
Do you guys have a restaurant go-to? A meal you get whenever you go to a certain restaurant, that you don’t get tired of? I do! The Jack Daniels burger from T.G.I. Fridays. With an order of the sesame jack chicken strips as an appetizer. Basically, everything with that glorious Jack Daniels sauce!! I’ve be a total sucker for that sauce ever since I first tried it MANY years ago.
I’ve been wanting to re-create that sauce at home for some time now, but couldn’t seem to get it quite right. Isn’t that so frustrating? Well, armed with this recipe from AllRecipes, and couple of small tweaks, I’ve got it!
I like to make my sauce up ahead of time, even a couple of days, and let it hang out in the refrigerator until I’m ready for it. Not only does it make dinner easier for me, but it allows the flavors to really mingle and deepen. So win/win!
Okay, so for the actual chicken wings… by all means, feel free to cook them in your preferred method. I just stumbled across this oven baked method from RecipeTin Eats (such a great blogger!), and her method produces incredibly crispy wings, without all the fat from deep drying!
I’m kicking myself, because I don’t have any photos to show you how amazingly crispy these baked chicken wings are… I got so caught up in wanting to get them sauced and in my mouth, that I just blanked on documenting it 🙁 The good news is, it’s not complicated at all!
Once you try this Jack Daniels sauce on the wings, you’ll be putting it on EVERYTHING!! It’s great on beef, pork, chicken, and even as a dip for some fries. My personal favorites to utilize the sauce are coffee-rubbed burgers (just swap out the dr pepper bbq sauce and use the Jack Daniels sauce instead), these chicken tenders (again, use Jack Daniels sauce instead of the sweet and spicy sauce in the recipe), and these crispy oven fries!
These baked chicken wings are obviously great as an appetizer, but I like to serve them for dinner too 🙂
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Ingredients
- FOR THE WINGS:
- 4 lbs chicken wings cut into drumettes and flats (discard tips)
- 2 Tbsp baking powder NOT baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp dried minced onion
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- cooking spray
- FOR THE JACK DANIELS SAUCE:
- 1 Tbsp roasted garlic see methodHERE
- 1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar light brown could be substituted
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp yellow onion finely minced
- 1 Tbsp Jack Daniels whiskey or another bourbon whiskey
- 1 Tbsp crushed pineapple
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper to your tastes
- pinch of black pepper
Instructions
- FOR THE SAUCE:
- Roast garlic according to method HERE.
- In a medium saucepan, stir together brown sugar, pineapple juice, water, teriyaki sauce, and soy sauce until combined. Bring to a boil over MED heat, then reduce heat to LOW to simmer.
- Add in roasted garlic and whisk to fully incorporate.
- Stir remaining sauce ingredients into the saucepan and simmer for about 40-45 minutes, until sauce is syrupy and has reduced by half.
- Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.
- When ready to use the sauce, microwave for a bit to loosen the sauce up.
- FOR THE CHICKEN WINGS:
- Pat chicken wings dry with a paper towel and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Move your oven racks to the lower-middle and upper-middle positions and preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
- Lay a cooling or baking rack over the top of the prepared baking sheet and spray it with cooking spray.
- Combine baking powder and remaining spices in a small bowl.
- Add half the chicken wings to a large paper bag (or plastic zip-top bag) and pour in half the baking powder mixture. Hold the bag closed and shake to coat the wings.
- Repeat with remaining wings and baking powder mixture in another bag.
- Shake off any excess spices and place wings on the prepared baking rack, skin side up.
- Bake the wings on the lower-middle oven rack for 30 minutes.
- Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F and move wings to upper-middle rack position.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time.
- Remove baking sheet and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Toss wings in sauce and enjoy!
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Chef Tips
2. Sauce can be made ahead of time, or made while chicken wings are in the oven
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
HustlaWifey says
Wow,Wow,Wow!!! I thank you sooo much for sharing! I hate frying because of the grease popping on me and leaving burn splash marks, but thank you! I cooked these tonight and they were absolutely THE BOMB.COM!!! Everything was perfect!!!!
Ryan says
Yum these look delicious and love the photos! I haven’t had Jack Daniels glazed favored but this is really making me want to try some! Thanks for sharing!
The Chunky Chef says
Hi Ryan 🙂 Thanks so much, I hope you love them!
Megan @ Meg is Well says
I know what you mean about wanting to just get the food in your mouth and belly and forgetting to document the food in the process! But I think they look amazing and the crispness shines through that glorious looking sauce!
Melanie | Melanie Makes says
Who needs a restaurant when I can eat these beauties in the comfort of my own home? (And not be judged by the number of them that I’d eat…)
Dee says
Oh, wow! I can never get my baked wings crispy all over, and your photos have convinced me that I need to try this method ASAP! Love the sauce too!
Lauren @ Hall Nesting says
I have been trying to find a method of baking wings to get the crispness! And this sauce is something I am all over
Cathy Trochelman says
My husband is a wing fanatic and also happens to love Jack…..sounds like a win to me!
Cookin Canuck says
Oh my, that sauce! I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off of these wings.
Meg @ With Salt and Wit says
I am going to be making these this weekend!
Renee - Kudos Kitchen says
These wings look amazing, and I’m all about that Jack Daniels glaze.