Simple Air Fryer Chicken Wings with Lemon and Garlic

Make perfectly crispy air fryer chicken wings with lemon, garlic, and olive oil - no breading or deep frying needed. This quick, five-ingredient recipe delivers big flavor and easy cleanup.

This simple air fryer chicken wings recipe goes back to our son’s Little League baseball days, when I enjoyed coaching. One of my fellow coaches would regularly have the team over for cookouts. He’d nicely make some simple wings on the side of the grill to suit B’s tastes and food allergies.

Chicken wings remains one of B’s favorite foods, something he likes to order at restaurants that can prepare it safely for his allergies. But he still likes the simple preparation best with olive, lemon and garlic, and nice crispy skin. After testing it over the years, I’ve come up with this simple chicken wing recipe that gets a thumbs up from him!

If you are looking for a simple air fryer chicken wing recipe that delivers big on flavor, here you go!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Understanding Chicken Wing Parts
• Tips and Step-by-Step Overview
• What to serve with wings
• Recipe card

Ingredients

Here are a few notes about the 5 simple ingredients you need for this recipe:

Chicken Wings: Of course, the wings are an important ingredient! See the section below for more information on the different parts of a chicken wing. This recipe is based on 10 chicken wings, you can scale it up if your air fryer is big enough or if you want to mak 2 batches. We’ve been getting local chicken wings from Walden Local Meats.

Olive oil: You don’t need to use high end olive oil for this recipe! Whatever olive oil you have on hand will work.

Lemon juice: I recommend buying whole lemon to get freshly squeezed juice for this recipe. A quarter of a lemon will typically produce the one tablespoon of lemon juice called for in this recipe. You could add a bit more juice if you like.

Salt: I have used both basic table salt and ksher salt for this recipe, and either is fine.

Garlic powder: Most of my recipes call for minced garlic cloves, but for this simple chicken wing recipe, I go with ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. But if you like, you can use 1 clove minced garlic instead.

That’s it! Just five ingredients for this easy chicken wing recipe. There’s no need for breading to make crispy wings in the air fryer, following this recipe.

Understanding Chicken Wing Parts

Before you start cooking, it helps to know the parts of a chicken wing - especially if you're buying whole wings. A whole wing has three sections: the drumette, the flat (or wingette), and the tip.

The drumette is the meaty portion attached to the main body of the chicken.

Drumette (or “Drummies”): It looks like a mini drumstick, with one main bone running through the center. The drumette tends to cook a bit faster than the flat because of its meatier center.

Flats (or "Wingettes"): The flat is in the middle section of the wing, between the drumette and the tip. It has two small bones and less meat, but many some people say this is the most flavorful part because of the extra crispy skin-to-meat ratio.

Wing tips: The pointed end of the wing - usually mostly skin and bone, with very little meat. Some stores sell wings with the tips still attached, but many recipes (including this one) use "party wings," which are pre-separated into drumettes and flats.

If you purchase whole chicken wings, use a sharp knife to separate the drumette from the flat.

Tips and Step-by-Step Overview

Here’s an overview of the steps for making our simple air fryer chicken wings.

First, note that this crispy air fryer chicken wing recipe is based on having chicken wings that are not frozen. If you want to use wings from the freezer, try to take them out to thaw a good 24 hours in advance of cooking. If you need to speed up the process, you can put the bag of chicken wings in some warm water for awhile to thaw.

Make the marinade – Combine the olive oil, salt, garlic powder and lemon juice in a small bowl.

Marinate the chicken – Pat the chicken dry to remove excess moisture, then place the chicken in a plastic sealable bag.

Seal the bag, and gently toss the chicken so that it is well covered by the marinade.

Leave out to marinate at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking, or place in the refrigerator to marinade for a longer time if you’d like.

Prepare for air frying – Take the air fryer tray out of the air fryer. Line the air fryer basked(s) with parchment paper.

Cook the wings: Take the wings out of the marinade bag, one by one, gently shaking the excess marinade on each wing back into the bag. Place the wings in a single layer in the air fryer basket, leaving a little space between pieces for even crisping.

We have a dual basked Nina air fryer (Amazon link included), so we spread the chicken wing pieces across the bottom of both air fryers. Depending on the size of the your air fryer, you may be able to get more wings in than the 10 we did. But be sure not to crowd the air fryer, so that the wings get nice and crispy.

Slide the air fryer basket(s) back into the air fryer, and close.

Set the air fry to “air fry” at 400 degrees, and set the timer to 10 minutes.

If you have a Dual Basked Ninja or something similar, press “match cook” to duplicate the setting ont he other side of the basket.

Start the air fyer, and cook for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove the basket(s) and use tongs to carefully turn over each wing. Slide the basket(s) back into the air fryer, and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes at 400.

Ours came out to a perfect crispiness after 10 additional minutes of cooking time (20 minutes total). But it is a good idea to check after 8 minutes to see if the wings might be done to your liking.

You'll know the wings are done when they're nicely browned and crispy on the outside. For accuracy, you can check that the internal temperature of the meatiest wing reaches 165°F before serving.

You are ready to serve and enjoy!

What to serve with wings

These simple air fryer chicken wings make an easy main dish or hearty snack - and they pair nicely with a few quick sides. We often serve them with green beans (as shown in the photos) for a fresh, colorful contrast. A rice pilaf also works well to round out the meal.

Our son is the primary wing eater here, and he enjoys them freshly cooked without any extra sauces.

If you'd like to add a little extra flavor, try serving a few sauces on the side for dipping. A classic hot sauce, BBQ Sauce, or a simple honey-soy mixture can all complement the crispy wings while keeping the basic recipe quick and easy.

Wine pairing

I haven't tested specific wine pairings for these wings yet, but based on their simple lemon-garlic flavor and crispy texture, several wines that could likely work well include Sauvignon Blanc, Vermentino or a dry rosé. I asked Stephen from StephenUncorked, a recent podcast guest, and he quickly replied, “Champagne!”. Sounds like a good idea!

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