How To Bake Chicken Wings Without Them Sticking To The Pan

Chicken wings aren't just for Super Bowl Sunday — they are a delight to eat year-round. There are many ways you can cook a chicken wing, from grilling (perfect during the summer when you don't want to be in your kitchen) to deep frying to one of the easiest methods: baking. But if you've ever baked wings, you might have noticed when you went to scoop them up after they finished cooking, the skin sometimes sticks to the pan.

Food Republic spoke to Dennis Littley, chef and recipe expert at Ask Chef Dennis, about how to solve this problem. "When baking chicken wings, preventing them from sticking to the pan while still getting that crispy skin comes down to the right pan, preparation, and cooking method. Using a wire rack over a baking sheet is one of the best ways to keep wings from sticking, as it allows air to circulate," he said, "preventing them from sitting in their own juices and getting soggy."

It makes perfect sense. In addition to allowing hot air to move all around the wings, it also limits the amount of contact they have with a given surface, so there is less for them to get stuck to (a spritz of nonstick spray on the rack is also helpful). Just be sure to put down something on top of the tray but under the rack, to make clean-up easier — like parchment paper.

Besides baking your wings on a wire rack, how you prep your wings can affect how much they stick to the pan. Dennis Littley explained, "Lightly oiling the wings before baking, or even dusting them with a little cornstarch or baking powder helps create a drier surface that crisps up beautifully without sticking." Not only that, but either of those ingredients also helps ensure that your wings get super crispy skin while they cook (aluminum-free baking powder is an underrated ingredient for crispy chicken wings).

If you don't have a wire rack, but you also don't want to chance putting your wings directly against the surface of the pan, according to Littley, you can put down parchment paper — but not foil, "as foil tends to cling to the skin, especially if the wings aren't properly oiled," he said. Now, if you're putting your wings down on parchment paper, they might not brown up as well as you would like. You can combat this by flipping them halfway through cooking, so both sides get exposed to the hot air for equal amounts of time.