Air Fryer Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings

Ingredient notes – this is what you will need:

• Chicken wings – I buy my mine already cut up. For this recipe, I only used drumettes. However, you can use both flats and drumettes. If you buy whole wings, cut off and discard the wing tips or save them for making chicken stock.
• Baking powder – although this seems like a strange ingredient, adding baking powder to the chicken causes a chemical reaction and helps make the skin super crispy. Because it’s such a small amount, you can’t taste it.
• Lemon pepper – one of my favorite seasonings is made with lemon zest, ground black pepper, and in some cases, salt and garlic powder. It adds a beautiful bright, citrusy flavor to the wing sauce and is also delicious on seafood dishes such as my Pan-Seared Red Snapper.
• Butter – combines with lemon pepper to make an awesome sauce. You can substitute ghee for butter.
• Kosher salt – enhances all of the flavors in this recipe.
• Oil – (not pictured) although these wings are not deep-fried, I use a tiny bit of oil to lightly grease the air fryer basket and spritz on the chicken during the last few minutes of cooking. I like to use peanut oil because of its high smoke point, which means it won’t smoke at high temperatures.

(Specific measurements can be found in the recipe below.)

Recipe variations:

This recipe is versatile and can be easily modified. For example:

• Instead of the lemon pepper sauce, make the recipe as directed, toss in buffalo sauce, teriyaki sauce, barbecue sauce, or sweet chili sauce, or sprinkle with a mixture of garlic powder and parmesan cheese.
• For dipping sauces, you cannot go wrong with more lemon pepper sauce, sour cream, ranch dressing, or blue cheese dressing.

What to serve with lemon pepper chicken wings:

When serving these wings as an appetizer, especially at a game day party, consider pairing them with these easy recipes: Skillet Macho Nachos, Easy Game Day Snack Mix, Southern Boiled Peanuts, Easy Crispy Buffalo Shrimp, Classic Pigs in a Blanket, Fried Oysters, Fried Crab Claws, or Buffalo Chicken Dip.  

For more recipes or menu ideas, check out my 40+ Game Day Snacks and Appetizers collection. You can also find all of my game day recipes here or all of my appetizer recipes here.  

How many wings to serve per person as an appetizer:

Generally, you can plan on three to five wings per person when serving them as an appetizer. But, of course, it depends on who will eat them and what else you will serve.

If you are feeding an all-male crowd of big eaters, the sky is the limit, and they could easily eat a dozen each. However, three to five wings per person should work well for a mixed group with other heavy appetizers. That said, you might consider making a double batch, just in case…

Top tips and tricks:

• If you have to make several batches, keep the already-cooked wings warm by setting your oven temperature at 200° F and putting them on a wire cooling rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Wait until all of them are cooked before tossing them in the lemon pepper sauce.
• Moisture is the enemy of crisp wings. If you have time, before preparing them, place them uncovered in the refrigerator for two to four hours which will help to remove even more moisture.
• I usually double the recipe for the lemon pepper wing sauce, so I will have sauce to toss the wings in and more sauce to serve on the side for dipping. You can kick the flavor of the dipping sauce up a notch by adding a bit of lemon zest and a teaspoon of honey. For a more decadent sauce, you can substitute ghee for butter.
• If your wings are whole and you don’t know how to cut them up, here are step-by-step instructions from America’s Test Kitchen.