These Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings are a welcome change to the Buffalo version. Brined first of all, then cooked in the air fryer, and finally slathered with a Hot Honey Lemon Pepper. They’re sweet, juicy, tender and delicious with a slight kick that reminds you you’re eating chicken wings. In short – they’re incredible! Grab the napkins.
Serve these Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings with a lemon mayo sauce rather than a blue cheese dip. The recipe for this lemon mayo sauce is below in the Instructions section.
Ingredients
- Chicken Wings: brined fresh chicken wings, drumettes and wingettes. Use this recipe Brine for Chicken Wings for step by step instructions how to do this.
- Salted butter.
- Honey.
- Hot sauce: use your favorite type, I used Tabasco hot sauce. I used just enough to taste it and get a little kick . I’m a wimp. Feel free to use more.
- Lemon Pepper: for your wings to ‘pop’, forego the store bought brand and make your own with this Lemon Pepper Seasoning recipe.
- Salt: the homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning does not include salt, so add some in this recipe. If you buy Lemon Pepper Seasoning at the store, check the salt content and either omit or reduce the salt used.
- Garlic Powder.
Instructions
Melt 2 tbsps of butter. Put the Chicken Wings in the air fryer basket (no need to preheat) and brush both sides of each wing with butter. Place the Wings into the air fryer at 400 degrees F. for 7-9 minutes.
Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir. Melt the remaining butter (4 tbsps) and add to bowl.
Add honey and hot sauce and stir well.
When the Chicken Wings are ready (check for an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.) remove them from the air fryer basket and continue on with the process of air frying the rest of the Chicken Wings.
Brush the Hot Honey Lemon Pepper sauce onto each wing. Coat them generously.
Make a lemon mayo sauce by adding 2 tbsps of mayonnaise and 2 tbsps of sour cream in a bowl. Add the freshly squeezed juice of small lemon. Stir well and add salt to taste.
Flexibility
There’s a lot of flexibility in this recipe, any changes to it will affect the flavor, look and nutritional value.
Use other parts of the chicken such as legs or thighs. Brining the Chicken Wings is not essential for this recipe to be successful, but it definitely helps make them juicy and tender. Other flavors can be used instead of Lemon Pepper such as traditional Buffalo seasoning. And, of course, hot sauce can be omitted or amped up.
Uses for Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings
The obvious use for these Chicken Wings is game time! It doesn’t have to be Super Bowl, just any time you want to gather round the TV with family or have friends over. Last year about 1.42 billion chicken wings were eaten according to Reader’s Digest. That’s a lot of wings. Maybe this year we’ll beat it.
Add these Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings to your appetizer table, along with Meatloaf Sliders with Baconnaise, Air Fryer Potato Skins, Corn Ribs, and Mozzarella and Roasted Tomato Pizza.
Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings are great on any casual appetizer buffet. Brining them helps them retain their juices and flavor. They are sure to be a big hit!
Storage
Store any leftover Chicken Wings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Freeze them for up to 3 months and defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
To reheat, line the air fryer basket with foil and place the wings on the foil. Reheat at 350 degrees F. for 5-10 minutes or until 165 degrees F. is reached using a digital thermometer.
Equipment
This recipe uses an Air Fryer. There are many types of Air Fryers on the market, this is the best seller on Amazon.
By clicking on this image, you will be redirected to a third party seller. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
A Tip From Me
While it seems that this recipe has two additional steps to it (brining and making Lemon Pepper Seasoning), these extra steps show up in the final result. The lemon zest and whole peppercorns that are blended together in the seasoning, really shine through along with the sweetness of the honey and heat from the hot sauce.
Brining, keeps all cuts of chicken tender and juicy. Drying out is not an option for brined meats.
Got Questions?
I’ve got answers – hopefully!
- Can I bring these to a party? Absolutely, being brined means they hold up well if not eaten right away. Warming them in a 350 degrees F. oven will bring them back up to temperature, but they can be eaten warm or even room temp. It’s all due to the brining!
- What’s so special about Chicken Wings? Wings have a higher ratio of skin to meat than almost any other cut of chicken, so having golden brown crispy skin is a goal. The sugar in the brine helps attain that goal!
- Why are Chicken Wings served with celery and carrots? Apparently the first Chicken Wings were prepared and served In 1964 at a family-owned establishment in Buffalo, New York. The woman who came up with the recipe, decided they needed a little more on the plate. So, she served them with a side of blue cheese and celery because that’s what was available to her. In my opinion, the creamy sauce, be it blue cheese or in this case lemon mayo sauce, is a great way to dampen any heat from the wings themselves. The vegetable sticks are a great way to add fiber and cut the greasiness of the meal.
Food Safety
When handling chicken extreme caution should be taken. In this recipe please consider the following:
- Use separate tongs for raw chicken and cooked chicken.
- Make sure the internal temperature of the chicken is at least 165 degrees F.
- Use a separate brush when applying melted butter to the Chicken Wings and when applying Hot Honey Lemon Pepper sauce to the cooked Chicken Wings.
- Don’t be tempted to add any leftover melted butter, used to brush the raw chicken, to the Hot Honey Lemon Pepper sauce.
- Keep the cooked and raw Chicken Wings well separated. Use tongs wherever possible to handle chicken.
Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2½ lbs chicken wings use only the drumettes and wingettes, NO wing tip.
- 6 tbsp salted butter 2 tbsps to brush on the wings before frying and 4 tbsps for the wing sauce.
- 4 oz honey
- 1 tbsp hot sauce
- 1½ tbsp lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Melt 2 tbsps of butter. Put the Chicken Wings in the air fryer basket (no need to preheat) and brush both sides of each wing with butter. Place the Wings into the air fryer at 400 degrees F. for 7-9 minutes.
- Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir. Melt the remaining butter (4 tbsps) and add to bowl.
- Add honey and hot sauce to the bowl and stir well.
- When the Chicken Wings are ready (check for an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.) remove them from the air fryer basket and continue on with the process of air frying the rest of the Chicken Wings.
- Brush the Hot Honey Lemon Pepper sauce onto each wing. Coat them generously.
- Make a lemon mayo sauce by adding 2 tbsps of mayonnaise and 2 tbsps of sour cream in a bowl. Add the freshly squeezed juice of small lemon. Stir well and add salt to taste.
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