Best Instant Pot Chicken Wings From Fresh or Frozen
Best Instant Pot Chicken Wings made with either fresh or frozen wings. Covered in a delicious, sticky honey garlic sauce and broiled to crispy perfection.
Instant Pot recipes are a staple around here, I love the convenience and that I can make most of the meals in a fraction of the time. The best part is that you can make meals using frozen meat. Learn How to Cook Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot and also How to Cook Frozen Beef in the Instant Pot, and below you will learn How to Cook Frozen Chicken Wings in the Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Chicken Wings Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Wings are one of the easiest recipes you can make in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot. The best part of the recipe is that you don’t have to thaw the wings, it works great with fresh and with frozen chicken wings. This is probably the best thing about a pressure cooker because you don’t have to worry anymore about forgetting to thaw a bag of chicken wings right before the guests show up.
This is a very easy recipe and is perfect for a quick dinner, or for an appetizer, it is great to serve at a party. The recipe is no fuss at all, and after cooking the wings, you can choose your favorite sauce to toss them in and broil before serving.
It doesn’t get any easier than that, with recipes like this, anyone can become a super hostess. I choose to coat the wings in the most amazing honey garlic sauce because everyone went crazy for my One Pan Honey Garlic Chicken and Rice recipe. That sauce is the bomb, everyone will lick their fingers clean.
What do you need to make instant pot chicken wings?
- Chicken wings – fresh or frozen, both work
- Water
- Instant Pot trivet with handles
- Your favorite sauce for the wings
- A baking sheet and a baking rack to broil the wings
How to cook chicken wings in instant pot?
Cooking wings in the Instant Pot or any other pressure cooker is very easy and it involves just a few steps:
- All you have to do is add either fresh or frozen wings to the Instant Pot, add water and cook on High Pressure per recipe directions.
- Release pressure, remove wings from the Instant Pot and toss in your favorite sauce.
- Broil for a few minutes, checking often so the wings don’t burn. Flip once during broiling in order to ensure even browning.
Instant Pot Chicken Wings Recipe Tips:
- Make sure you use a trivet with handles or a steamer basket. This way the wings won’t touch the water, and won’t be overcooked. Also, it makes removing the chicken wings from the Instant Pot very easy.
- Be very gentle when handling the cooked chicken wings, as the Instant Pot does a very good job and making them soft and juicy. So handle with care. This way you will avoid meat falling off the bone or losing the delicious skin that covers the chicken wings.
- You can use a homemade sauce to toss the chicken wings in, or you can use your favorite store-bought sauce. Like BBQ or Buffalo, just handle with care with you toss the wings into the sauce.
- The Instant Pot can’t really produce crispy chicken wings, as the meat is cooked under the pressure of very hot steam. In order to get them crispy on the outside, you have to use the broiler. It’s just one easy step, that is totally worth it.
If you are wondering why making chicken wings in the pressure cooker, I can tell you that there will be one of the best Chicken Wings you have ever had. First, you can’t beat the convenience of being able to cook frozen wings in just about 30 minutes.
This includes the coming to pressure time, cooking time and natural pressure release. Regardless if you are using fresh or frozen chicken wings, the meat will be so tender and juicy, so much better than the oven version.
Looking for more Instant Pot Chicken Recipes? Here are my most popular ones:
How long to cook frozen chicken wings in the Instant Pot?
You cook frozen chicken wings for 12 minutes on High Pressure, followed by a 5 minutes Natural Pressure Release.
How long to cook fresh or thawed chicken wings in the Instant Pot?
You cook fresh or thawed chicken wings for 8 minutes on High Pressure, followed by a 10 minutes Natural Pressure Release.
How to make Instant Pot BBQ Chicken Wings?
Cook the fresh or frozen chicken wings per recipe directions. Once cooked, simply toss the chicken wings in your favorite barbecue sauce and broil.
How to make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Wings?
Cook the fresh or frozen chicken wings per recipe directions. Once cooked, simply toss the chicken wings in your favorite Buffalo sauce and broil.
What is Natural Pressure Release (NPR)?
A Natural Pressure Release means that the pressure is released gradually. For a Natural Pressure Release, you click on Keep Warm and wait 10-15 minutes (or based on what the recipe says). After this, you open the valve and let any leftover pressure to release. Another option is to Turn Off/Unplug the pressure cooker. Then, wait 10-15 minutes (or based on what the recipe says) and after that open the valve.
A natural release is usually used when cooking soups, meat in a large amount of sauce, pasta or steel-cut oats. This method prevents any foam from the dish to shoot out through the valve, which can happen during a Quick Pressure Release.
Best Instant Pot Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 4 lbs fresh or frozen chicken wings bone-in
Honey Garlic Sauce:
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons Mirin
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3/4 cup water
- 3 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more
Cornstarch Slurry:
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons water
Instructions
Pressure Cook Chicken Wings:
- Add 1 cup of water to the the pressure cooker pot.
- If using frozen chicken wings, make sure they are not frozen in a block of ice. You should be able to separate them.
- Place the trivet with handles or steamer basket in the pot and stack the fresh or frozen wings directly onto it.
- Close the lid and make sure the valve points to sealed.
- Press the Pressure Cook button and set the timer for 12 minutes for frozen chicken wings and 8 minutes for fresh chicken wings.
Prep Work While Wings Are Cooking:
- While the chicken wings cook, line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a cooking rack on top of it. Set aside.
- Turn oven to Broil.
- With the chicken wings still cooking, start making the sauce. You can also use store-bought sauce, see blog post for details.
Honey Garlic Sauce:
- Add the garlic, ginger, Mirin, soy sauce, honey, water, sesame oil and red pepper flakes to a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
- Stir to combine and let it simmer for about 8-10 minutes, or until it starts to thicken. Stir often.
- In a small bowl combine cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water and stir until fully dissolved.
- Add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and cook for 2-3 more minutes, until it thickens.
- Remove sauce from heat and set 1/2 cup to 1 cup aside for dipping.
Broiling the Chicken Wings:
- Once the Instant Pot beeps and the cooking has been completed, do a 5 minutes Natural Pressure Release. Remove the lid carefully and remove the steamer basket or trivet with chicken wings.
- Transfer 1/2 of the wings to a large bowl, and pour the Honey Garlic Sauce sauce over them. Gently toss to coat the wings well in sauce on each side, preferably use your hand to do this. Arrange the wings on the prepared baking rack.
- Repeat with the remaining wings.
- Broil chicken wings for about 5 minutes, flip and broil on the other side. Watch wings closely not to burn them, and broil less or more, based on how crispy you prefer them.
- Serve the wings with the leftover 1/2 cup of sauce or with your favorite dipping sauce.
Nutrition
