Slow Cooker Sticky Chicken Wings
The easiest wings you will ever make. Just throw everything into the crockpot and you’re set for the most tender, fall-off-the-bone chicken wings!
I’ve made quite a few wings recipes in my day, mainly because Jason is pretty much obsessed with any kind of wings – hot, buffalo, asian-style. You name it.
I’ve also tried deep-frying and baking them, but I’ve never made wings in the slow cooker until I tried this. And boy was I in for a treat for the easiest, most effortless wings ever.
There’s absolutely no hot oil, no deep frying, no dreading, nothing. Just throw everything into a slow cooker, press the high or low button and that’s it. Really. It’s just that easy.
And the results are unbelievably amazing. These babies are cooked absolutely perfectly, soaked in all that flavor for hours on end. And the meat literally falls off the bone!
Slow Cooker Sticky Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken wings
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
For the sauce
- ⅓ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, honey, garlic, Sriracha, ginger powder, pepper and onion powder.
- Place wings into a slow cooker. Stir in soy sauce mixture and gently toss to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for 3-4 hours or high heat for 1-2 hours.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water. Stir in mixture into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
- Preheat oven to broil. Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Place wings onto the prepared baking sheet and broil for 2-3 minutes, or until caramelized and slightly charred.
- Serve immediately with remaining sauce, garnished with sesame seeds and cilantro, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Just started another batch of these damn Delicious sticky slow cooker chicken wings… these are too easy and sooo yummy, thank sooo for this recipe
Bless
I’ve made these several times. They are tasty and juicy from the slow cooker and crispy from the broiler. I highly recommend!
Sweet mother of pearl. My crockpot has never fully reached its potential until today! These will definitely be going into the regular rotation, absolutely amazing. Though I do think the recipe should be modified to recommend that if it is super watery transfer the liquid to a saucepan and then add the cornstarch and water. When it’s thickened add the chicken the coat, then take out and put on a pan to broil. If it weren’t for the reviews that suggested this I would have been at a loss.
The taste was fantastic but I had more of a chicken stew than chicken wings so not sure I would use this again .A little disappointed ☹️
I love this recipe. The combination of flavors is the best.
I just wish I made more than the two pounds. Oh, this sauce is to good to not use on other chicken dishes I can’t wait to try it. 🙂
This sauce…oh, this sauce. Sooooo good! I had 4 lonely chicken drumsticks hanging around so I threw them into the crock pot with this sauce and…just. incredible. Yet another great recipe, Chungah! Thank you!
So happy you liked it!
Tried this and my hubby loved it! Chicken wings falling off the bone.
I have made this several times with various substitutions due to not having this or that, but yesterday was the closest to your recipe yet – no sesame seeds, but I added 2 tsp of sesame oil to the pot during the thickening phase, then broiled.
It is our FAVORITE DISH now! THANK YOU!!
ONLY problem with it –
Our dog keeps climbing into my lap while I eat, wanting her share – –
Just whipped up a batch of these, and I figured since I had the recipe pulled up, I may as well leave a HUGE THANK YOU to you for this recipe. A recurring staple in our house. I love having a recipe to fall back on when the creative juices aren’t flowing in the kitchen.
I’m grateful for everyone’s comments. I’m going to try this for the first time and hopefully I’ll learn from all this advice. Know your crock pot, consider stove top reduction of sauce and reapply before broiling. Thanks.
I too had the problem of the meat falling off the bone and not being “wings” anymore…which is why I don’t like cooking chicken in a crock pot. I think I’ll have more success cooking them in a dutch oven…then transferring them to a crock maybe for the last half hour, with the sauce and thickening. Then under the broiler for a quick crisp.
Made this tonight- DELICIOUS. Cooked on low for 3.5 hours, took the wings out and set aside in dish under foil and since I have trouble thickening sauces in my crockpot I poured the sauce into a pan and thickened it on the stovetop. Dumped the wings into the sauce pan after, mixed them up to cover with the sauce, then pulled them back out and onto the foiled pan to be broiled. They were perfect!! Thanks for the recipe, definitely will make many more times.
I’ve made this twice now and I LOVE this sauce! I made it per recipe the first time with chicken wings and it turned out fine. I took the wings out at the end, turned the slow cooker to high and added the corn starch and left the top off and whisked it occasionally and my sauce thickened up just fine in about 15-20 minutes, then i put the wings back in to coat them and then broiled them.
The second time (last night) I used boneless chicken thighs and cooked them on low (after browning them) for about 2 hours then turned my multi cooker to the saute setting and added the cornstarch to thicken up the sauce and put the thighs back in to coat. I didn’t broil the thighs after and still thought they were delicious! This time I doubled the sriracha sauce b/c we like it spicy. I left off th sesame seeds an cilantro. I will probably make boneless thighs instead of wings from now on and may try them in the oven next time. This is going to be a regular in our house now.
I would check the wings b/c i do think the cooking time was a little too long.
Can someone tell me if this is hot/spicy? Worried about some of the ingredients.
Loved. Turned out great. This is a keeper.
I have LOVED all your recipes but this was not a keeper. I followed your instructions fully and used the correct ingredients. The chicken looks nothing like your picture. Like other reviewers my sauce did not thicken, the chicken fell apart and there was no stickiness. PLEASE revise this recipe.
These turned out great! Thank you so much.
Sounds really good. Want to make it this weekend. Can you use frozen wings or do the have te be defrosted?
Many food companies who do protein pump their products with a saline solution. This may be where the extra water is coming from in the crock pot. You must read label on chicken, by law they have to report the % of pump they put in their products. I agree if you do have a pumped product ( they do this to add weight) by putting in oven at 400 for 10 to 20 min. Will get rid of some of the water.
I made these as directed, and yes, it was watery. Fortunately I was using an Instant Pot on its slow cooker mode, and it has a sauté function as well. After the 15 minutes on high in the slow cooker didn’t thicken the sauce, I took the wings out and laid them on the cookie sheet to broil. Then I switched the instant pot to the sauté function, and the sauce thickened up beautifully. I broiled the wings without sauce, and then put them in a bowl and tossed them in the sauce. They were delicious!
I doubled the recipe and after cooking the wings in the crock pot for 2 hours on high, they were not completely cooked. Before cooking, Half of the wings were completely thawed and the other half was 90% thawed. That may have been the problem and also my boyfriend’s crock pot may have had a lower “high” heat setting than the author as Bill Ryan suggests above. We took the wings out of the crock pot and put them on a baking sheet. Then we thickened up the sauce in a sauce pan over the stove. Then we tossed the wings in half the sauce and baked them at 400 for 30 minutes. When they were done baking we put them back in the crock pot and tossed them in the rest of the sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. FYI, we cut the sugar and honey in half and quadrupled the sriracha which made the wings mildly spicy with a nice balance of sweetness. They were delicious and were a hit at our party! We’ll definitely make again and make sure wings are completely thawed and maybe adjust the cooking time.
Mine did not cook fully either – maybe I have the same issue, that my high is different than the author’s as well. I needed probably 2 hours!!