Why you’ll love these hot honey lemon pepper wings
I’ve always loved a lemon pepper chicken wing, but these might be the best I’ve ever had. I personally think that making wings at home is even better than takeout. My method for making chicken wings in the oven yields supremely crispy skins with a juicy interior, and you can control how much sauce you want on them. Plus, this hot honey lemon pepper sauce is pack with flavor.
If you love trying different flavors of wings, make sure you try my peanut butter and jelly wings, sticky honey soy chicken wings, or even my dry rub smoked chicken wings. I also love these mango habanero chicken wings if you’re up for something spicy.
Searching for more dairy free appetizer recipes? Readers love my fried pickle dip and puff pastry sausage rolls. But, my personal favorites are these bacon wrapped chorizo stuffed dates and air fryer crab cakes. You also can’t go wrong with a simple olive oil bread dip.
Ingredients & substitutions
- Chicken wings – You can buy your wings already broken down into flats and drumettes, or you can buy them whole and cut them apart yourself. I personally like to get them pre-cut, but something they are hard to find. Either works.
- Baking powder – This helps to dry out the skin and create a crispy exterior on the chicken wings, so don’t skip this.
- Hot honey – You can purchase this at basically any grocery store now, but if you don’t have any, feel free to just increase the hot pepper flakes to add heat.
- Lemon pepper seasoning – I like to choose a lemon pepper seasoning that doesn’t have added food dye, but that’s just a personal preference. Feel free to use any basic lemon pepper seasoning you can find.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make these lemon pepper honey wings
Prep. Preheat your oven to 425˚F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. If you need to, pat your wings dry with paper towels. Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt to a large mixing bowl.
Add the chicken wings to the bowl and toss to coat. I like to use a rubber spatula for this to help get all the flour bits off the sides of the bowls.
Bake the wings. Transfer the wings to your baking sheets and make sure there’s adequate spacing between them to help them brown in the oven.
Put the wings in the oven for 50 – 60 minutes, or until the wings have started to turn golden brown and their internal temperature reaches 165˚. About halfway through cooking, turn the wings on their pans and swap the baking sheets between oven racks.
Make the sauce. Combine the honey and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the honey has melted. In a small bowl or jar, whisk the cornstarch and water until smooth. Add the slurry to the saucepan and stir to combine. Stir in the pepper flakes and lemon pepper seasoning.
Continue to cook until the glaze has thickened. This usually takes about 5 minutes. Then, remove it from the heat and let it rest until the wings are cooked.
Toss and serve. When the wings have cooked, remove them from the oven and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the glaze and toss the wings until they’re evenly coated.
Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Wings
Ingredients
For the chicken wings:
- 3 pounds chicken wings, or drumettes, tips removed.
- 1 ½ tablespoons all purpose flour
- ¾ tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup lemon Juice
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425˚F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, lemon pepper seasoning, paprika and salt. Add the wings to the bowl and toss until fully coated.
- Transfer the wings to your baking sheets and leaving space between the wings to allow browning.
- Roast wings for 50 – 60 minutes, turning the wings halfway through. When wings are golden brown and have reached an internal temperature of 165˚F, remove them from the oven.
- Combine the honey and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until honey has melted. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and water until smooth. Add the slurry to the saucepan and stir to combine.
- Stir in the pepper flakes and lemon pepper seasoning. Continue to cook until the glaze has thickened.
- Transfer the wings to a large mixing bowl. Add the glaze and toss the wings until they’re evenly coated. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I made this recipe & I loved it! I roasted my chicken at 425 for 20 mins using the conv roast setting on my oven & it was perfectly cooked.
Way too much honey and white sugar is a better substitute. Silly to have to even bring out a sauce pan to heat the sauce as the yield is so small. Used a few dashes of hot sauce. Really had to doctor this to make it edible
I’m sorry you didn’t like this recipe. If you prefer white sugar, you should find a recipe that isn’t honey-based.
Agree, wings themselves and the seasoning were great actually but the sauce ruined it. I would say it needed something savory like soy sauce to balance out the sweetness. Lol to the “find a recipe that isn’t honey-based”. It’s truly an unenjoyable amount of honey and I love honey!