Instant Pot Chicken Wings

Perfect crowd-pleaser Instant Pot Chicken Wings with made-from-scratch Sweet and Sour Barbecue Sauce. With only 10 minutes of prep, this delicious wings recipe is easy, needs no oil and makes fall off bone juicy wings. You will love the flavors.

I'm sharing, a simple step to seal-in moisture, render skin-fat and still cook wings in Instant Pot. Plus a delicious sweet and sour Barbecue Sauce (made-from-scratch) cooked with wings for a deep-delicious flavor.

For these Instant Pot Chicken Wings, you can use any BBQ sauce. I have many Chicken Wings recipes on blog, use any flavor you prefer: Kimchi Honey Chicken Wings, Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings.

Before cooking wings in Instant Pot, I like to crisp wing's skin, while doing so also render some fat off. Instant Pot cooks food in pressure and moisture. When cooking meat/chicken with fat/skin-on, it is best to first rendered the fat by searing or broiling. This helps get rid of cooked-boiled fat flavor in food. This is a quintessential step to making tasty wings in Instant Pot.

Searing the skin:

1. Makes skin crisp.
2. Seals in flavor and juices.
3. Resulting wings don't have soft, gooey skin fat but soft, and even texture. 

After a lot of tries, I found oven-broiling as one of the BEST method to get crispy chicken wing's skin and also to render some fat.

Two Ways to Crisp the Skin:

1. Oven Broiler: Broiling is fast, gives consistent crisp results and is healthier. Just an oil spray on baking sheet is fine and after 6-8 minutes wings are ready to go to Instant Pot. No much prep needed.
2. Instant Pot Saute Setting: You can also crisp wings in Instant Pot on saute setting. It saves from pre-cooking in oven but honestly it is not my favorite method. It takes multiple batches to cook wings without overcrowding. (Overcrowding will release steam and resulting wings won't brown well.) In 6 quart Instant Pot, it takes about 2-3 batches to sear 24 wings. 

Note: If time-pressed, you can also sear wings in non-stick wide sauté pan or a cast iron pan.

Once wings are broiler/seared. Instant Pot does everything rest. From cooking a flavorful BBQ sauce to making bone-tender, juicy chicken wings at same time, Instant Pot does both beautifully. 

This wing's recipe is also special because:

1) It doesn't need even a teaspoon of oil to cook 2 dozen delicious wings. 
2) BBQ sauce recipe is a keeper. Replace wings with seared bone-in chicken for BBQ chicken dinner for weeknights.
3) Instant Pot wings are perfect to carry for potluck or serve a large crowd.
Do this: 30 minutes before starting, broil wings, add to instant pot with sauce ingredients. In 12-15 minutes wings are ready to serve.  That's it! It is THAT easy.

More Sweet and Sour Wings Recipes:

Kimchi Honey Chicken Wings
Mango Harrisa Chicken Wings
Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings
Tangerine Buffalo Chicken Wings

All of the above recipes can be cooked in Instant Pot. Use your favorite flavor and follow the Instant Pot cooking method from Recipe Card below.

Enjoy! -Savita x