Sous vide chicken wings, one of my most popular, tried-and-true wing recipes, is an easy sous vide appetizer to make for your next party or game day. These mouthwatering Buffalo sous vide wings cook in just one hour and are ridiculously juicy, tender and moist. Learn my sous vide method for cooking delicious wings at the perfect temperature, plus see how to finish sous vide hot wings in the oven broiler, on the grill, and in the air fryer.
If you’re like me, a proud owner of a Joule, Anova, or another precision cooker, the idea of a new sous vide experiment brings you joy! After all, sous vide enthusiasts are a special breed of people who really do love to cook just for fun. We are always up for the challenge and science behind finding out, “Will it sous vide?”
These chicken wings with buffalo sauce are absolutely phenomenal. Not only will they be a super fun sous vide experiment, but they’ll also become a fan favorite in your household in no time.
New to sous vide cooking poultry? Learn why sous vide is so popular.
Sous vide wings vs. baked chicken wings
Sous vide chicken wings taste way better then baked wings.
Why?
Low and slow chicken wings sous vide style are cooked at the ideal time and temp to break down the collagen. Collagen is a protein in the chicken skin that can become very chewy when wings aren’t cooked sous vide.
The problem with baked wings is that it takes a long time to break down the collagen. By the time the collagen breaks down, the chicken wings are dry.
And no one likes dry chicken!
Thank goodness for sous vide machines…
Ingredients for Sous Vide Chicken Wings Buffalo Sauce
You will definitely need plenty of chicken wings for this recipe, but other than that, there are minimal ingredients needed. Make sure you have a red onion, cilantro, your favorite buffalo sauce (I used Franks) and salt and pepper ready in the pantry. I also like to drizzle bleu cheese dressing before I serve these delicious hot wings.
How to make Sous Vide Hot Wings
Preparing the Sous Vide bath
Step 1. In a bowl, season chicken wings and (optional) red onions with salt and pepper. Add a very light coat of buffalo sauce, and a sprinkle of cilantro.
Sealing the wings
Step 2. Arrange chicken wings in in a single layer in a vac seal bag and vacuum seal the wings. This is not a recipe I’d use Ziploc bags to cook in, since they could easily move around and overlap.
PRO TIP: Chicken wings like to float, so hold them down in the water with these balls, clips, or magnets.
NOTE: See this guide on vacuum sealing meat for sous vide.
How long to sous vide chicken wings
Step 3. The sous vide temperature for chicken wings is 145.5 and they sous vide for 1 hour. This is my favorite temperature after much experimentation!
PRO TIP: Want more info on times and temps for sous vide wings? See this Chicken Wings Sous Vide Temperature Guide.
Getting chicken wings with crispy skin
After the sous vide bath, it’s important to completely dry the chicken wings with paper towel. This step removes moisture, making it easier to get crispy wings. If your sous vide wings look pink after cooking in the water bath, see what to do if your sous vide chicken looks strange.
Then you can finish them with one of the methods below!
Finishing in the Oven
My preferred method for finishing sous vide buffalo chicken wings is in the oven. It takes just a couple minutes and doesn’t require special tools.
Here’s how you oven finish sous vide wings in the oven.
- Once the wings are out of the sous vide bath, drizzle them with buffalo sauce and broil on high for 3-5 minutes.
- The skin will get crispy, while the inside of the chicken remains tender and juicy from the sous vide bath.
NOTE: Broiling sous vide chicken wings is the finishing method for the sous vide wings recipe at the bottom of this post.
Air fryer finish
You can finish the wings to achieve a crispy skin with an air fryer or traditional fryer instead of broiling them in the oven. To finish sous vide wings in the air fryer, set the fryer to 400°F. Toss sous vide wings in olive oil and air fry sous vide wings for 5 minutes. Remove from air fryer, shake wings in the fryer basket, and air fry for another 3-5 minutes until you have perfectly crispy sous vide wings.
Fried on the stove
To fry your wings wings on the stove, add 2-3 inches of canola oil to a medium sized pot. Bring the oil temperature to 375 degrees and use a spider strainer to quickly drop, fry, and remove the chicken wings when golden brown.
Other ways to finish your wings
Sous vide chicken wings oven-finished isn’t the only way to eat them. In fact, if you like playing with your food as much as I do, you’ll be happy to know that sous vide buffalo chicken wings provide many opportunities to utilize other fun kitchen gadgets.
Here are some options…
- Torch them with a searzall (aka the coolest handheld broiler known to man)
- Fry them in an air fryer like in this recipe for spicy air fryer sous vide chicken
- Fry them in a fryer
- Pan fry chicken wings on the stove
- Grill ’em — sous vide wings are one of the easiest sous vide dishes for camping
- Smoke them with an indoor smoking gun (sous vide smoked chicken wings are SO good!)
Experiment with these finishing ideas to find your favorite!
PRO TIP: You have to check out this trick for making sous vide chicken from frozen.
Final tips for making sous vide chicken wings
- Grilled wings. Sous vide chicken wings finish on a grill in just a few minutes. In fact, they can burn very quickly when grilled. So work quickly to grill each side and get them off the heat. Once the sous vide grilled wings are done, transfer them them to a bowl, drizzle the wings in sauce, and toss to coat. Serve as is, or quickly put them back on the grill for a thicker, more crisp skin.
- Brining sous vide chicken wings. Once you learn how to make this basic recipe, you can continue building on the flavor. If you have the time and like an experiment, try brining chicken wings before sous viding them. Brining wings for at least six hours (preferably overnight) adds a more intense flavor and moisture.
- Starting with frozen chicken. Frozen chicken wings sous vide style take an extra 30 minutes to cook.
- Flavoring the chicken. I used one my favorite condiments, buffalo sauce, to flavor the chicken. I always add an extra coat of buffalo sauce after they’re cooked and serve them with a side of bleu cheese dressing. Experiment with any of your favorite sauces. I think they’re excellent glazed with equal parts BBQ sauce mixed with sriracha. These are some of my favorite sous vide bbq chicken wings. Try them all!
Don’t Bother with a 24 Hour Cook Time
There’s really no point! Even at a super low temperature, they’ll completely disintegrate because they are so small.
If you want to try a recipe with a long cook time, try sous vide pulled pork, 24 hour sous vide short ribs, or sous vide spare ribs.
These are a Great Party Appetizer
Try this recipe for a party! My first attempt at these wings was for Super Bowl. They’re a great sous vide appetizer to share with friends because of the quick cook time and minimum amount of space needed. Plus, wings can be sous vide from frozen.
Looking for more sous vide party recipes? Try these sous vide sausage peppers and onions and sous vide onions.
Is there anything you can’t sous vide?
There isn’t a thing in this world I don’t want to try to sous vide, other than homemade pizza. Personally, I don’t know why people sous vide pizza. There’s no need to mess with perfection!
If you’re looking for another chicken dish to serve a crowd, try making a sous vide whole chicken.
Are you a foodie, too?
Find me on Instagram @sipbitego and see my latest sous vide recipe videos on the Sip Bite Go channel.
More recipes with cheese you might like:
- How to make pizza at home with store bought dough
- 50+ gourmet grilled cheese ideas
- Pear and goat cheese pizza
- Buttery sweet potatoes oven baked with bleu cheese
Readers also love these chicken recipes:
- How to Slow Cook a Whole Chicken
- Baked Chicken Parmesan with Vodka Sauce
- Chicken Piccata Pasta
- Get perfect sous vide chicken every time: chicken sous vide temp
- Baked Chicken Wings
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Check out my new cookbook – The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook. It’s packed with tasty sous vide recipes.
Still hungry?? Check out more chicken sous vide recipes
Sous vide chicken wings with buffalo sauce (Sip Bite Go)
Ingredients
- 1 LB chicken wings
- 1/4 cup red onion sliced
- salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp buffalo sauce (or Whole30 compliant buffalo sauce) divided
- 1 tbsp cilantro
Instructions
- Set temperature on sous vide machine to 145.5 F.
- In a bowl, season chicken wings and onions with S+P, 1 tbsp of buffalo hot sauce, and cilantro. Arrange chicken wings in in a single layer in a vac seal bag. Vacuum seal wings.
- Sous vide chicken wings at 145.5 F for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour in the sous vide bath, dry sous vide chicken wings with paper towel and arrange sous vide wings on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Drizzle with Franks buffalo hot sauce and broil finish in the oven on high for 3-5 minutes. *see recipe notes for alternative finishing options
- Serve sous vide chicken wings with an extra drizzle of Franks hot sauce and bleu cheese dressing.
Did a run-through for Memorial Day Weekend and the family gave it two thumbs up. Grilled wings sous veeded first are on the menu.
Question on cook time, would these suffer from a little bit longer cook? I know you said they’d disintegrate with a really long cook, I’m thinking no more than 30 minutes extra. That’s one of the things I like about sous vide, is that it’s a little more forgiving on timing, our weeknights never seem to go as planned, so I need 30 minutes of play, 30 minutes in an oven would kill wings.