Our favourite tried-and-tested method for juicy and flavourful Vietnamese style chicken wings.
Hello friends! We are so excited to share this recipe for our favourite Vietnamese-style air fryer chicken wings! This recipe alone is a good reason to buy an Air Fryer. The wings come out with a crispy skin and retain their juiciness. You can adjust the seasoning to your preference to make whatever style of wing you want, but these are our go-to.
A few months ago, we were on the hunt for a new air fryer. Many of our friends raved about the healthy meals they were making with this magical appliance. The selling point of any Air Fryer is it’s ability to cook your food with considerably less oil/fat compared to deep frying or pan frying. The appliance operates the same as a convection oven which circulates air while cooking, but the smaller size allows your food to be cooked much quicker. This also cuts down on preheating time, which usually take just a couple of minutes. We love using the Air Fryer in place of our conventional oven during the summer months because it does not cause our apartment to heat up for HOURS after we are done cooking.
Cooking with less fat!
The best part about the air fryer is how little oil is required to achieve a perfectly crisp skin on your chicken wings or anything else that is traditionally fried. For this recipe, you do not need to add any extra oil! The fat from the chicken wings will saturate the starch coating enough to ‘fry’ the wings. This is much easier to do than to bring an entire pot of oil up to temperature for frying. Additionally, it is cost-effective as you are not spending $20 on a canister of oil to fry. There is also no need to store a vat of used oil in your pantry for ages.
Instant Vortex Air Fryer
After searching for a while, we found the perfect air fryer for us – The Instant Vortex! It has a fantastic box-shaped design. Our condo kitchen has limited counter space so the design was an important purchasing factor. A couple of different air fryers were recommended to us, but they are large, dome shaped, and take up way too much counter space. The Instant Vortex is great because of it’s flat top! This area can be used to stack your serving plates while dinner’s cooking. The Instant Vortex heats up quickly and is easily cleaned with soap and water.
These air fryer chicken wings are a delicious snack accompanied by your favourite cocktails or beer and a good TV show. Tossing with fresh herbs and a squeeze of citrus adds another dimension of flavour. Any authentic Vietnamese restaurant will serve wings, so I highly encourage you to go out and try them at your local spot to get an idea of the flavours we are going for in this recipe.
Pictured above, these wings pair well with our Minty Ginger Palomas.
Our love for Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine is one of my favourites because of the fresh components and delicate flavours. It is the perfect balance between sweet, sour, spicy and umami. It is not heavy or greasy so it is well-suited to my personal preferences for food in general. We were lucky to experience the beautiful city of Hanoi on our Asia trip in December of 2019. We dined at many wonderful restaurants and visited several fantastic bars. This trip made us realize that the Vietnamese food in Vancouver is just as good as in Vietnam. The quality and variety of dishes here in Vancouver is comparable due to the large Vietnamese-Canadian population. I feel extremely lucky and grateful to live in such a culturally diverse place!
Now, let’s get started! Below, I have included a video to show you the texture of the wings once finished cooking. We learned how to make this recipe from I Am A Food Blog. Make sure to check out the original version as well!
Air Fryer Chicken Wings – Vietnamese Style
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
Wings
- 1.5-2 pounds chicken wings fresh or frozen
- 1 tbsp potato starch
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- sea salt
- freshly ground pepper
Spice Mix
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Green Onion Sauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp green onion sliced
- ½ tsp fish sauce or to taste
Garnish
- red onion thinly sliced
- cilantro or other fresh herbs
Instructions
For Frozen Wings
- Preheat air fryer to 400°F
- Straight from freezer, add 1 layer of wings to the air fryer basket. Do not let the wings stack.
- Cook for 20-30 seconds to take some of the chill off of the wings and proceed to the steps below.
For Fresh Wings
- Season wings with salt and pepper. If they are being defrosted in the air fryer, feel free to season directly into the air fryer to save yourself a container.
- Add your starches to a large ziplock bag or a large container with a lid.
- Fill the starch container with enough wings so you can still shake them around freely.
- Shake the wings to coat with starch and repeat until all wings are starched. Be mindful to shake any excess starch off of the wing. They should be fully, yet lightly starched.
- Add the wings to the air fryer set at 400°F and cook for 15-18 minutes or until the wings reach a golden colour with a crispy texture. No additional oil needs to be added because the wings release enough grease to saturate the starch added in the previous step. Do not stack your wings to ensure they crisp up evenly.
- While the wings are cooking, combine the spice mix in a bowl or a seasoning shaker to use for later.
Green Onion Sauce
- In a medium hot pan, add the 1 tbsp of oil and minced garlic and cook until softened or slightly translucent. Add the green onion and toss to coat with oil. Take the mixture off heat once the green onion turns bright green.
- At this point, I empty the mixture into a bowl and add fish sauce. Be careful not to add too much fish sauce. The overall mixture should not taste fishy. If unsure, put less fish sauce to start and add ¼ tsp at a time until the sauce is umami without being overly salty.
Assembly
- When the wings have finished cooking, toss the wings in the spice mix until lightly coated.
- Garnish (optional) and serve with green onion garlic sauce on the side for dipping and scooping.
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