From frozen to fabulous, Pressure Cooker Buffalo Wings are a quick, three ingredient snack football fans will rave about. Spend less time cooking and more time cheering your favorite team on!
When football is in season, so are great no-fuss appetizers. A few years ago, I came up with a quicker solution for making hot wings for my crew. We go through a lot of them, so I buy the BIG bag of frozen chicken wings.
After a few trials and errors later, in my attempt to get the perfect crispy outside without having to thaw the wings, I found that you could bake them in the oven until they’re cooked through. Then just put them on the top rack in your oven, under the broiler to crisp them up. Not only does this get the job done, they taste better than deep fried wings. You also save on calories and that’s great for the caboose, if you know what I mean.
Since I’m all into pressure cooking, I revised the plan for wings once again and adapted my recipe. Have a gander..
The old “oven” method was great but it took close to an hour for the wings to get cooked through before you could crisp them up under the broiler. That doesn’t include heating the oven up. In the pressure cooker
Not only does pressure cooking the wings shorten the total cooking time, it makes clean up easier. Instead of trying to pour the released liquid from baking pans and making a mess, it’s all left behind in the pressure cooker
I love it when a recipe evolves with me.
I hope you’ll enjoy trying this method for getting those snacks done quicker, too. Let me know about it. I’d love to hear from you!
Have a fantastic day and as always, keep it delicious!
Till next time ~ much love, Connie
Pressure Cooker Buffalo Wings
- 1 1/2 C water for the pressure cooker pot
- 4 lbs frozen chicken wings
- 1 tbsp butter (melted)
- 1 C hot sauce
- Pour the water into the pressure cooker pot.
- Place the chicken wings into a 7-inch, oven safe colander or steam rack. *see notes
- Using the trivet, lower the wings into the pressure cooker pot.
- Make sure the wings do not exceed the max fill line on the pot.
- Place the lid on the unit and turn to locked position.
- Turn the steam release valve to sealing.
- Press the manual button and adjust the timer for 15 minutes.
- Once the unit has finished cooking and the timer has counted to zero, carefully release the steam.
- Remove the wings from the pot, using towels and the trivet handles.
- Place the wings on a baking sheet or into a foil pan.
- Crisp the skin up by placing the wings on the highest rack, under the broiler in the oven on high for 3 to 5 minutes, until desired result is achieved.
- In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and hot sauce.
- When the wings are finished crisping up in the oven, toss them in the sauce mixture to coat.
- Serve hot with celery and ranch or blue cheese dip.
The colander used in my video to place the wings in, unfortunately is only available at local Meijer stores, as far as I could find out. The name brand is Grand Gourmet set of 3 stainless steel colanders. You can use any brand steam rack as long as it is oven safe, dish washer safe, and fits into your pressure cooker pot without interfering with the lid. You want to keep everything below the max fill line.
For oven cooking method: Place the frozen wings on a baking sheet in a 400 degree F. oven. Bake until cooked to 170 degree F. internal temp. Drain any juices off of the wings and out of the baking sheet. Place the wings back into the oven under the broiler to crisp the skin for 3-5 minutes. Proceed with coating wings in sauce.
Recipe by: Connie Murray @Happybellyfoodie.com
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What brand of hot sauce do you recommend?
I recommend what is best for your taste. We like Franks.
It is a pleasure to watch your video’s. You are one of the very best cooks on the Internet. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you CB!
I make chicken thighs in the fashion of chicken wings but I do them under the broiler. Total time is about an hour and 15 minutes. I’d love to use your method. Any suggestions about time to do it? I use thawed meat. Thanks!
Hi Evelyn, I’d suggest 15 minutes in the pressure cooker and 5 – 10 under the broiler.
Question, why do you use the strainer / colander? I’m doing it without and I’ve done so with another wing recipe, but now I’m nervous!
I think it’s so that the chicken doesn’t touch the water and steams better. Works great! I just purchased a steel steamer from Walmart.
I just did some wings, semi frozen. Put them on the bottom of the cooker, added about 3 TBSP. water then put some BBQ on top of wings. Only did about 8 wings, 10 mins. Put under the broiler with fresh BBQ sauce on till browned. OMG they were SO good.
What size instant pot do you have? And why is the strainer necessary?
Very tasty! After placing cooked chicken wings in the oven for a quick broil, I dipped them in wing sauce and placed them back in the broiler for another 3 minutes. Not only were the wings and sauce hot but the sauce cooked in the wings! Did the same with full-sized drumsticks. Hubby is over the moon!
How much time would you recommend for 1.75 lbs of frozen drummies?
Thanks. Great recipe, next time I’ll crisp them up under the broiler after saucing them.