The greatest bar food to ever exist – the humble chicken wing. Yet gone are the days where you had a choice of regular or buffalo; These days there are specialist wing restaurants with a dozen or more sauce offerings. This recipe for miso butter chicken wings has firmly cemented itself in my repertoire of ultimate party foods since it is so often requested by friends.
This chicken wings recipe, like my Chili Lime Chicken Wings and my Honey Sriracha Wings, all follow the same method. Of course I’m talking about the baking powder wings method. This technique creates the absolute crispiest skin you’ve ever had on a wing, and you don’t need to fiddle with a deep fryer since they are oven-baked!
Baked wings are a great way to make a huge batch of wings without worrying about splattering oil or letting wings get cold because of small batch frying. If you have an oven you make make around a kilo (2.2 pounds) of wings PER RACK! How easy does that sound. Not to mention the actual chicken wing sauce is so, so easy; You can whip up some miso butter sauce in less than 5 minutes!
What Is Miso Butter
Miso butter, like the name suggests, is a sauce made of miso…and butter. Well, there are a few more ingredients that I’ll get to down below, but the two main must have ingredients are already in the name.
For these miso butter wings I recommend using aka miso, aka red miso as the flavor is stronger and holds up well to pan heating. This is opposed to white or shiro miso which should avoid high heat. For example shiro miso is used in miso soup, where it is added at the very end after the broth has been taken off the heat.
What You’ll Need
- Oven Rack – These wire racks usually come with your oven, but if you don’t have any you can buy them here.
- Mixing Bowl – I recommend one of those large steel bowls that are great for tossing wings in sauce.
- Pan- You will need a pan to melt the butter and combine the sauce. You can use steel or non-stick, but if you use the latter just make sure to use a rubber whisk instead of wire.
How To Make Miso Butter Chicken Wings
This miso butter wings recipe is made up of two components: the wings and the sauce. The wings take a bit of time so you should start them about 2 hours before you plan on eating them. The sauce can be made once the wings are about the finish cooking.
Ingredients
Chicken Wings
- 1 kg (2.2 pounds) Chicken Wings – You can use the flats and drumettes The sauce is quite thin so you don’t need a lot to coat the wings, just segment them so they cook more evenly.
- 3 tsp Aluminum Free Baking Powder – This is what makes the magic happen. Baking powder changes the pH of the chicken wing skin to seriously dry it out. When you bake the wings they become extremely crispy, almost like a chicken skin chip
- 1 tsp Salt
Miso Butter Sauce
- 100 grams Butter – About one stick.
- 3 tbsp Miso – I recommend aka miso but if you already have another style you can go ahead and use it. Note that if you use shiro miso you should add it to the butter mix after you take the pan off the heat.
- 3 cloves Garlic – Minced
- 1 tbsp Sugar – I used a mix of granulated sugar and agave syrup so you can play around with it. If you don’t want to use syrup then just use 2 tbsp of sugar.
- 1/2 tbsp Agave Syrup – If you don’t want to use this ingredient, just double the amount of regular sugar.
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar
- Water – Optional, if needed
Miso Butter Chicken Wings Instructions
To start place all your chicken wing segments into a large bowl and sprinkle over the baking powder and salt. Give everything a good toss and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.
Place the wings on a rack or grate with a catch pan underneath to get the drippings. I also cover another rack with foil just in case there are any other drips. If chicken fat gets to the bottom of the oven it can cause a ton of smoke which is quite annoying.
Bake the chicken at 120 C or 250 F for 30 minutes. This step is to render out some fat and dry the surface of the skin even more.
After a half hour raise the temperature to 220 Celsius or 425 Fahrenheit and bake for another 30-40 minutes.
Making The Miso Butter Sauce
Melt the butter in a pan on low heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk them in. Everything should incorporate nicely but if you find the sauce to be too thick you can add a little bit of water.
Move the miso butter wing sauce to a large bowl ideal for tossing wings.
When the oven is finished doing its work remove the rack with the baked wings and move them to the bowl with the chicken wing sauce. They often stick to the grate so I use some silicone tipped tongs to gently pop them off without ruining the beautifully crispy skin.
Toss the wings until they are generously coated in the miso butter sauce. You can also add garnishes like black sesame seeds and sliced spring onion. Or if you want to add a little heat go ahead and shake in a few drops of your favorite hot sauce. It will alter the flavor profile, but will still be very delicious!
More Baked Wings Recipes You Will Love
Notes
- Make sure your oven is clean before making this wings recipe. If there is a lot of gunk crusted on the walls or floor of your oven, it can cause quite a bit of smoke and impart an acrid taste to the meat. If you are worried about the drippings from the chicken, I suggest placing a catch pan on the rack below the wings to make for easy clean up.
- If you cannot find miso paste in the store, it is easy to buy online. Once you open it make sure you keep it in the refrigerator but it will last pretty much forever due to the high salt content.
- Miso Butter Wings will last for up to 4 days in the refrigerator, but they are best when eaten right after they are tossed in sauce. The longer they sit the more soggy the chicken will get and it will lose all that crispness you worked so hard on. So while they will be perfectly safe to eat, try your best to not have leftovers.
What To Serve With Miso Butter Wings
While carrot and celery sticks are popular side dishes to wing recipes, I actually would serve these miso butter chicken wings with rice. Sounds weird right. But, there is a lot of sauce left over and after chomping down on plenty of crispy wings a nice bite of white rice helps balance the flavor and cleanse the palate.
How To Use Up That Leftover Miso Paste?
Since you only need a few tablespoons of miso paste you might be worried that you’ll have so much leftover and nothing to make. Here are some of my favorite recipes that involve miso paste (hint: it is always great as a glaze for meat):
- Miso Glazed Shrimp Skewers
- Nasu Dengaku
- Miso Salad Dressing
- Miso Glazed Duck Breast
- Easy Miso Glazed Pork Chops
Miso Butter Chicken Wings
Ingredients
Chicken Wings
- 1 kg Chicken Wings (2.2 pounds ) You can use the flats and drumettes The sauce is quite thin so you don’t need a lot to coat the wings, just segment them so they cook more evenly.
- 3 tsp Aluminum Free Baking Powder This is what makes the magic happen. Baking powder changes the pH of the chicken wing skin to seriously dry it out. When you bake the wings they become extremely crispy almost like a chicken skin chip
- 1 tsp Salt
Miso Butter Sauce
- 100 grams Butter About one stick.
- 3 tbsp Miso I recommend aka miso but if you already have another style you can go ahead and use it. Note that if you use shiro miso you should add it to the butter mix after you take the pan off the heat.
- 3 cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 tbsp Sugar I used a mix of granulated sugar and agave syrup so you can play around with it. If you don't want to use syrup then just use 2 tbsp of sugar.
- 1/2 tbsp Agave Syrup If you don't want to use this ingredient just double the amount of regular sugar.
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar
- Water Optional, if needed
Instructions
- After breaking down your chicken wings, put all the segments into a bowl. Add the baking powder and salt and give everything a good mix with your hands. You don't need the baking powder to coat every piece, but you want it evenly spread around all the pieces.
- Preheat your oven to 120 Celsius or 250 Fahrenheit. Place the segments onto a baking rack not touching each other.
- Place the tray into the oven and put another tray beneath it to catch the drippings. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Raise the heat to 220 Celsius or 425 Fahrenheit and bake for another 40 minutes.
- Remove the wings, place in bowl with prepared miso butter sauce and toss to coat.
Miso Butter Sauce
- In a pan on low heat add the butter and allow it to melt completely.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk everything together. Remove from the heat. Place miso butter sauce in a large bowl and when the wings are done, add the wings to the bowl.
So good. I make miso butter noodles at least once a week but this sauce on 🐔 wings 🪽 is glorious
Love this sauce it’s great, especially with the baking powder method you suggested