Discovered a trick for air fryer chicken wings that actually works

Last Sunday I tried brining my wings for 30 minutes before tossing them in the air fryer at 380 degrees. I'm talking a simple salt water soak, nothing fancy. The skin came out way crispier than my usual dry rub method, like night and day difference. Has anyone else tried prepping wings with a brine or is that just me?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

norag662mo ago

Actually saw a food blogger talking about this exact thing last week. She said the brine pulls moisture into the meat while the salt helps break down proteins so the skin dries out faster in the fryer. Makes sense when you think about it, wet brine gives you that tender inside plus crispy outside without having to dry rub and wait overnight. She also mentioned adding a little baking powder to the brine for extra crunch but I haven't tried that yet myself. Might be worth testing if the plain salt water works for you first.

5

sammoore2mo ago

Funny you mention baking powder, my buddy tried that once and ended up with a weird metallic taste that ruined the whole batch. He didn't rinse the wings after, just dumped the powder in with the brine and let it sit. Took me back to the time I accidentally used baking soda instead of powder in a recipe, same kind of chemical disaster. Did you ever test the baking powder trick or stick with just the salt water?

4