10 Easy Grilled Chicken Wing Recipes

A large plate of grilled cajun chicken wings on the right hand side of the image. On the left side is a smaller blue plate with three chicken wings on it and a glass holding a glass of a golden-colored beverage. — Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

Grilled chicken wings require some skill to cook to crispy, flavorful perfection. This collection of grilled chicken recipes has sauces and spice rubs that run from a gentle sweet glaze to a fiery spice. We'll also teach you how baking soda can help you achieve the crispest skin, and how to utilize direct and indirect heat on your grill for perfectly cooked wings, every time. Let's get to it!

Grilled Turkish-Style Chicken Wings

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

An improved setup for skewers brings these grilled wings closer to the heat, while a marinade based on Turkish hot pepper paste infuses them with flavor.

Grilled Turkish-Style Chicken Wings
Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings

Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

Sticky, sweet, smoky, and tangy, these chicken wings get their flavor from an easy-to-make Hawaiian marinade. They're grilled until tender and brushed with glaze, and they're as great for a barbecue as they are for game day.

Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings
Grilled Cajun Wings

Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

A highly seasoned skin gives these wings an earthy and spicy coating, while the sauce has a complexity that goes beyond the standard Buffalo. They're grilled over indirect heat until blistered and crunchy, then tossed in a simple sauce of butter, Louisiana-style hot sauce, and Worcestershire.

Grilled Cajun Wings
Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy and Fish Sauce

Serious Eats / Shao Z.

With great savory depth from a marinade, these wings are easy to prep, requiring only an overnight soak in soy sauce, fish sauce, Shaoxing wine, and spices for maximum flavor.

Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce

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Grilled Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

These wings are coated with a rub, cooked over indirect heat with apple wood chunks, and finished with a sweet and spicy barbecue-honey glaze. There's a lot going on here, including a succulent smoky meat, peppery rub, and a sticky sauce that starts sweet and leaves a pleasing, lingering heat.

Grilled Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings
Grilled Hoisin-Glazed Chicken Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

These sweet and savory wings are grilled over indirect heat to crisp the skin, then brushed with a hoisin, honey, and soy sauce glaze that gets set with a quick fire over direct heat.

Grilled Hoisin-Glazed Chicken Wings
Grilled Honey Chipotle Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Here, cooking the wings over high heat caramelizes the sauce, tempering the spiciness and bringing out the sweetness of the honey.

Grilled Honey Chipotle Wings
Grilled Habanero Barbecue Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Rubbed wings stay juicy and get a nicely browned skin after 30 minutes of cooking, at which point barbecue sauce is applied and allowed to caramelize. These are coated with a roasted habanero sauce, because a touch of heat on a smoky wing just makes it all the better, right?

Grilled Habanero Barbecue Wings

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Grilled Sriracha Hot Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

To double up the Sriracha awesomeness, these wings are first brushed with a rich Sriracha-based sauce during the last minutes of grilling. After that coating bakes in, they are tossed with the remaining sauce, creating two layers of hot garlic goodness, ensuring every bite is full of flavor.

Grilled Sriracha Hot Wings
Jerk Chicken Wings

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

The essence of jerk is the amazing mixture of herbs, spices, and chiles, and when it comes to wings, the marinade-to-chicken ratio tips well in favor of the jerk. That means more heat and more spice, with just enough juicy chicken to temper the seasoning to the perfect amount.

Jerk Chicken Wings

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