Air Fried Nandos Chicken Wings

Our Air Fried Nandos Chicken Wings Recipe is a spicy and succulent family favorite and keto compliant! This recipe is simple – chicken, a bit of butter, and sauce. It's all about the method you can use to get solid crispy, crunchy chicken wings and how to best toss them in sauce so they stay crunchy but are packed with tons of flavor!

It couldn't be any easier than this simple method for how to air fry chicken wings – season, place in the fryer basket, flip the wings, and then toss in sauce! You don't have to worry about wings being cooked through – this method is SO easy in an air fryer.

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

How to Make Crispy Air Fried Chicken Wings Tossed in Nando's Sauce

We love Nando's – it's no secret. Unfortunately, we live hundreds of miles from the closest Nando's to us (come to Colorado with your good chicken, please, friends!) – but thankfully, Nando's sauces are sold in stores pretty much everywhere, and widely available online. What makes this sauce so addictive? It's spicy (or mild, but we love heat), with lots of onion, lemon, paprika, and lemon. They have lots of flavors – we love the garlic parmesan in our Lemon Garlic Parmesan Baked Chicken Wings Recipe – but the garlic or hot are our absolute favorites.

Air Fry Chicken Wings Nando Style Ingredients

To make this recipe, you will need:

• Extra virgin olive oil – a tiny bit of oil helps salt and pepper stick to wings and helps wings crisp in air fryer to a crunchy, solid texture that tastes like deep fried. a tiny bit does the trick!
• Chicken wings – you can use whole wing pieces, but we prefer to cut our wings apart for the best texture, and so they are easier to eat. You can buy wing pieces already cut apart – but they tend to be more expensive. To separate wings into pieces, use a sharp knife and cut at the joint.
• Salt – salt helps pull moisture from chicken skin and re-inject back into chicken meat, so it flavors the chicken, allows chicken to crisp, and keeps chicken from drying out!
• Fresh cracked pepper – a bit of fresh cracked black pepper has an earthy, spicy heat that balances the paprika, onion, and citrus flavor of nandos sauce.
• Nandos sauce – Nando's sauce comes in a variety of flavors – but is based off Piri-Piri ingredients and known for a tangy, spicy, earthy and addictive mix of garlic, onion, paprika, and citrus.
• Butter – a bit of butter thins the sauce to make it easier to toss and stick to wings, and adds a bit of a rich fat balance to the spicy sauce.

Steps to Make Nando Air Fryer Chicken Wings

Once you've gathered your ingredients, we will use the following method:

• Prep. In a bowl or plastic bag, toss wings in olive oil. This wont coat wings much, it is a little oil to help crisp the wings more. Generously salt and pepper wings.
• Air fry. Place wings in air fryer basket so they aren't crowding each other. Fry in air fryer for 25 minutes at 375 degrees, pulling out basket to quickly shake wings to rotate them every 5 minutes or so. After 25 minutes, shake wings again, and then fry at 400 for 6 minutes to make wings extra crunchy.
• Make sauce. As wings are in final fry, melt butter in small pot on stovetop, adding in nandos sauce when it is melted. Stir well to mix, remove from heat.
• Toss in sauce. Add chicken wings when fried to a large bowl. Drizzle sauce over wings, stirring them to mix sauce evenly. Toss wings in sauce until evenly coated.
• Enjoy! Plate and serve immediately.

Kitchen notes

There are a couple of tips and tricks to get solid air fried wings every time – to get the best wings, follow these simple tricks:

Don't stack on top of each other. While it will take extra time, wings should be given enough room to crisp up in the basket on their own – overcrowding the pan will cause the chicken to not fry at as high a temperature, making them soggier and less crispy and crunchy.

Shake basket every 5 minutes. This will help to ensure your wings crisp evenly. Some people flip their wings with tongs – which is certainly more accurate – but if you'd like to speed up the process, shaking the basket well will help move the wings around enough to flip them without having to flip each individual wing. remove the basket as the air fryer is cooking and give it a quick shake – then place back in the fryer and let it continue to cook.

Toss wings in sauce in a bowl. The easiest way to add sauce to your wings is to place wings from the air fryer into a large bowl, and then drizzle sauce mixture on top, tossing wings in it as you go. When wings are coated, plate and serve immediately.

Extra Crunchy Air Fried Wings. If you want -crunchy air fried wings, there is a little bit of a process to get the wings to crisp without breading (your sauce will be fried in with the wings at the end for a chicken wing that is less wet or sticky feeling, and more crunchy.) To get extra crunchy wings, follow these steps:

• Fry chicken wings as called for, except the final round at 400 degrees.
• Toss wings in sauce.
• Shake off excess.
• Place back in fryer basket and fry at 400 for 3-4 minutes.

It can be so hard to find sauces and dips that are keto compliant or low carb – so many have added sugars!

To buy a sampler pack of Nandos sauces, please click here.

Serve it with

If you're looking for good easy gameday ideas, check out some of our favorites like Easy ChiliAir Fryer French FriesBacon Wrapped Cheddar and Garlic Jalapeno PoppersBacon-Wrapped Hot DogsPickled Carrot and Jalapeno SalsaShredded Chicken TacosFried Pickle Ranch Dip – and more:

Nando Chicken FAQs

When are chicken wings done?

Chicken wings are done cooking when they are crispy, crunchy, and have reached 165 degrees internal temperature.

What temperature should we air fry chicken wings at?

We air fry chicken wings at 350-400 degrees or as high as your air fryer will go for maximum crunch.

How can we store this recipe?

Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for up to four days, or frozen for up to four months.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 12 chicken wings
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
• 4 tbsp nandos sauce
• 2 tbsp butter

Method

1. In a bowl or plastic bag, toss wings in olive oil. This wont coat wings much, it is a little oil to help crisp the wings more.
2. Generously salt and pepper wings.
3. Place wings in air fryer basket so they aren't crowding each other.
4. Fry in air fryer for 25 minutes at 375 degrees, pulling out basket to quickly shake wings to rotate them every 5 minutes or so.
5. After 25 minutes, shake wings again, and then fry at 400 for 6 minutes to make wings extra crunchy.
6. As wings are in final fry, melt butter in small pot on stovetop, adding in nandos sauce when it is melted.
7. Stir well to mix, remove from heat.
8. Add chicken wings when fried to a large bowl.
9. Drizzle sauce over wings, stirring them to mix sauce evenly.
10. Toss wings in sauce until evenly coated.
11. Plate and serve immediately.