These savory and sticky chicken wings are cooked in the air fryer and then dressed with a fragrant garlic lemongrass sauce. Enjoy these as an appetizer or even a main dish with rice.
I consider these Vietnamese-style lemongrass chicken wings as an elaborated version of my fish sauce wings. They are just as easy to make while having more flavors and aromas. You can watch how to make this dish in the video below.
Watch the Video
Ingredients
To make the wings more flavorful, toss them with spices before air frying. I use garlic powder, onion powder and five-spice powder. You can try other spices you have in your pantry.
The sauce requires just some familiar ingredients in Vietnamese cooking:
- aromatics: garlic, shallot, and lemongrass. Make sure to use only the white parts of lemongrass stalks since I’m sure you won’t like bits of the fibrous green parts in the sauce
- fish sauce
- honey
- black pepper
Air frying the wings
We will need to air fry the wings twice. First, cook them at a low temperature to render out the fat. Then, increase the temperature to crisp up the wings.
Cooking time will depend on air fryer brands, how many wings you are cooking, how large they are, and how crispy you want them to be. My air fryer is the 220V Philips XXL, which can fit 1.5 lbs of chicken wings in the basket without overlapping.
Prepare the sauce while the wings are in the air fryer, and all we need to do at the end is just tossing them with the sauce. If you want the chicken wings to retain as much crispiness as possible, toss very quickly.
Detailed measurements and instructions to cook these lemongrass chicken wings in the air fryer are in the recipe card below. I like to eat them as an appetizer with some cucumber sticks on the side.
Other Air Fryer Recipes to Try
I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates. You can find my collection of Vietnamese recipes here.
Air Fryer Lemongrass Chicken Wings
Ingredients
For the Chicken Wings
- 1.5 lbs chicken wings, cut into drumettes and flats, pat dry
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 3/8 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the Sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon minced shallots
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/4-1/3 cup minced lemongrass, white parts only
- 1½ tablespoons olive oil
- 1½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer if recommended in the manual.
- Place all ingredients for the chicken wings in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. If you have time, marinate at room temperature for 20-30 minutes (or several hours in the refrigerator). If not, it is fine to start cooking right away.
- Place the chicken wings in the air fryer basket skin side up (without overlapping would be best). Cook at 350°F (or 180°C) for 15 minutes.
- When time is up, open the basket and flip the wings or shake the basket. Increase the temperature to 400°F (or 200°C) and cook for 3-4 minutes. Flip or shake and continue to air fry for another 2-3 minutes or until the wings are crispy to your liking.
- While the wings are being cooked in step 4 above, prepare the sauce. Add oil to a saucepan or a deep pan over medium heat and sauté shallots until fragrant. Then add lemongrass and garlic, continue to sauté for about 2 minutes until lemongrass has reduced in volume and everything is fragrant.
- Add fish sauce to the saucepan and the mixture will sizzle. Turn off the heat, add honey and black pepper then stir to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- After finishing air frying the wings, toss them with the sauce and serve right away.
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