Sweet, buttery, and slightly spicy Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings are an easy party appetizer or weeknight meal. This recipe requires just 6 ingredients and minimal prep work in the slow cooker or Instant Pot for the most tender and delicious wings you can imagine.
During the cold winter months, my Instant Pot permanently live on top of my kitchen counter. I love testing different comfort food recipes with it to stay warm. If you love warm and spicy food, you will enjoy these Pressure Cooker / Slow Cooker Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings. This recipe requires just five ingredients, minimal prep work, and hungry tummies!
5 Simple Ingredients for Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings
Yes, only five ingredients (seven, if you want to sprinkle sesame seeds and cilantro)! I love recipes with short ingredients list. And it’s even better if I have all the ingredients already in my kitchen pantry. This recipe only need:
- Sriracha
- Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
- Butter
- Honey
- Chicken Wings
Now if you’re don’t have Sriracha or Thai sweet chili sauce, they can be found in any Asian grocery stores (or even Trader Joe’s) and Amazon.
Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce – It’s a type of chili/hot sauce made from a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. The most popular brand is Huy Fong. It’s a necessity for my family when we eat Vietnamese beef noodle soup, Pho. What other foods/dishes do you add Sriracha to?
Thai sweet chili sauce – It’s a popular condiment in Thai cuisine and is made with red chili peppers, rice wine vinegar, garlic, fish sauce, and sugar. The most popular brand is Mae Ploy. My family loves my Spicy Chicken Karaage recipe with sweet chili sauce.
These wings are just a tiny bit spicy (even I can handle them), sweet, and super tender. They’ll be finished cooking in the slow cooker but I highly recommend broiling them after. Broiling these sriracha chili chicken wings in the oven makes the skin more crispy and slightly charred.
Since you can make a huge batch in the slow cooker, you can make them for yourself to enjoy or for a party with the same amount of effort.
Use Instant Pot for Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings
The original recipe calls for a slow cooker, so I used the slow cooker function of my Instant Pot. However, if you have a Crock-Pot or any other slow cooker, please use it following the manufacture’s instructions on how to operate it.
It requires just 2 hours with my Instant Pot till the chicken is flavorful, tender, and almost fall off the bone. If you’re are planning to use an Instant Pot, don’t cook more than 2 hours.
If you use a pressure cooker for this recipe, the process will be shorten to 25-40 minutes (10 minutes to pressurize and 15 minutes to cook, and additional 15 minutes if you let it de-pressurize naturally).
Now It’s Time for Giveaway!
Today’s Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings recipe was from this AWESOME cookbook, The Asian Slow Cooker: Exotic Favorites for Your Crockpot by Kelly Kwok of Life Made Sweeter.
Kelly shares 80 recipes that can be made either in a slow cooker / pressure cooker or just one pot. Each recipe comes with a beautiful color photo of the final dish, and her recipes are very easy to follow.
Click here to enter for your chance to win a copy of The Asian Slow Cooker cookbooks (2 available for U.S. residents)!
I hope you enjoy this chicken wings recipe! If you make this recipe, snap a picture and hashtag it #JustOneCookbook. I love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter! Thank you so much for reading and till next time!
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Slow Cooker Sriracha Chili Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 5 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ cup honey
- 3 Tbsp sriracha sauce (you can buy it on Amazon)
- 1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce (you can find it on Amazon)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 3 lb chicken wings (flats/drumettes)
For the Garnish
- cilantro (coriander) (optional)
- toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Melt 5 Tbsp unsalted butter in a microwave.
- Add the melted butter and ½ cup honey to your slow cooker. I used the Slow Cook mode on my 6 QT Instant Pot.
- Then add 3 Tbsp sriracha sauce, 1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce, and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. These wings are buttery, sweet, and spicy, and if you want a savory kick, you can add 1 tsp of soy sauce to the sauce (it‘s my take, not from the original recipe). Mix it all together.
- Add 3 lb chicken wings (flats/drumettes) and toss to coat evenly using tongs.
- If you’re using a slow cooker, cook on Low for 4–5 hours or on High for 2–3 hours. If you’re using an Instant Pot, select “Slow Cook” and set the cooking time to 2–3 hours. Please note: I suggest cooking for 3 hours from readers‘ feedback in the comments below.
- After 2–3 hours of slow cooking in the Instant Pot, the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. You can serve as it is, or for crispy texture, broil the chicken for a few minutes. To do so, use tongs to gently transfer the wings to a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer.
- Broil on High for 5–8 minutes, flipping once. If you‘d like, you can brush the wings with more sauce. Remove from the oven and garnish with chopped cilantro (coriander) and toasted white sesame seeds, if desired.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
I made these for the super bowl. They all went. I’m looking forward to making them again!
Hi John! Aww.🥰 Nami and all of us at JOC are so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback.
Can you make this recipe without butter and if so, would I need to substitute vegetable oil for butter?
Hi Andrea! Yes, you will need to substitute but you don’t need that much oil as butter was for flavoring (and greasing). How about using 1 1/2 or 2 Tbsp oil?
Looks great, going to try this one tonight, but I’m wondering if I can pressure cook to save time instead of slow cooking. Has anyone tried?
Hi Cory! I am sorry for my late response. Yes, you can use pressure cooking for this recipe. Typically, chicken wings need 15 minutes pressure cooking. 🙂
After 2 hours, the chicken wasn’t fully cooked yet 🙁
Any idea why this was the case? Followed the recipe exactly with 3lbs of chicken drumettes
Hi Bryan! I’ve made this recipe following the recipe in the cookbook I mentioned in this post (It’s a book review recipe). Mine came out fine – I remember some meat of mid joint pieces were falling apart that I had to be careful to transfer to the wire rack to boil (I’m talking about step 6). I’m not sure why yours weren’t cooked fully. I quickly googled, and it seems like 2 hours on high on slow cook is normal cooking time. I followed the recipe exactly and I didn’t have any issue too. Maybe your meat was thicker? I wish I know why… Sorry Bryan, I can’t answer to your question. 🙁
Hi Bryan, I had the same issue using the Instant Pot. Make sure the Slow Cook setting is on “More” and not the default “Normal.” Finally, be sure the pressure valve is in the “Venting” position.
Hi Lord Sakana! Thanks so much for your feedback too. I don’t think I “cooked/sautee” my chicken drumettes at Step 4 that much. And looking at Step 6, I think my chicken is cooked inside, especially I had a little difficult time making sure meat doesn’t fall off when I transfer the chicken to a baking sheet to broil… Sorry yours didn’t come out. I can ask the cookbook author if it’s a common feedback from her readers too.
I also followed the recipe exactly with 3lbs of party wings/drummettes and mine were also not done after 2 hours on instant pot slow cook. I’m trying to pressure cook for 15 min now so we can eat dinner!
Hi VS! Thanks so much for your feedback. After receiving feedback from 3 people, I decided to suggest the cooking time to be 3 hours and updated in the recipe above. Thanks so much for letting us know!
Hi Nami. Just a quick comment to let you know that 3 lbs is closer to 1.4 kg, not 2.4 kg. Probably a typo. 🙂 Haven’t commented in a while even though I still cook extensively from your recipes and love every one of them. Your videos are looking so professional these days, your kitchen is drool-worthy and you never fail to make me smile. Keep up the great work!
Hi Angie! Thanks so much for noticing the typo! I’ve fixed it. 🙂 Thank you for trying out my recipes and for your kind words. I’m happy to hear you like our recent videos too. Trying to improve a little bit at a time. 🙂
Trying to crisp wings after slow cooking does not seem logical. It makes more sense to use an oven to crisp wings before adding sauce. Cooks Country has an outstanding method for wings in an oven. It would be interesting to see a comparison from wing advocates.
Hi Ron! I usually broil my chicken wings (https://www.justonecookbook.com/teba-shio-salted-chicken-wings/), so this was my first recipe that I cook wings in a slow cooker first and then broil in the oven to finish it. I can’t speak for this cookbook’s author, but I think her intention was to slowly cook the chicken in the slow cooker to get nice flavor. But the chicken doesn’t have a nice char taste, so she recommends (not mandatory in the recipe) to broil to finish which I followed. It was very tender and got some crispy skin, so it was pretty delicious. 🙂
Hi Nami! Thanks for the recipe!
I have an instant pot too me I’m just wondering if this dish could be prepared with the pressure cook mode or the poultry mode? (If time is limited)
Love all your recipes by the way 🙂
Hi Sammi! Yes, you can do that. 🙂 Thank you so much for reading my blog!
How spicy would you say …1-5 5 being the spiciest…..My husband doesn’t like spicy but I do…thanks
Hi Lyn! I just asked my kids and they said “not spicy at all”. Maybe because of the butter that makes it mild. It has that spiciness, but not like you need to drink water or die kind of spicy. 😀 My kids and I eat “mild” spicy food at Thai restaurant. Hope this helps!
Hi Nami,
I would like to know how long it will take if I cook it on a wok?
Thanks
Hi Celly! I a wok, you will need a lid so the chicken will stay moist. How long… it depends on the size of chicken wings, but I think you’ll need to cook at least 15 to 20 minutes covered and on low heat after browning the sides of chicken wings (without lid). I have never done it, so I’m not too sure… 🙂
This looks delicious! Is there a way to make them without a slow cooker or Pot?
On the subject of Sriracha, I put in mayo and serve those cute little fishrolls Chikuwa, stuffed with cucumber with it. Apart from this I put Stiracha in many dishes just because it’s so good:-)
Hi Lara! I think you can make it on a stove top on low heat (but stir once in a while), same way as slow cooker, but you just have to keep an eye on it. I recommend to finish it with broiling though. 🙂 You can bake after you marinade it, but not sure if it’s soft and tender like slow cooker version. 🙂 Probably stove top is better for same texture of the meat. 🙂
I love your sriracha mayo on the chikuwa with cucumber. They used to be in my lunch box often. LOL. I have to try it with spicy mayo!