My hubby and I LOVE buffalo wings and will eat them any excuse we can get. During football season, we love making wings at home. I have gotten where I will try ANY marinade on chicken wings and they pretty much always turn out delicious. This Lemon Pepper Baked Chicken Wings recipe is “the real deal” as my husband put it. It’s lean, uses clean ingredients, NO frying, and turns out tasting just as good as if you were at a wing restaurant! I promise! Give these Lemon Pepper Baked Chicken Wings a try and see for yourself!
Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings

Serves: 4 people
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Ingredients
For the Wings:
- 3 lbs split chicken wings
- 3 tbsp avocado oil
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1.5 tsp tapioca flour
For the Lemon-Pepper Sauce:
- 2 tbsp ghee can sub unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper optional, for spicy
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup lemon juice from about 2 lemons
Instructions
Oven Bake the Chicken:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and top with a wire baking rack.
- Pat the chicken wings very dry using paper towels. Place in a large ziplock bag and drizzle with oil, salt and pepper. Shake until well combined and evenly coated. Open the bag and then add the tapioca flour. Shake once more until evenly coated.
- Place the wings on the wire rack in a single layer without any of the wings touching one another. This allows them to crisp up more nicely as opposed to steaming when they are too close to one another. Transfer to the oven and bake until wings are golden brown all over and crisp, 35 to 40 minutes.
Make the Lemon-Pepper Sauce:
- With about 10 minutes left in the oven cooking time, start the sauce. Heat a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Melt the ghee, when the ghee has melted, add the garlic, pepper, cayenne and turmeric and cook, stirring, being careful not to burn until the garlic is fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the lemon zest, juice, and let lightly simmer, stirring often, until the wings are ready.
- When the wings are done, carefully transfer to a large bowl. Pour sauce over and toss until evenly coated. Taste, and add more salt, to taste, if desired.
- Serve on a serving platter and garnish with freshly chopped parsley, a few extra cracks of black pepper, and some lemon wedges (if desired). Enjoy!
6 Comments
Lavender
June 9, 2021 at 4:50 pmWhat replacement for tapioca flour would you suggest? I can’t find it in my area.
Alex
June 14, 2021 at 12:16 pmThe best sub would be arrowroot flour, and even regular flour will probbably work ok.
sarah
February 8, 2021 at 5:08 pmThese were so delicious! I made them for Super Bowl sunday and my husband preferred these to any lemon-pepper he’s had at a restaurant. Love following your recipes, thank you!
Marybeth
February 5, 2021 at 11:47 pmHi! I have challenges with keeping my oven wings crispy. Pouring sauce over after cooking, they are still crispy?
Thank you for being so awesome!
Alex
February 15, 2021 at 8:45 pmYes, they should stay crispy but you can always dip them into the sauce if you prefer! Make sure to space them out on a wire rack as well to get them crispy.
Kayla K.
February 5, 2021 at 6:58 pmThese are SO good!! I made them for my boyfriend two weeks ago and will be making them again for the Super Bowl on Sunday!! The flavor comes through strongly and beautifully and they are just delicious! Restaurant-level tastiness that we can feel good about eating!