12 Minute Chicken Wings: A ridiculously fast and easy meal for busy weeknights without skimping on nutrient density. A perfect Instant Pot or Slow Cooker recipe! Serve these with a big salad, roasted root vegetables, or a sautéed green.
That first picture is just the bare wings. They look amazing and there is no way they cooked in 12 minutes, right? But its true! Just a little Instant Pot magic and 5 minutes on broil in the oven to arrive to the point of perfectly cooked, tender, fall apart, juicy, and crispy on top chicken wings. No Instant Pot? No worries — I will share how to make these in the slow cooker just as easily (you just need to plan ahead a few hours)!
We had the privilege of visiting a close friend and cousin of mine in June this year. Me, my husband, and our kids showed up to her house around 0900 and let our growing flock of kids (6 of them now, all under 7 years of age) play in the backyard while we caught up on life. Time flew by and lunch was fast approaching; we started to say our good-bye’s and that was the moment when she insisted we stay for lunch and my friend, who is amazing at making real food into “fast food”, pulled an fabulous meal from her slow cooker and had it on the table in about 5 minutes flat.
My friend is the type of woman that has a million things going at once but always manages to pull it together and be awesome at life, motherhood, home schooling, and whatever she sets her mind to. I was so impressed with how easy these wings are to cook, their great flavor & crispiness, and the added health benefits of cooking meat on the bone, that I asked her if I could share it with all of you.
This meal is my go-to “I forgot to get the meat out today, its 5:00pm, and crap — my husband is coming home hungry in less than an hour.” However, I love the way my friend served it for lunch: she put the wings and an assortment of cut up veggies on a big tray in the middle of the table and called it a “snack lunch”. This is simplicity at its best — piling in the food in the middle of the table allows the kids to easily dish themselves up (although she did have to regulate how many wings her oldest was devouring).
If you have an Instant Pot you just dump the wings in FROZEN, cook them for 7 minutes (once up to pressure), pull them out and put them on a cookie sheet, then broil for 5 minute and serve. No pressure cooker? Thats okay! Dump them frozen into a slow cooker on high for 3-4 hours. After the wings are done broiling you can eat them plain or brush them with your favorite barbecue sauce or hot sauce.
Cooking with Bones such as with these 12 Minute Chicken Wings has added health benefits over eating meat that is cooked by itself.
What makes these 12 Minute Chicken Wings nutrient dense?
- Organic, free-range chicken (preferably local) that has not been given antibiotics, hormones, or feed filled with corn/soy.
- Cooking the meat with the bones & eating the meat directly off the bones.
Enjoy! -Rashele, BSN, RN, CEN

12 Minute Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken wings & drums organic, grass-fed, free-range
- 2 Tbsp olive oil or melted butter
- 1/2 cup lemon juice organic, ensure no sulfites
- 1 tsp parsley, dried
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic minced
Instructions
Instant Pot Method
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Grease bottom of pot with olive oil. Dump frozen chicken into Instant Pot (or other similar pressure cooker). Add remaining ingredients.
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Pressure cook on high x 7 minutes. While this is cooking, preheat oven to 500 degrees Farenheight on broil.
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Allow machine to automatically depressurize or you may manually depressurize.
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Remove wings from Instant Pot and place in single layer with skin side up on greased cookie sheet or large stone bar pan. Broil x 5 minutes or until golden brown and crispy (watch them carefully!).
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Eat plain or glaze with your favorite barbecue or hot sauce.
Slow Cooker Method
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Grease bottom of cooker with olive oil. Dump frozen chicken into slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients.
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Cook on high x 3-4 hours. When wings are close to being done, preheat the oven to 500 degrees Farenheight on broil.
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Remove wings from slow cooker and place in single layer with skin side up on greased cookie sheet or large stone bar pan. Broil x 5 minutes or until golden brown and crispy (watch them carefully!).
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Eat plain or glaze with your favorite barbecue or hot sauce.
Recipe Notes
To make 4 pounds of wings in the 8 quart Instant Pot use the same amount of liquid, double the spices, and increase cooking time to 8 minutes (high pressure).
Tools used to make this recipe (click photo or link to learn more):
- Instant Pot (8 quart): Pretty much everyone is raving about the Instant Pot this days. I had two friends tell me to just “Buy it!” And I have to admit … I am loving this new tool (especially since my slow cooker is about to bite the dust again). The instant pot pressure cookers, slow cooks, and is also a rice cooker, sautés, makes yogurt and more. Literally there are 7 things it does (so many I can’t remember all of them, lol). My favorite cook mode on it is pressure cooking and I LOVE that is quiet while it cooks. My old style pressure cooker always go the job done but that high pitched whistle on top of the kids making noise was sometimes noise overload at the end of a long day.
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I am trying this right now. My wings have been in there for longer than 8 minutes and nothing has stopped or started counting down. I doubled the recipe…used 4lbs of wings. They have been in there for almost 25 minutes. Not sure why. I pressed manual and then the plus sign to the number 8. What should I do differently next time?
Hi Denise,
I you are doubling the recipe it will take the Instant Pot longer to get to pressure … maybe as long as 20-30 minutes (although I haven’t tried doubling it myself). And you would also want to increase your cooking time. Best guess would be try cooking them for 12 minutes. You are correct to push “manual”, select “high pressure” and then set your cooking time. It beep, show the word “on” and then come up to pressure. Once it’s at pressure it will begin the countdown. Also make sure the vent is set to pressure cooker mode (not slow cooker!). Hope this helps!