Keto Salt and Vinegar Wings (Oven or Air Fryer)
Salt & Vinegar Chicken Wings are the ultimate party finger food for any football game day or super bowl party!
Keto Chicken Wings
If you love salt and vinegar flavors or salt vinegar chips, these keto chicken wings will be your favorite way to enjoy the flavors of those iconic potato chips without the carbs!
Crispy Wings are the perfect finger food for a football party spread! They are well loved when it comes to game day eats. Most often I’ve seen buffalo chicken wings winning out above the rest, but I’m here to share my vinegar seasoning recipe for a flavor I think will win out with the whole family!
This recipe was first published back in January of 2015! I updated with new photos and brought it out of the archives to share before Super Bowl Sunday!
Carbs in Battered Chicken Wings
Nutrition facts will vary, but I often use the app Cronometer as it’s quite reliable. If you were to order KFC chicken wings orginial recipe, for 4 wings you are looking at 516 calories with 12.2 grams of carbs.
If you wanted the extra crispy, you’re looking at 714 calories and 19.8 grams of carbs for just 4 wings.
If you’re following a keto diet, you want to avoid any kind of batter on wings. Most, if not all, batter on chicken wings is made with white refined flour and sugar is most likely added as well.
Either way, not a good option on a ketogenic diet as they will kick you out of ketosis.
Carbs in Naked Chicken Wings
Chicken wings that are without any flour coating or batter are essentially zero carbs. For 4 wings, it’s about 356 calories and zero carbs.
Though our awesome wing recipe includes seasonings, oil and spices, it is still low carb. The recipe card below shows detailed nutrition information.
Best Vinegars To Use
White vinegar is good to use, but I opted for apple cider vinegar since it’s quite strong. I wanted to be sure to have that tangy flavor and vinegar taste, but either vinegar would work.
I wouldn’t recommend balsamic vinegar for this recipe as the flavor profile wouldn’t work for a traditional salt and vinegar wing recipe.
I know you can now buy Buffalo Wild wing seasonings, but the ingredients have maltodextrin and sugar listed so I attempted my own version just adapting the flavors from my Salt & Vinegar Zucchini Chips.
I’ve made them a couple times now and think they are incredibly crispy chicken wings without actually making a mess of deep frying them.
The seasoning works best and has the most flavor after the wings have marinated and then baked in the oven or air fried.
How to Get Crispy Skin
You can see the differences here on the baking sheet for the way I tried adding the seasoning. The 4 wings up front have been rolled and tossed in the seasonings while the rest of them have just been given a sprinkle on both sides.
The hubby was worried by rolling and tossing them in the seasoning it would be too overpowering so I sprinkled on the rest. You can choose to do it however you like.
I actually prefer them to be more heavily coated but that’s just me. These keto wings are finger lickin’ good!
If you’re not keen on Salt & Vinegar Flavored wings, these Crispy Baked Chicken Wings might be more to your liking or maybe these Brown Butter Old Bay Wings, but if you like Spicy, check out these Spicy Oven Chicken Wings!
How to Make Crispy Wings in the Air Fryer
I have an extra large air fryer, but even with that size, I still need to place some of the wings upright along the sides of the air fryer basket. In my large basket, I can easily fit about 3 lbs of wings.
The beauty of air frying is that you can cut your cook time down. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your wings and how packed your air fryer is.
Set the air fryer to 400 degrees F.
Arrange as many wings as you can standing upright around the edges of the air fryer basket.
Then arrange the others standing upright against the ones on the edges until all the wings are standing upright in the air fryer. (This arrangement helps to crisp the wings evenly, as 3 pounds of wins is a lot for an air fryer.) If you do not have a large air fryer, you will need to cook the wings in batches.
Set the air fryer to cook for 20 minutes. Check the wings for crispness. If you prefer them to be very crispy, cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Best Tips
You don’t necessarily need to add any sweetener to these, but the little bit of Swerve I did add, really enhances the savory flavors of these wings so I do highly recommend using it.
The malt vinegar is optional because you certainly could just taste a wing and decide if it has enough vinegar flavor for your taste buds. I prefer more and used it heavily!
If you decide you’d rather coat the wings as opposed to just sprinkling the dry seasoning on them you may need to double the ingredients.
Keto Dips & Dressings
Can’t have great chicken wings without dipping sauce! Here are our favorites:
Other Super Bowl Recipes you might enjoy:
50 Super Bowl Appetizers, Mains & Desserts
Mini Bunless Cheeseburger Bites
Crock Pot BBQ Sugar-Free Baby Back Ribs
Keto Salt Vinegar Chicken Wings
Keto Salt and Vinegar Chicken Wings (Oven or Air Fryer)
Ingredients
- 5 pounds chicken wings
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Dry Seasonings
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons Swerve sweetener optional
- Optional: Malt vinegar to serve
Instructions
- Lay the chicken wings in a 9 by 13 baking pan.
- Whisk the vinegar and oil together in a small bowl or plastic bag and toss wings in bag or pour over the wings in the pan.
- Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Oven Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees .
- Place wings in a single layer on baking sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes. You can also place a wire rack over the baking sheet pan if you don't want as much of the marinade ingredients to absorb into the wings.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
- Remove the wings from the oven when a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the wing registers 165 degrees F. Season wings by sprinkling both sides of the wings with the dry mixed seasonings.
- Broil for 3-4 minutes until the skins are golden brown.
Air Fryer Directions
- Set the air fryer to 400 degrees F.
- Arrange as many wings as you can standing upright around the edges of the air fryer basket. Then arrange the others standing upright against the ones on the edges until all the wings are standing upright in the air fryer. (This arrangement helps to crisp the wings evenly, as 3 pounds of wins is a lot for an air fryer.) If you do not have a large air fryer, you will need to cook the wings in batches.
- Set the air fryer to cook for 20 minutes. Check the wings for crispness. If you prefer them to be very crispy, cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle on optional malt vinegar over the hot wings when they come out of the oven.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Salt and vinegar chicken wings. When does the dry seasoning go on?
after it marinates for 24 hours in the oil and vinegar then you look further in the recipe card instructions and choose either oven or air fryer option. Adding the dry seasonings is step number 3 for the oven directions.
I don’t understand why these wings are 4 carbs. Vinegar isn’t a carb, neither is salt. Am I missing something?
When I was searching for a low-carb chicken wing recipe, it was kind of overwhelming (I was bombarded with hundreds of options) — until I saw this salt & vinegar chicken wing recipe by Sugar Free Mom. I am such a fan of your recipes! You have never let me down, and your slow cooker fudge and vanilla wafer recipes — among others — have become family favorites. So I was pretty confident that we would love this chicken wing recipe, and it was absolutely delicious! The chicken wings really do resemble fried chicken — but without all of the bad for you frying. Adding the dry seasonings as a post-baking sprinkle and then briefly broiling them is a stroke of genius! The erythritol is the ingredient that really puts these wings over the top. It sort of caramelizes, and provides a sweet crispiness that plays off of the savory seasonings in the most delicious way! Thank you, Sugar Free Mom, for making low carb so much more palatable and exciting than I thought it would be!
Thank you so much Wendy!
They actually sell their dry rubs and sauces! ❤️
I’m a salt and vinegar fan so I gave this a try with drumsticks instead of wings. Now my local Walmart makes salt and vinegar wings that are delish, but I don’t get them often. I found that the apple cider vinegar made the chicken taste too sweet to me, so next time I will use malt vinegar to marinade instead. The seasoning definitely doesn’t need sweetener if you like them super salty like I do. I also wonder if it would be better to “dredge” the chicken through the seasoning to help coat it evenly. They’re still very good as is, but I’m used to a boardwalk fry kind of flavor.
How many wings per serving would you guess?
Try using dill pickle juice instead of vinegar.
Thanks for linking to me. I think I may have pinned these a few times already but it never hurts to share them again! 😉
Thanks!
Is that suppose to be 2 tablespoons of swerve? or 2 teaspoons?
I am making these right now. I have gotten them from Safeway Deli and they are yummy. Theirs can be a bit greasy so looking forward to trying these baked ones.
These look delicious- you can actually buy all of their seasonings and sauces at the restaurant!
True but I like to challenge myself and make it at home.
best wings I have ever made! Making them again but this time 10 lbs so juicey and tender and no fat! Using the nuwave