Asian BBQ Air Fryer Cauliflower Wings
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This Air Fryer Cauliflower Wing recipe, made with a sweet and sticky Korean-Style BBQ Sauce, will transport your taste buds halfway across the world. Perfect for a party appetizer, side dish or snack.
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Air-fried cauliflower wings or bites have become a favourite on appetizer menus in nearly every restaurant these days. Taking the lead from the forever favourite chicken wings and moving into the new plant-based trend. All the flavour choices of chicken wings without the chicken.
The beauty of cauliflower is its blandness and its little crevices. It can take on so many flavors when cooked and seasoned, the possibilities are almost endless. And these air fryer cauliflower wings don’t disappoint in the crispy department either! They can also be made in a convection oven if you don’t have an air fryer.
They are an easy appetizer recipe that can be served as a game night snack or even as a side dish for dinner.
Star Ingredients
- Cauliflower – look for a medium cauliflower that is firm and without brown spots. About the size of one of those small pilates balls.
- Panko Bread Crumbs – So much better than bread crumbs for this recipe. The panko gives a crispier texture with more texture for the sauce to grab onto.
- Honey – sweetens the sauce and creates a syrupy consistency that coats the cauliflower well.
Step-by-Step Made Simple
If you enjoy Asian-inspired fare, you might want to check out this recipe for Honey Sriracha Chicken Thighs or this Honey Black Pepper Chicken. A little spicy, sweet and quick to prepare.
Leftovers? No problem!
They are best eaten right away. If you store them or freeze them once the sauce has been added, they will become soggy.
If you do want to store them, place the leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. The coating will lose its crispiness, but this recipe will still taste good.
Can You Freeze Battered Cauliflower?
Yes absolutely! Batter them as per the instructions, then place them on a parchment-lined tray and stick them in the freezer. Doing this will allow each individual piece to freeze and prevent them from sticking together as a lump.
When you are ready to eat just take them out of the freezer and air-fry right away.
Add an extra 7-10 minutes, depending on your air-fryer, so that the cauliflower has a chance to thaw and cook. Then sauce them or dip them into the sauce as you wish!
Asian BBQ Air Fryer Cauliflower Wings
Equipment
- Air-fryer
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower medium
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 3 eggs large
Asian BBQ Sauce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ cup water cold
- 2 tsp corn starch
Instructions
- Preheat air-fryer or convection oven to 400° F. Wash and dry a medium head of cauliflower. Cut the cauliflower crown into bite-sized pieces, removing any stems.
- Whisk the eggs in a small bowl. In a larger shallow bowl,add the panko bread crumbs.
- Dip each piece of cauliflower into the egg and shake off the excess drippings. Then dredge the cauliflower in the panko bread crumbs to coat it fully. Place the breaded cauliflower on the wire rack of your air fryer being, careful to allow some room between each piece for air flow. If using a convection oven, place the cauliflower on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Air-fry or convection bake for 15 minutes. If using a convection oven, flip the cauliflower pieces halfway through cooking.
Making the Sauce
- While the cauliflower is cooking, in a small pot over medium-high heat, add the hoisin sauce, honey, 1 soy sauce, ketchup, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ground ginger and minced garlic cloves. Stir to combine and let the sauce come to a small boil.
- In a small bowl, add the cold water and cornstarch and whisk well until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the BBQ sauce mixture and mix well. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to simmer the sauce until it thickens. About 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked cauliflower pieces to a large bowl and add the sauce. Toss the crispy cauliflower and sauce together until each cauliflower wing is fully coated. Serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Notes
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Followed this recipe exactly, didn’t love the flavor. Tasted kind of bland and bitter.
Hi Kelsey,
Are you sure you followed the recipe? No substitutes? Because I actually hear that is sometimes too sweet for some never bitter or bland.
My 4 kids who never like ANYTHING, looove this. They think it tastes like ginger beef. They ate quite a few helpings. Even my meat eater husband liked it.
The only thing i did differently was use half hoisin and half oyster sauce since I didn’t have quite enough hoisin. But I think it worked out well and will always do that. Also I used a tbsp of fresh ginger as I just love it so much.
Thanks for the amazing recipe
Love hearing this Nikki! My kids are picky too and this has been a hit with them as well!
i just made it, with some modifications!,, ( just changed honey for brown sugar, and I added Sriracha. It is to Good!!!
My husband likes to add Sriracha when he makes it too for a little spice!
Added red chilli flakes and changed the portions a bit, tasted delicious!!
Made this and it is VERY sweet. Kind of a strange sauce taste. Definitely too much hoisin and honey. I would adjust if you are looking for something that’s a sweet/spicy combo.
Hi Jenny, Sweet is a personal choice and you can absolutely adjust the sweetness by reducing the honey but this has been one of my most popular recipes this year so there are many out there happy with flavour as it is. But thanks for letting everyone know how you adjusted the sweetness level so they can too if they prefer!
Definitely too sweet, less honey next time. And apart from having to do it in batches this was really good. You do forget that it’s cauliflower 🙂
I have a little bit of a sweet tooth so I like them on the sweeter side but you can absolutely adjust the sweetness but reducing the amount of honey in the recipe to suit your taste.
Tried this and really enjoyed it!! I too was bit surprised that this is called a Korean dish without the ingredients which are Korean. However, the air fryer made this a good process for tenderness, but took too long since small batches had to be done. I would try it again though, but in the oven next time so I can make a large batch at one time. Thanks!!
Hi Alisa, I’m kind of confused by the recipe, namely the hoisin sauce ingredient. Hoisin sauce is actually used in Chinese cooking not Korean. Gochujang is definitely more appropriate (and used in Korean recipes) to use like Sophia mentioned. As an Asian American, it irks me a little when people make recipes that are “Korean” or “Japanese” but don’t use authentic ingredients and still name it as if it’s from that country when it’s not. Maybe white people don’t see the issue, but for minorities like ourselves it’s seen as culture appropriation. Not trying to hate on your blog…..just stating some facts. I’m curious about this recipe even if it seems more Chinese Inspired/American.
Hi Olivia,
Thank you for pointing this out to me and I apologize if I have offended. This recipe was given to me by a friend years ago and this was the name of the recipe so I kept it. I should have researched the origins further. I will work on renaming the recipe. Authentic ingredients are difficult to find in some cities such as mine so I often will substitute more common ingredients when I must. In the future, I will make sure to include the authentic ingredient and then provide substitutes for more commonly found ingredients where possible.
Don’t listen to this lady. I’m full Korean and Koreans know that “Korean Fried Chicken” itself isn’t authentic. Plenty of popular Korean dishes are actually fusion (jjajangmyeon, taengsuyuk, etc.) and many have only been created in the past few decades. On top of that, plenty of fried chicken recipes use ketchup, which is probably the least Asian ingredient out there.
There’s nothing wrong with the naming at all and to say otherwise is super nitpicky and food elitist. I’m sure plenty of Asians would enjoy eating this regardless of its origin.
And yes, it was delicious!
Thanks so much, Kat for your support and kind words. I really appreciate you taking the time and so happy you enjoyed them!
Geez you can’t even post a recipe without someone coming out and whining about cultural appropriation. Cmon! Absurd comment!
I don’t have hoisin sauce (or ketchup) but do you think gochujang might be an ok substitute for a spicy flavor ?
Hi Sophia,
I myself have never had gochujang sauce but did some reading on it. I think you could substitute this for the ketchup but it will of course be spicier but don’t think it will work to replace the hoisin. I found this recipe for homemade hoisin on epicurious: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/hoisin-sauce-substitute-52415261. If you don’t have white wine vinegar simple white vinegar will do. For this recipe I would leave out the hot sauce because you will already get a kick with the gochujang. Hope this helps. Please let me know how it turns out with this method.