Chicken Wings

I'm planning on cooking chicken wings on my Mini and had a few questions as far as temperature. When I cook using the minion method with 12 lits briqs and all vents wide open it usually never ever gets up over 285, stays very low. That's with a 12" terracotta pot as the heat diffuser and instead of cutting the entire bottom out of my pot I have a ton of 1/4" holes in the bottom.

To get the temp up to 350 or so should I just dump a full load of cherry read charcoals in it which I have never done with it I've always done low and slow cooks or take out the terracotta diffuser and just use like a pie pan.

You have several options to get a higher temp. More lit coals, drill your holes bigger then the 1/4" holes, cut the bottom out, use a smaller diffuser, think that covers your options....

Or---- you can cook at 275ish like you are used to and pull the pot and put the grate on the bottom of your smokey joe and crisp the wing skin on direct heat for the last couple minutes

RGleason said:

You have several options to get a higher temp. More lit coals, drill your holes bigger then the 1/4" holes, cut the bottom out, use a smaller diffuser, think that covers your options....

Or---- you can cook at 275ish like you are used to and pull the pot and put the grate on the bottom of your smokey joe and crisp the wing skin on direct heat for the last couple minutes

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Making bigger holes or cutting out the bottom is out of the questions lol, this little guy is my low and slow love of my life. I think the 1/4" holes do a very nice job at slowing the heat down and doing a low and slow.

I'll going to try more lit coals and use maybe a pie pan for a heat diffuser, I'll let you know how it turns out.

TJ,
Just a thought, do you really need a difuser if the bottom isn't cut (all the way) out? doesn't the remainder of the bottom of your pot act as a difuser? I havn't seen a pic of your pot, so I'm not sure how many holes you have drilled, or how much of the bottom is still remaining. But if I were you, I would try not using anything at all (for a difuser) and see how that works.
Just a tought, Tim

TJMartin said:

Making bigger holes or cutting out the bottom is out of the questions lol, this little guy is my low and slow love of my life. I think the 1/4" holes do a very nice job at slowing the heat down and doing a low and slow.

I'll going to try more lit coals and use maybe a pie pan for a heat diffuser, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Click to expand...

You should be able to use your vent adjustments to achieve low and slow or hot and fast

If adding more lit coals doesn't get the skin crisp enough---- lift the pot off and place the cooking grid on the base of the SJ and crisp the skin with direct heat for the last couple minutes . My 2cents

Tim K said:

TJ,
Just a thought, do you really need a difuser if the bottom isn't cut (all the way) out? doesn't the remainder of the bottom of your pot act as a difuser? I havn't seen a pic of your pot, so I'm not sure how many holes you have drilled, or how much of the bottom is still remaining. But if I were you, I would try not using anything at all (for a difuser) and see how that works.
Just a tought, Tim

Click to expand...

I have a ton of 1/2" holes drilled in the bottom of my pot and also use a terra cotta diffuser and it easily holds low temps and only takes about 30 minutes to get up to temp, with the longest it ever taking being around 45 minutes because it was a bit windy. I don't think the bottom of the bot would do much to allow the temp to rise slowly and stay there. I think you might get a faster rise in temp vs. one with the terra cotta, but there just wouldn't be enough mass to hold it there.

If I were you I'd either try no diffuser to crisp them up of or doing like the other guys said and just removing the pot and straight grilling them at the end with the Smokey set up like it was from the factory. Wouldn't take no time to just slide the grate over the coals and let it get hot with the lid on. You get a good char too and not just light brown and crispy. Mmm mmm good.