Best time/temp to smoke chicken wings?


 
C

Chris Mason

TVWBB Fan
I've decided to make a variety of chicken wings for an upcoming get together. Basically, I want to cook and lightly smoke all the wings the same way and then offer different sauces for coating them in (buffalo, bbq, teryaki, etc...). However, I've seen a lot of variation in the cooking technique for wings on this site so I'm not sure what the best way to go about it.

Here's what I am thinking so far:

1) I'm starting with whole wings so I will cut the tips off and then separate the flats (wingettes) from the drumettes.

2) Rub with a nice general purpose rub (maybe Wolfe Rub Bold).

3) Fire up the WSM using the standard method, an empty water bowl and 1 or 2 small chunks of apple wood (I don't want too much smoke). Target temp will be 350.

4) Put wings on and cook them at 350 for 1 hour.

Yes? No? Is 1 hour at 350 enough to fully cook the wings? Will I get at least semi-crispy skin?
 
1 hour should have them fully cooked for sure. As for the skin you will have to test that yourself.

I have found that this sort of "baking" wings doesn't give you truly crispy skin. If you are comparing to fried wings it will be nothing like that. I think much like competition chicken you are aiming more for "bite-thru" skin.

I do wings for tailgates in Buffalo similar only I refridgerate after smoking and then toss on a well greased grill to crisp up before they hit the bowl with sauce for tossing. Doing small batches will keep them the most crisp. If they sit in the sauce too long they absorb that moisture and lose some of the bite-thru quality.
 
I cook my wings directly over a single layer of coals on my Performer. I shoot for 350 to 400 degrees lid temp and they usually take about 45 minutes. I then toss in sauce to finish.
 
I do my wings on teh WSM, and go to the 350 at least, usually 375ish though. An hour is plenty, if not a little less than an hour. With that high of heat, glazing them is a breeze too, as it sticks real well at that temp.
 
JMO, but I'd consider either Wolfe original or citrus. Bold is more for beef. I never used bold on chicken, just thinking of bold with spicy sauces
 
Bold is good on anything!
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consider this:

1) set up the wsm without the water pan
2) cook the wings on the top grate for about 20 min, turning frequently trying to get good color all around
3) put the wings in a pan (disposable aluminum work best)of sauce and put the pan on the top grate and close the wsm for another 20 min
4) remove the wings from the sauce and roll them around the top grate for another 20 min, avoid burning them
5) toss them back into the pan with sauce and serve

I do this with yakitori, here's the recipe I use.
 
Thanks for all the great feedback/suggestions, guys!

It turns out I have an extra package of wings in my freezer so I am going to give each of the techniques talked about in this thread a try this weekend to see which I like best. Then I'll use it to make a big batch of wings next weekend for my get together.

I'll keep an eye on this thread over the next few days to see if any one has more to add, too.
 
I brush wings with olive oil and do them in teh oven on 450 convenction for 16 minutes.

I'd put some oil on them, put 8 or 10 on two skewers so you dont have turn all of them individually, sprinkle rub on. I'd crank the WSM to 375 and let 'em crisp up. Maybe even baste with olive oil when you turn em to get em crispier.

My favorite is cajun style dry rub on the wings when they come off--no sauce. Goes best with beer. I tossed some in East Carolina red sauce that was leftover from pulled pork and they were great
 
No way I would argue with the experts here, but my very recent experience was cooking a lot of wings (both grates full) at 250 for 2 1/2 hours with apple wood. Pulled and crisped them up on the gasser for no more than 10 minutes and tossed with wing sauce (butter and Franks) and they were an absolute huge hit. Many said the best wings they had ever eaten. Tender, juicy, slightly smokey and crisp. I tried to follow the wing directions in the cooking section here and I thought they were great. Steve
 
So I spent most of the late morning and early afternoon cooking almost 50 wings wings in a bunch of different ways. I tried indirect in my kettle at 350 and at 450 (with some of each finished over the coals and some not) and also direct in the kettle at 450 (those cooked fast!!). I also tried the WSM method at ~225 described in the cooking topic article mentioned by Steve with a finish over left over coals in the kettle.

For crispy skin, the higher heat was definitely the way to go. However, in a blind taste test (well, ok not blind...my wife wouldn't wear the blindfold
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) we decided that we liked the low heat method on the WSM the best. I did just a couple of minutes over the coals to add some color and "spots of crispness", if that makes sense. These were the moistest wings and we preferred the "bit through" skin over the purely crispy skin for sauced wings.

In the end, I think they're all good methods and it just comes down to what you like. Just as important, we had a ton of fun trying all these methods at once to figure out what exactly we do like.

I'm looking forward to cooking a WSM-full of wings next weekend for my friends.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.
 
Thanks for posting this. I'm going to throw some on the top rack of smoker next time I'm doing a long cook so I have something to eat in the middle of the cook.
 
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