Chicken Wing Help


 
G

GregWeiss

New member
So all the recipes I've found, including the recipe from this site, for smoking wings says to smoke between 225 and 250 for around 2 hours. I've tried making wings twice, once on my kettle grill, where the temperature probably got away from me a little, and once on my WSM. Both times, the wings reached an internal temperature between 175 - 185 after about an hour. When I did them on the WSM, I did them over a full water pan and the temperature ranged between 220 and 235 the entire time.

The wings were tasty, but on both occassions they came out a little tough - not the fall-off-the-bone tender that would be expecting, or have experienced with a traditional deep fried wing.

Any ideas on what internal temperature I should be shooting for to get that tenderness? Am I missing something with the temperature and time?
 
If you can, use fresh wings..... the fresh ones I find around here are better than the frozen ones (not injected) + they're a little smaller and already trimmed.

I just go ~400F for ~40 minutes - my favorites lately are marinated in Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk paste (not the marinade) for just a few minutes or overnight.

I'm typing this while eating my leftovers from lunch for dinner ---- Traditional Purgatory & Teriyaki Purgatory from Wing Nutz. Much better @ home, Lunch cost $38 w/ tip (no drinks, just water....30 wings, 15 each person). Fresh cost ~$5+ per person.

I like to take my wings to 185-195F.
 
Normally I brine wings for the tenderness and taste it brings, smoke them for the flavor, then fry them for the crispy skin, then toss them in sauce. I've found when I smoke poultry the skin is tough/rubbery so I go for the fry daddy.

I did some Cornell Chicken for Grill Fest I. I am going to apply that technique to wings very soon. I like the tenderness and taste of the meat along with the crispy crunchy skin without frying.
 
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Made some this weekend and they were amazing. All I do is take a frozen bag of wings from SAMs, let them thaw, throw some rub on them, and cook them for about 2 1/2 hours at 240-250.
 
Jeff - that's my point. You say 2 1/2 hours, both of my cooks seem to be done after about an hour, cooking to 165. Are you not cooking to an internal temp?
 
For wings I don't worry to much about temp... After that long they are always done.

Wings off the WSM are the best u have ever had honestly.
 
Cook wings to the texture you want not temperature. If you want crispy skin you need to cook at a higher temperature. I do my wings on the kettle somewhere in the 350-400 range.

My method:

Take the wings out of the package and let them air dry in the fridge. Add enough cooking oil to coat, add your rub and let sit in the fridge to marinade. I usually let them sit for 1-4 hours. Get the kettle going indirect with 1 chimney of lit and put the wings on the indirect side. Leave all vents wide open and cook for 1/2 hr or until crispy. You can sauce them after about 20-25 minutes if you want the baked on sauce style. I use lump charcoal so if you use briquettes you may want to add more to start.
 
The above method that i said only takes 60 to 50 minutes to cooks. You take the water pan out of the smoker and raise the temp of the smoker to 300 degrees. They are great. Oh and i never checked for temp. You can just tell they were done.
 
did wings again yesterday (& have more in the fridge to cook this weekend!). This time they were 205F when they were done. Tender, juicy, & delicious! (crispy skin too)

Half were tossed in walkerwood jerk paste before cooking, the other half were tossed in sauce before serving.

Sauces used:
Hak's Habanero Pineapple BBQ
Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk
 
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