John K BBQ
TVWBB Wizard
Fired up the 22" WSM again this weekend for some hot & fast chickens. These were about 4 lbs each, I halved them and seasoned one with SPG and the other with Trader Joe's peri peri. Since I was planning to make some chicken stock, I bought some extra chicken wings and cut off the wing tips, and decided to do a bbq rub on those and then... I used a skewer to "hang them" between the cross bars.
I'm definitely done with any store bought marinades, even just for experimenting with. The Peri Peri chicken would have been more flavorful if I had marinated for more than 3 hours... but after 3 hours, it was very bland. The bird I "dry brined was really good. Both ended up looking good in my opinion. The wings turned out great. I had the smoker running about 300F thru most of the cook and the wings were ready in about an hour to hour and 15 minutes. I was really happy with the wing production since it was really easy to clip the tips, skewer and lay across the bars and lose no seasoning during the cook. I think I could probably get 30 or so wings on the cooker using this method..
Here we are at the beginning of the cook. Full load of KFO in the charcoal ring with a big weber chimney of lit coals on top and all 3 vents open on the bottom. About 5 chunks of pecan in there too. The fire dial is in there two to keep drippings from falling directly into the fire. I basically skewered the chicken wings at the "elbow" and from the inside, so the drummie and flat sort of made the elbow point skyward. I think I could have gotten 7 wings on the skewer and go at least 5 wide. For anyone who may be unfamiliar, that's a Gateway Drum hanging rack... I've had it for a while and I do think it's a fun accessory for the WSM, and is an easy way to boost chicken & rib cooking capacity.
Sorry, no pics of the finished wings ( the didn't last long after I took them off the cooker ). But here are the chicken halves. You can sort of tell the ones that are a little yellow ish were in the Peri Peri.
Anyway - just sharing pics and minor experiments. I'll be using that chicken wing skewer method again for sure.
I'm definitely done with any store bought marinades, even just for experimenting with. The Peri Peri chicken would have been more flavorful if I had marinated for more than 3 hours... but after 3 hours, it was very bland. The bird I "dry brined was really good. Both ended up looking good in my opinion. The wings turned out great. I had the smoker running about 300F thru most of the cook and the wings were ready in about an hour to hour and 15 minutes. I was really happy with the wing production since it was really easy to clip the tips, skewer and lay across the bars and lose no seasoning during the cook. I think I could probably get 30 or so wings on the cooker using this method..
Here we are at the beginning of the cook. Full load of KFO in the charcoal ring with a big weber chimney of lit coals on top and all 3 vents open on the bottom. About 5 chunks of pecan in there too. The fire dial is in there two to keep drippings from falling directly into the fire. I basically skewered the chicken wings at the "elbow" and from the inside, so the drummie and flat sort of made the elbow point skyward. I think I could have gotten 7 wings on the skewer and go at least 5 wide. For anyone who may be unfamiliar, that's a Gateway Drum hanging rack... I've had it for a while and I do think it's a fun accessory for the WSM, and is an easy way to boost chicken & rib cooking capacity.
Sorry, no pics of the finished wings ( the didn't last long after I took them off the cooker ). But here are the chicken halves. You can sort of tell the ones that are a little yellow ish were in the Peri Peri.
Anyway - just sharing pics and minor experiments. I'll be using that chicken wing skewer method again for sure.
