smoked chicken wings on weber kettle


 
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David Zimmer

New member
Last week I bought a 22" weber kettle grill for our apartment. This is my 3rd time cooking on the grill but I have a few questions.

Last night, I wanted to smoke some chicken wings. I filled the chimney starter halfway w/ charcoal. I let the fire die down for 10 mins w/ the lid off followed by another 10 mins w/ the lid on. I grilled the wings for about 8 mins to get the skin crispy, added the wood chips, and then put the lid on. The bottom vent was 50% open the top vent abut 80% open. The temp. was about 360. After about 20 mins. the temp. dropped about 60 degrees and I had to add about 10 lit briquettes to get the fire up. I'm not sure why the fire droped so fast. The chicken wings came out fine after adding the extra charcoal, but I'm bot sure the temp. dropped so much. Any ideas why?

1. Should I close the bottom vent more/less when smoking the chickn wings? Is it better to adjust the top vent or bottom vent for indirect cooking? Some books say top vent.
2. Should I have added more charcoal in the beginning?
3. When I took off the lid to add the sauce, how much extra cooking time does the chicken need, 5-10 mins?
4. I have a probe therm. opposite side of the top vent. When cooking, should the therm. be directly over the coals and the vent directly over the food. If I add any coals, I see spikes in the temp.
 
I'll try to help.

I generally start with a full chimney of charcoal - pretty much standard. The 10/10 seems OK. I suggest that the temps dropped because of the vents. You probably could have gotten the temps up by opening the vents and given it about 5 minutes.

I wouldn't worry about how much time taking off the lid to add sauce adds to the cooking time.

I would put the wings over the coals for a few minutes, flip them, wait a few minutes, then spin the grill around 180 degrees to where the wings are on the "cool" side of the grill. At that point, I would put the vent over the wings.

The only thing I see I would recommend you do differently would be to just open the vents up to raise the temperature, give the grill time to adjust, and don't sweat it!

Glad the wangs turned out good.

Pat
 
I never use the bottom vents to control temperature on the kettle. I keep the bottom vents open 100% and use the top vent to adjust the temperature. I find that adjustments to the top vent make the temperature change quickly so you do have to watch it more closely than the wsm.
 
you didn't use enough charcoal and with the amount you used you waited to long. fifty percent on the lower vent is fine. i keep the top open all the way unless i get a spike in temp. i do wings enough that i first cook them indirect and then direct for crisping at the end.
 
I always leave the bottom open all the way and most of the time the top control the cooking by either cooking over tthe coal or on the other side ...i only put coal on one side of the grill If I am adding wood I do it at the start.
 
I cook alot of wings, usually three kettles worth at a time. I use a full chimney in each grill, starting indirect. I leave all vents 100% open, and never change them throughout the cook. This allows the skin to get nice and cripsy, but at the same time not ever cooking them direct. Sounds to me like you may not have used enough coals at the beginning. Glad they came out good though!
 
David,
i agree with your method of leaving the lid off for 10 minutes then on for 10 minutes before putting the chicken on. The initial 10 minutes with the lid off helps to burn the coals down to a medium heat rather then a high heat. This is what you want when cooking chicken. At that point I would leave all vents wide open. A bit more coal would have helps too.
 
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