Welcome to my fail proof Guide to The Best Smoked Chicken Wings. I’m going to review my method of making the best smoked chicken wings. Throughout this article, I’m going to walk you through the methodology of smoking wings and give you a base recipe you can grow and change to your own liking! After reading this, you’ll be able to impress all your friends and family on gameday. Every time I make smoked wings for friends or family, they can’t stop raving about how delicious they are.
I love some good fried chicken wings as much as the next person, but dealing with frying and oil is a mess and buying them from a wing shop can get expensive. I’ve found my making my own is more affordable, more consistent, and better results than buying pre-made from somewhere else.
The extras
While well cooked, crispy, smoky chicken wings will be the star of the show, there are other components that will elevate your gameday wings to the next level.
- Brine
- Sauces
- Dips
- Sides
Brine
Brining your chicken wings for up to 24 hours in advanced can add some awesome flavor depending on what you choose to brine them in. This is optional and you can make really great wings with or without brining.
Sauces
Sauces are used after the wings have been cooked to coat with some extra flavor. My personal favorite is making my own Buffalo Sauce. A new favorite in our house has become Buffalo Blue (Buffalo sauce with Blue Cheese Crumbles). BBQ Sauces, or even Asian sauces like Peanut sauce or Teriyaki are also good options. These wings are so good you really don’t need to have a sauce but it’s nice to have the option! Feel free to experiment and find what you like the best.
My favorite base sauce for buffalo is Franks Red Hot.
My favorite BBQ brand is Blues Hog, specifically their Tennessee Red!
Dips
This one is easy – everyone loves ranch or blue cheese dressing with wings, am I right?
I love making my own ranch dressing with sour cream and hidden valley ranch dressing mix.
With Blue cheese dressings, I typically buy a premade one then add some fresh blue cheese to doctor it up.
Cooking Method
Cooking smoked chicken wings is a slightly different method if you are using charcoal vs pellet. Both will have amazing results. And are difficult to go wrong!
Weber Kettle, charcoal grill method. If you have a Weber Kettle but don’t have a VORTEX, its a must have!
The Best Smoked Chicken Wings (W/ Weber Kettle)
Equipment
- 1 Weber Kettle Charcoal Grill Other charcoal grills like Green Egg, or Komodo or like grills work.
- Paper Towels
- Large Mixing Bowl or Pan
- VORTEX (IN)DIRECT HEAT Accessory Optional but IMO makes everything easier and gets hotter.
Ingredients
- 5 lbs Chicken Wings I like leftovers so my wife and I typically cook 4-5lbs of wings.
- 3 tbsp Chicken Rub of Choice Enough seasoning to lightly cover wings.
- Cherry or Applewood Pellets or Chunks Use whatever wood you want; I use blends mostly.
Instructions
Grill Prep
- Start charcoal in chimney, get it nice and hot. If using the Vortex, place in the center of the charcoal tray of the grill.
- Add coals to vortex, put cooking grate in, open all vents on grill.
- We want the grill to be around 375-500℉ when putting on the wings. I like to start the wings around 375-400℉, then keep my lid slightly cracked eventually getting up to 500℉ degrees to crisp up the wings.
Wings
- Prepare wings patting wings dry with paper towels. I've found the easiest way to do this is pat them dry as you put them in your bowl or layer paper towel on a pan. Then pat dry. Discard the paper towel after you've taken as much moisture out as possible.5 lbs Chicken Wings
- Lightly cover all the chicken wings in your chicken rub. These are little pieces of meat, so don't over season. Unless you are wanting more of a dry rub experience and serving with sauce.5 lbs Chicken Wings, 3 tbsp Chicken Rub of Choice
- When the grill is pre-heated to around 400℉, place the wings around the charcoal in a circle on the edge of the grill. You want the wings to be in indirect heat the whole time!
- Add wood to the vortex for smoke flavor and let the wings cook for 30 minutes, adding more wood as needed.
- After 30 minutes, you should see some color forming on the wings. Flip all the wings over, add more wood. Cook another 15 minutes.
- After the first 45 minutes of cook time, its more personal preference on how crispy you want your wings. Your grill should be closer to 500℉, than 400℉ at this time. You'll want to pay attention checking every 5 minutes or so until the wings have good color, and the skin feels crispy.
- Remove wings, serve with choice of sauce and dips. I love a classic buffalo or bbq, with some ranch and blue cheese!
Wings couldn’t have turned out better!!!!!