The Best Smoked Chicken Wings (W/ Weber Kettle)
The Best Smoked Chicken Wings to make with a Weber Kettle or Green Egg or Kamado charcoal smoker.
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!
Notes
The key to success when smoking wings is to not have the wings smoking low and slow for more than 30 minutes. They will get rubbery, and it will be hard to crisp them up. Using indirect heat won't over cook them and will make them juicy and crispy, and you'll be able to add plenty of smoke flavor!