Smoked Wings?

I usually do mine at 300 indirect for an hour.  I use pecan or apple for smoke.  Also I don't marinade because I like crispy skin so after I put my seasonings on them i give them a light dusting of corn starch.

Allegro hot n spicy marinade. Soak em for 5 days and grill raised direct like @THEBuckeye said. My favorite!

NPHuskerFL said:

@cazzy has a genuinely legit recipe floating around. I've done them at different temps (normally around 275℉-375℉)  direct, raised direct, indirect, raised indirect, multilevel indirect, rub, sauce, glaze etc etc. Play around with it. There's not necessarily a right or wrong way. Unsauced and high in the dome will help get them crispy from my experience. I normally sauce toward the last 15-20 minutes so they don't over carmelize. 

I think @Mickey knows a "wrong" way. 

TexanOfTheNorth said:

NPHuskerFL said:

@cazzy has a genuinely legit recipe floating around. I've done them at different temps (normally around 275℉-375℉)  direct, raised direct, indirect, raised indirect, multilevel indirect, rub, sauce, glaze etc etc. Play around with it. There's not necessarily a right or wrong way. Unsauced and high in the dome will help get them crispy from my experience. I normally sauce toward the last 15-20 minutes so they don't over carmelize. 

I think @Mickey knows a "wrong" way. 

Raised-Direct-400-TIME: football half and nap. (Adult beverage involved)....

BTW, @ChucktownEggHead, welcome to the forum and the lifestyle!

Oh & yes welcome to the zoo

Does anybody cook to temp?  Do you know what the IT temp is when cooked "your" way?  Is there an ideal target temp?

Why I ask is that I cooked a batch indirect (wings at the felt line) at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, flipped and let cook for an additional 20 minutes.  Checked IT to see how close the wings were to done and found it to be around 200 degrees. Not wanting to cook my wings like @Mickey does/did, they were immediately pulled ... I counted that as a fail even though the wings tasted good.

Hiya!

In general, there are standard temp ranges for desired results, but the cook time is really hard to predict. Too many variables. Size, for instance. Used to be, wings were quite small, and took almost no time to cook. Now, most of what shows up in the market is 2 -3 times bigger. Did some last night, and some of the "drumettes" were about as big as some thighs, and maybe thicker than a real drum stick. One of the best and most useful accesories to get is a quick read thermometer. Thermopens are the standard.

You say you have the wings marinadeing in 3 different sauces. Any of the sauce/marinade have lots of sugar? You won't want to cook those to hot, because the sugar can burn. Dome 300F is pretty safe.

Marinades do more than infuse flavor. If there are oils and/or vinegars, an overnight soak will denature some of the meat, so a faster cook is a good idea to avoid dryness.

If you want crispy skin, the chicken usually needs to cook in a 400 - 450 range, which is easy to do if cooking direct. Cooked either direct or indirect, the pieces will probably need flipping at least once. That in itself is a good reason to cook raised at the felt line. Makes the task much easier. If cooking indirect, during shorter cooks, it is warmer up closer to the dome than lower. I've measured as much as 50 degrees warmer at the dome than at the lower grill position.

Don't fuss too much, enjoy yourself. Pay attention, takes notes if you can, and when you find a method that suits you, repeat with confidence.

Welcome to the forum, as you can tell, many ways to skin a cat. 

@Jeepster47 the last wings I did the temp crept up on me and they were done more quickly than I expected. IT was 200. Best I've made. 

As long as you don't have rubber skin, it'll be good. That's the tricky part though.

I have marinaded my last few wing cooks, and while they come out great, I suspect it is not required.  For such small pieces of meat they really absorb a lot of flavor from the lump/smoke and any rub or sauce you may use.  And being fatty dark meat cooking in an egg, keeping them moist isn't an issue.

Let us know how your cook goes and if you notice a difference in flavor between the 3.   I think you will if you grill them right out of the marinade (with no rub or extra sauce).  If you are going to rub them or sauce them, that'll be the dominate flavor...along with the great lump taste.  I could also be 100% wrong. 

Where is the talking out my ass emoticon?  I need that for most of my posts...   

@KiterTodd - don't mean to be a smart ass but, I always thought that the wing and breast were considered white meat with the leg and thigh being dark.

Welcome! I always do my wings 375°-400° raised indirect. The higher in the dome, the better. Cook time is about 55-60 min. I toss in preheated sauce immediately after they come off the Egg. 

I think it's both depending on what you read.  If I remember correctly, I think KFC always paired wings with breasts for all white meat orders, so that should settle it scientifically.

It really has more to do with how the muscles are used (quick burst vs duration) and what they store and use for energy, oxygen need, etc.  But that's boring.  Wings taste more like dark meat to me, very different from breast meat - for chickens and turkey anyway.

Jeepster47 said:

Legume said:

... the thing about wings ... they're dark meat ...

That's what I thought until KFC put wings in my "all white meat" order.  Checking on the internet - where only the truth resides - this is what I found:

The color of the meat is determined by the Myoglobin in it.  The more the muscle group works, the more Myoglobin is in the meat.  Thus, dark meat is from muscle groups that work the most ... legs and thighs in domestic chickens.  Since chickens do not do a lot of flying, the wings are pretty much useless ... thus wing meat is white.  Birds that fly - ducks and geese - have breast and wing meat that is much darker than domestic birds because they use those muscles.

That was very clear until this sentence was added:

When cooking wings you should treat them as dark meat. They take longer to cook. But technically they are white meat.

Hows that for clarification?