Brined chicken wings

AZRP

Got this idea from one of the wing recipes Old Dave posted earlier. I mixed 1 cup salt, 1 cup sugar, three quarts cold water, 1 quart ice cubes, and 24 whole chicken wings. I let them brine for 1 hour then rinsed and dried them. Put Ragin River on half of them and Tsunami Spin on the rest then into zip locks in the fridge til cooking time, about 1 hour. I hung the wings on two cajun wing racks, stabilized the Egg at 400 with platesetter legs up, and the cooking grid on the legs. I put the racks in and let them go 30 minutes then rotated them and went 30 minutes more. At this point the internal temps were anywhere from 185-200 and I took them off. The skin was nice and crunchy and the meat was very moist. Funny thing was that we almost couldn't tell which one had which spice on it. Thinking that maybe the spice burned at those temps and masked the flavor. -RP
[ul][li]Cajun rack[/ul]

Why1504

AZRP,[p]I have never done wings like this. But I smoke wings and then grill them direct quite often. I smoke for an hour @ 250 (I have held them overnight after this step) then grill direct @ 400 for about 10 min to carmalize the sauce. Also, based on frying wings I suspect 350-375 would have been a bit better. An hour seems a bit long also. In my wing frying I always dust them in a bit of flour mixed with the seasoning. Everyone perfers the flour. When I looked @ the Dizzy Pig site they recommend flour (or was it corn meal?) as well. With wings I want to render out the fat and leave some good crunch on the surface.

AZRP

why1504,
I love fried wings, flour on no flour, so I'm trying different methods to simulate them on the Egg. The skin on these was as good as fried ones. I've done the flour, corn starch, corn meal, panko, parmesan cheese, corn flakes, all with varying degrees of success. The skin on these wings was good. -RP

Why1504

AZRP,[p]Glad they were good. Spices will definitly burn at higher temps and that was the point of my comments. BTW have you done all of these methods on the BGE? How would you rate these different methods?

AZRP

why1504,
Cornstarch probably was the best and I would have tried it on the brined ones last night but I'm doing the Atkins thing for a month or so. I put the cornstarch in a shaker that has a mesh top, I think it's made for shaking powdered sugar, it lets me shake out a nice thin even coat. It crisps up nicely at 350, but I still want to try it at 400. -RP

Unknown

AZRP,[p]I have been working on a low carb hot wing and am getting very close to what I think will be a great recipe. I am cooking at 450 degrees and the wings take only 14 minutes to cook and the skin comes out great. Every wing in my basket come out the same without any extra work. [p][p]Dave

AZRP

Old Dave,
Keep me posted on what you are trying and I'll do the same. I've always cooked wings at 350, but I tried 400 and was happier with the skin, 450 might be better yet. I think the brining was worth the effort. I used Splenda instead of sugar. -RP