Smoked Chicken Wings

It’s getting to be that time of year again, the time when football is all everyone talks about in Tennessee and there’s not one person in our house that complains about it! And it doesn’t matter if it’s Hendersonville High School, college, or pro football, one of the best foods to go along with it is Buffalo Wings! My wife and I love eating wings and having some cold beers to wash it down on Sunday afternoons while we watch whatever game happens to be on the TV, so it was only natural to try out some wings on the smoker!

For my first batch of wings on the smoker I decided to use 3 different rubs. The first rub is my stand-by for smoking chicken breasts, the second rub is what I use on just about everything else, and the third rub was one i made out of a cookbook. I split about 10lbs of full wings into three groups and seasoned each group accordingly.

First batch of wings on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker along with some smoked jalapeño sausage!

After getting the WSM up to a consistent 250 degrees I placed them on the smoker and placed a couple of chunks of apple wood on the charcoal for flavor. 90 minutes later, this is what they looked like.

I took the jalapeño sausages and bacon wrapped pork tips off the grate and took them inside for an appetizer. Seriously, that sausage can be a meal all by itself!! Then I took the chicken wings and grate out of the middle section of the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, took the middle section out, and placed the grate and wings on top of the bottom portion with the coals to crisp up the skin on the wings. My tastebuds won out, however, I took the wings off after only 5 minutes and they didn’t crisp up to our liking. But they sure were delicious!

My wife and I couldn’t tell much difference between my stand-by rub and the rub I made up from the cookbook (2nd and 3rd rubs mentioned above) other than one was slightly spicier than the other. We did, however, notice a big difference between those two and the first rub mentioned above. Obviously it wasn’t spicy but had a real good smokey chicken flavor. Combined with my homemade BBQ sauce it was our pick as our favorite!

Wings with a coating of my standard chicken rub and 2 hours worth of smoke.

So today I decided to try another batch using just the chicken rub, and I decided to let them smoke 30 minutes longer, and this is what they looked like! I then used the same method as the first attempt to crisp them up by placing the wings and grate directly above the coals. I smothered all but the five wings on the left with my BBQ sauce and let them sit for 7 or 8 minutes. I then flipped them over and let them sit another 7 or 8 minutes and then placed them on a baking pan and took them inside.

 

The BBQ sauce burned up a little bit (ok, maybe more than a little) but the flavor was amazing!! We have decided that this is a method that we’ll use again but I will only apply the BBQ sauce about 5 minutes before they come off so that they don’t get burned up as bad. And with football getting into full swing next weekend I’m already excited to smoke more chicken wings!

Wings after 15 minutes directly above the charcoal to crisp up the skin. Notice the 5 on the left that didn't get any BBQ sauce?

Smoked Chicken Breasts

We love chicken in our house! It’s so versatile and flavorful that there really isn’t a bad way to cook it! I’ve smoked whole chickens that have tasted amazing, but I wanted to try some chicken breasts because they’re so much easier to prep and eat. Plus, I was thinking that if I cook enough of them, we can eat them throughout the week.

Keeping it simple!

So what I did was I started with about 6lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I coated pretty heavily with Lawry’s Chicken & Poultry Rub, then I sprinkled on some onion powder and finished them off with a heavy sprinkle of minced onions.

I prepped my smoker with enough charcoal to give me about 3 to 4 hours worth of heat, soaked some apple wood chunks, and got it up to a consistent 250 degrees. I threw on some wood chunks just before placing the chicken breasts on the grates and closed the lid.Chicken Breasts On The Smoker

2 1/2 hours later, I checked the internal temperature and the breasts all read 165 degrees. I took them off the smoker and cut into one because they smelled absolutely amazing! I couldn’t resist, I had to try a bite, and they tasted even better than they smelled!!

So if you’re ever looking for a quick, easy recipe for smoked chicken, here it is! My whole family loves it, even my 9 month old Grandson!! My wife loves to cut them into strips for salads, and they taste great if you ever wanted a sandwich.

2 1/2 hours of smoke!