Smoked Wings

Directions

You might see a theme in my recipes this season: two versions of the same recipe. With so many great rubs and sauces from Lane’s, the options are limitless. I love hot and spicy food, but my wife and kids don’t, so by making a hot version and a not-hot version, everyone wins.

I will also note that my wings at the Grill on the Hill Eggfest in April used Thunderbird Chicken Scratch Rub, which is an unbelievable rub for wings or any type of chicken. There’s a regular version and a fiery hot version that I highly recommend. For this recipe, I went with Lane’s Q-NAMI Rub, which adds a fantastic Asian flair to chicken, pork, or seafood. I like it for wings because, like Thunderbird Chicken Scratch, it has large pieces of black pepper which complement the maple syrup finish perfectly.

Get your smoker heated up to 225 degrees indirect heat with your choice of wood. Like last week’s recipe, I prefer to use pecan wood for my wings, but any fruit wood or hickory will do, so use whatever you prefer.

Make sure you buy whole wings instead of just wings or just drummies. Those could work, but when smoking wings I prefer them whole because they are less likely to dry out. Lay your wings in a single layer on a sheet pan or foil pan, then hit them quickly on both sides with some PAM spray. You don’t want to douse them in it, but just hit them quickly enough to help the rub stick to the skin. Now, shake your Lane’s Q-NAMI Rub all over them. I like a lot of it, so don’t be shy.

Once the grill is ready, place your wings onto the rack in a single layer. Depending on the size of your smoker, you may need to utilize a second rack, which you can buy or rig yourself with a few pieces of hardware. Mainly, you don’t want to stack your wings on top of each other because you want enough room for the smoke to reach all of the surface area of the wings.

If you keep your smoker temp at 225, let these go for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, they should be about halfway done, so flip them, being careful not to puncture them or tear the skins with your tongs. I like to use cotton gloves underneath nitrile gloves so you can use your hands with plenty of dexterity and feel without burning your fingers. After flipping, let them go another 90 minutes. If you are using a Big Green Egg, it’s also a good idea to rotate the wings on the outside into the middle and the ones in the middle to the outside at this point. Otherwise, the ones on the outside will finish sooner, or if you let them go the full 180 minutes they’ll be burnt.

At this point, your wings should be up to temp. Since they are chicken they need to be 165 degrees internally, so make sure that is the case. Now, transfer them to a big bowl and douse them with 100% pure maple syrup. Shake them all up to make sure they get coated on all sides and now they are ready to eat! The combination of a peppery rub and a sweet, sugary syrup finish makes these wings a fan favorite.

If you want to make hot wings, do it the same way, but instead of using syrup, douse them with your Lane’s One Legged Chicken Buffalo Sauce. This stuff is amazing. It has plenty of heat that you want from a hot sauce, but it’s also full of flavor. To me, that’s far more preferable than a hot sauce that doesn’t taste like anything. In this version of the recipe, I like to put them back onto the grill for a couple minutes after dousing in One Legged Chicken.

Whichever option you choose, your crowd will be happy. Or do what I did and after you’re done smoking them, do half with syrup and half with One Legged Chicken and then you have options! Pair them with some creamy potato salad or cole slaw and you’ve got a great tailgate meal.

One final thing to note is that you can smoke them at a hotter temperature (275-300) but you’re going to have to cut your time down to 60 or even 45 minutes per side. Otherwise, you’ll burn them. Some say doing them at a higher temp helps the skin get crispier, but I haven’t noticed much of a difference and I like the smoke you get from a slightly longer smoke while keeping the meat from drying out.

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