Chicken Wings

[CUTiger80]

I am planning to do some chicken wings for a Super Bowl party on Sunday.  I have perused the forum (and other resources) and I wanted to run my plan by you guys that are more experienced to make sure that there is not a major flaw.
I am planning to do whole wings, probably 30-50.
Wash the wings and then dry them.  Coat with olive oil, then apply a rub (I bought the recipe and have been using Jeff Phillip's rub and have been pleased).
Put the wings in the refrigerator uncovered overnight (or longer).  (I figured this would help to dry out the skin, kind of like I've done for a whole turkey breast.)
Put the wings in the smoker with about 3 oz of pecan wood and set the Auber for 250 degrees.
Smoke the wings for about 2-1/2 hours.  (I guess at this point I will use an instant read thermometer to check and make sure the wings are at 165 degrees or more.)
Remove the wings from the smoker, apply some BBQ sauce and then slap them on the grill for a few minutes to crisp up the skin.
I do have a couple of questions.
1.  Do I need to put a water pan in the smoker with water or juice or something?  It would seem that the additional moisture would counteract my attempt to dry the skin and make it more crisp.
2.  Would brining the wings yield better results? I have seen a mixture opinions on soaking in a brine (wet brining) and letting the wings sit with a rub on (dry brining).  If it makes any difference, Jeff's rub recipe has very little salt.
Any and all opinions are welcome.

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[SuperDave]

I think applying bbq sauce before the final phase will prevent crisp skin.  You will end up with a sticky wing unless you put them on long enough to actually char the wing.  And at which point you could have added some chips to your bbq and achieved the same result without as much time or trouble.  If you want to use the smoker, I think 2 1/2 hours is over kill considering the amount of time they really need on the grill to crisp up.  Think of each wing as a little 1/4 piece of meat.  It won't take a lot of time to smokify it. 

[CUTiger80]

Dave,
Thanks for the feedback.
I have seen a lot of posts from Joe (UWFSAE) for chicken wings (I think he eats them often) and he always seems to smoke at 250 for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.  That is where I got the time/temp from.
The last time I tried them I followed a recipe on Jeff Phillip's site (Smoking Meat.com) where the smoker temp was 225 deg and cook time was 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  I thought that they would never get done (165 deg IT).  I think they smoked for 3 hours and I think I ended up turning up the temp of the smoker.
Maybe "crisp skin" was not the correct description.  I should have said edible skin.  Sticky but tasty is OK.

[jcboxlot]

Brine the wings.  Yes!

Either grill or broil at the end with sauce. 

Another option is to smoke wings till 140 internal temp and grill for the rest of the time.  Till finished.

I brined some wings for the 1st time last week, world of difference. 

[SconnieQ]

Personally I would toss the wings in the sauce after all smoking/grilling is done. Kind of like how traditional Buffalo wings would be done. Any sugar in the sauce would burn on the grill, and the skin would not "crisp up" properly with the sauce already applied. I look forward to hearing your results!

[swthorpe]

Since you plan to grill them, I would go with 225F for 1.5-2 hours, and then finish on the grill.  The grilling time (depending on how much time you keep them on) will also increase the IT, so I would take them off of the smoker before 165IT, maybe around 155-160F.    Jeff Phillip's recipe for chicken quarters calls for smoking to 140IT, and then finishing to 165F on the grill.   I would apply the sauce as you get ready to move the wings to the grill.

[Barrel99]

Absolutely 100% brine the wings for 4 hours. It's the ONLY way I will do poultry of any kind now. Huge difference.

[Northforker]

I know this wing recipe is from a competitor smoker website but it worked AWESOME in my #2 last Sunday. I marinated them overnight, dried them off, applied the rub and smoked them for 2 hours. Going to try a few different tweeks on the rub, less sugar, more cayenne, maybe some chipotle powder. Here is the recipe and a pic of the finished wings and some smoked stuffed jalapenos along with the recipe for them as well.

[CUTiger80]

I finally got around to posting the results of my Super Bowl wing smoke.
First of all, let me say (as most of my guests said) that they were dad-gum good!!
I left some "dry" (no BBQ sauce) and I used 2 different varieties of off-the-shelf sauce and I ended up with about the same amount of each left over.
I have posted my recipe and several photos below.  I call these Ravel's Smoked Wings, but I used Tony's brine (which I gave him credit for) and combined and modified several recipes that I found here and on other sites.  Take the recipe, use it, vary it or whatever you want to do.  If you come up with a variation, let me know so I can add it to the recipe.  If you use an Auber, I have included my Auber programming at the bottom of the recipe.
There are 2 things that I would do different next time:
1) Apply less rub to the wings.  They were a little spicy for a few of the older folks.  (I used Jeff Phillip's rub and I like stuff mild to medium and they were good for me.)
2) Try smoking the wings for less time than the 2 hours at 250 degrees (as I have noted on the recipe).  When I took the wings out of the smoker before putting them on the grill, their IT was around 170. As they were, the wings were not dry nor did they seem overcooked, but I'm sure they were up to 175 or 180 when I removed them from the grill.
Enjoy!  Comments are always welcome.

[jcboxlot]

Looks good, I have concluded that wings only put in smoker arent as good as grilled. 

1/2 and 1/2 time gets the best of both worlds.

After 140 internal temp in box, throw them on the grill.

[SuperDave]

I wonder how smoked with a traditional buffalo sauce would taste?

[jcboxlot]

I see butter?   Can't be bad.  I'd still finish on a grill.

[SuperDave]

Equal parts butter, hot sauce and honey.  Bring to a low simmer and toss in hot wings. 

[Barrel99]

That sounds really good Dave. Never thought to use it on the smoked wings, but why not?

[DivotMaker]

I see butter?   Can't be bad.  I'd still finish on a grill.

+1!