On Superbowl Sunday Americans will eat over 125 Billion chicken wings; this is how I plan to cook and eat about 0.00000003% of them. Starting with a couple of packages of whole chicken wings, some spicy BBQ Rub and my favorite brand of BBQ Sauce is all I’m going to need to prepare a tasty and semi-healthy wing. I say they are semi-healthy because I’m not frying them but leaving the skin on. But most of the fat will drip out during cooking they would actually be a healthy wing, right??
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| Wings on the BGE with AlbuKirky Rub & Sauce |
I started by liberally seasonings the wings with my spicy BBQ Rub and placed them in the fridge overnight, uncovered. My theory for seasoning and leaving them uncovered is that the some of the moisture in the skin will evaporate and will result in crispier chicken skin when cooking. I have no scientific proof that it really works, I saw it on the food network and it sounded reasonable to me.
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| Wings BBQ’ing on the BGE |
The next day I fired up the Big Green Egg with a mix of Royal Oak and mesquite charcoals. Set the smoker up for indirect cooking waited for the temperature to come up to 225-250F. Once the egg is ready it was time to get cooking, I placed the wings on the grate, closed the lid and let the wings absorb that sweet smoke for about an hour, flipping the wings after 30 minutes.
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| Crisping up the skin |
After an hour of smoking they are almost done, but need just a few more minutes to be perfect. To get the skin to crispy golden brown they need to be cooked over direct heat for a few minutes. Just 2-3 minutes on each side it all that it takes. This works best with the lid open so that you can watch for flare-ups and not scorch the delicate poultry. As the wings are done I dropped them directly into a bowl of BBQ sauce and tossed them around to get a good coating of the spicy sweet nectar. The heat from the wings was just enough to fuse the sauce to the wing.
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| AlbuKirky BBQ Chicken Wings |
Now for the moment of truth, the first bite. I first taste the sweetness of the sauce followed by the tang of the vinegar and as I bite through the skin and sink my teeth into the tender juicy chicken meat the spice from the rub starts to shine through. I don’t mean to brag, but damn these wings were good! And the best part since they weren’t fried they I can eat more with out feeling guilty. So if you got plans to cook up a batch or two of your own chicken wings this weekend, grab your favorite rub and sauce and fire up your smoker or grill and get cooking.
If my math is right, that is still 3,750 wings you are going to eat 🙂 😉
Those are some real pretty wings, Kirk! Nice glossy shine on them and I know they taste good. Enjoy!
I think I left out a zero, but those wings were so good I could eat that many.
Awesome looking wings. I've done the whole wing (drummie/flat/tip) many times for jerk style – it is so much easier to prep, compared to cutting the wings (usually Marilyn's job).
I have found those frozen cut up wings are not the best quality either. The whole wings are fresher and less fatty. They are more photogenic too.