Details, Details! Care to share your Brine/Rub recipes? Any sauce afterwards?
15 wings, tip removed and cut at the joint between the drumette and the flapper so 30 parts in total.
Marinate/Brine:
1 cup of Water
2T salt
1T honey
1T Hot Sauce or a spicey vinegar based sauce
Ground black pepper.
Put in small pot, bring to simmer to melt the honey.
Take off the heat and dump in another cup of ice cubes (or more) to bring the temp down.
Wings
Place wings in a 1 gallon plastic bag (or 2) and pour in chilled/cold brine.
Squeeze out all the air and seal.
Set in fridge for 2-3 hours.
Rotate/flip every hour or so.
2 hours before smoking
Open bag and pour out as much brine as possible
Fill bag half way with water, move the wings around and dump the water out.
Rinse at least 2 times, maybe 3. (cold water)
Place 2 layers of paper towels on a baking sheet, lay rinsed wings on paper, then another 2 layers on top.
Press down to absorb as much water off the skin a possible.
Allow to air dry as much as possible.
1 hour before smoking
Foil sheet pan or baking sheet,
Place wings on tray skin side down sprinkle LIGHTLY with rub
45 minutes before smoking
Flip wings to skin side up, sprinkle lightly again
30 minutes before smoking
I take my racks out and put them on a folded bathroom towel
Fire up the smoker to 200-220, throw in some chips (I use Cherry)
Put at least 2 cups of liquid (I use apple juice/water) in the water pan.
Set time for 2 hours and 30 minutes
15 minutes before smoking
Sprinkle the skin side of the wings with rub again
5 minutes before smoking
Place the wings skin side up on the smoker racks.
1 minute before smoking
Pop the smoker open, step back until the smoke clears and slide each rack into place.
Smoke 1 to 2 hours.
Set over to 400 degrees
A foiled sheet tray with a rack works best, otherwise use a foiled tray
Put wings on tray/rack skin side up and into hot oven.
Somewhere around the 20 minute mark, things will have either crisped up, or will be close.
My last set went for about 30 minutes, pull them and serve.
Notes:
I have not brined them overnight, but I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt.
After rinsing leave the wings out at room temp, mine never go back to the fridge
I take my smoker racks in the house place on a towel and pull the wings off.
My rub has lots of sugar in it, so I had some smoke at the 30 minute hot over mark, but no burning.
Wings in the back of the smoker may be a darker, richer color than the ones in the front, but they're all good.
My sauce is Pete's Wing Sauce mixed with some melted butter, otherwise it's straight up
Rub is brown sugar, white sugar, Kosher salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper
These were instructions to a friend last weekend.
