Looking to elevate chicken wings? Use this method to smoke them on a Primo. The brine/marinade, rub, smoke, & glaze each impart flavor that will make you a hero to your guests. We smoked 36 wings – you can fit 48 or so on the Primo XL without extension racks. Here’s what we recommend:
Brine the wings 8-24 hours. We like to combine Goya’s Bitter Orange Marinade (or use the juice and zest of a few lemons & oranges) with a salt brine (1/2 cup of salt per gallon- add hot water to salt to dissolve – cool with ice, being conscious the ice dilutes the water volume.) How much you need will depend on your container.
Submerge the wings and put them in the fridge for 8 -24 hours.
When ready, prepare the Primo to smoke. Soak a cup or two of applewood chips. Rub the wings well with around a cup of rub.
For chicken, we recommend a slightly hotter smoke around 275. To render out most of the fat, we recommend smoking them to an internal temp of 175. A Thermapen is the perfect tool to quickly check temps on a number of wings.
A Thermapen MK4 is THE tool to ensure the wings are perfect.
Once you stabilize the grill at temp prepare the honey butter glaze. Glaze the wings when they reach 150 or so. Glaze again when they reach 160 or so. Optionally you can sprinkle on more rub before you glaze or use your own favorite sauce. Adjust the heat level with either cayenne in the rub or hotter hot sauce in the glaze.
[…] Alternatively, you can keep things as simple as rubbing kosher salt on a whole chicken and use the same smoking/temperature guidelines. You could also choose not to use the d plates and grill the chicken- this will allow for a crispier skin. Also, here is our chicken wing method. […]
did you do these indirect or is that a drip plate so they don’t flair up?
Use the ceramic d plates
Thanks so much for the advice. On my first attempt the wings turned out very well. I just have one question. When making the brine,(36 wings) how much Goya bitter orange and water do YOU use. I used my own brine the 1st time and it worked great. I want to try the citrus this time.
Thanks in advance for your time and again, thanks for the post. You made me a Hero!
B Will
Like the hero talk! I would start with a quart of the bitter orange (or orange juice) and add enough salt/water/ice to maintain a 1/2 cup of salt to gallon of liquid ratio. The bitter orange does not contain any salt. How much liquid you need will depend on your container size. Good luck!
How long did they take to smoke approximately?
Typically 90 minutes or so. Take them to 175 internal.
This looks like a great recipe. What rub do you use on the wings prior to smoking? Thanks!!!
Thanks Josh – we would either use our homemade rub or Suckle Busters Clucker Dust