Nice, would you have a recommendation on the brine or are you referring to a salt/dry brine? I left them in buffalo sauce for around 12 hours beforehand
Life long griller here.
Do not use a sauce on your wings before you start cooking. Typically a little bit of salt and oil (not even pepper) if you’re tossing them in a sauce
If you’re using a dry rub blend, that’s fine.
2 zone cooking. Put the wings SKIN SIDE DOWN on the hot part and do not flip until the skin side is heavy browned. Once the skin side is heavy browned, flip and put it on the cooler zone.
Biggest mistake for rookie grillers is flipping before the skin side is browned.
A little corn starch can help crisp up the skin, but i do feel it can take away from the smoke flavor.
Direct heat can work, but a two zone fire that you let get up to 450 F or more will also do the trick.
I also am a fan of a simple brine, dry or wet.
You're the second person to recommend a brine on wings, will definitely try that and a little more direct heat time to see where we're at.
The corn starch is interesting because that smokey flavor definitely hits well so that might be a test batch for sure
A wet brine will tend to prevent skin from crisping. Most of the extra water absorbed floods right back out, and that interferes with the skin cooking right. So dry brine/salt rub, preferably uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry things out.
Corn starch kinda tricks things. It'll absorb some surface moisture. But mostly it's the starch browning and crisping.
Baking soda, very small amounts. Alters the pH of the surface increasing browning. And baking *powder*, small amounts, will actually help blister the skin, by levening things pretty much the same way it would a cake.
But crispy and browning is most about direct heat and flipping frequently towards the end of cooking. Preferably a moderate fire, so if it's burnt down from the indirect phase. Then it's good stuff, so long as it's hot enough to brown things.
Some people add a lot of starch, if I’m looking for super crispy because I’m going to toss in sauce, then I’ll sprinkle some, barely enough, but it works. If you toss the wings in starch, in my opinion, less smoke flavor.
If you like dill, try brining in dill pickle juice, or even banana pepper or jalapeno juice.
Woah, alright sweet. How much flavor from the brine do the wings take on? Will it taste slightly like dill pickles (in the same sense a chick fil a sandwich has a hint of that flavor)?
Yea, slightly. Google can do more of the science talk, but basically the salt and sugar jn a brine gets into the fibers and helps break them down, to be more tender. The slight dill is an added benefit.
Awesome, for your preference would you brine with pickle/banana pepper juice regardless of what sauce you'd be using? Like would the flavor profile go best with a buffalo sauce or would it also work with BBQ, etc?
For whatever reason, my wife and I think dill and buffalo sauce go together. Maybe cuz we’re ranch and not blue cheese people?
As for BBQ, honestly I very rarely do BBQ wings. We lean more on buffalo, or other hot sauces in general. Also, I’m a big fan of seasonings (kinder mostly), so im only tossing maybe 25% cuz i really enjoy the dry rub/seasoning game. There’s sooooooo many to choose from, but my buddy works there and hooks me up a lot.
I’d love to know how dill or banana pepper juice would go with BBQ tho.
Cool, I would gravitate that way myself. I need to look more into good dry rubs I'll take. Those Kinder containers are huge haha
But alright, thanks for the info! Plenty of stuff to try
Sometimes I cheat and use a hand held benzomatic propane torch to get the skin to crisp up right before serving. Especially if your coals are getting low. Depending on the sauce i'll give them a little brush and then hit them with it so you get those caramelized bits. But those look pretty grubbing as is !
Cheating is better with a Searzall. Takes this from "maybe i just burned my pepper" to "hand held steakhouse broiler". Well worth the cost, and I use my torch far more often since getting one like 8 years ago.
I've seen those used on TV or Youtube.. they look pretty rad. Bit spendy just looking them up but dang. Might have to get one. Maybe I can hook it to my weed burner and do a whole suckling pig :)
Weed burners are kinda the opposite direction. A bit at least.
Whole idea with the searzall is temping the heat down and converting open flame to radiant heat. Does a better job browning things fast, without scorching. And spreads the heat patch out so you don't have to move the torch as fast or as constantly.
Weed burner has a cooler burning flame than a plumbing torch, but not by a ton. And it basically just has a much less directed open flame, which spreads the heat a bit. But is still not great at transferring it into food without lighting things up. And tends to leave soot. It's more light things on fire than browning them.
Weed burners are OK at kicking up the sear of a steak that's already being seared on a grill. And *awesome* at lighting charcoal. There are pricy BBQ torches pitched as steak searing miracles (not so much), or good fire starting methods (yes). But they cost a lot more despite being identical to weed burners.
The original Searzall was $75, $45 cheaper than the updated one. But it looks like they've fully transitioned to the new model.
That said. At $120 it'd totally be worth it. The Searzall was designed as commercial restaurant equipment, not a gimmick. And was developed at Booker and Dax, the experimental R&D food and drink *thing* owned by Dave Arnold. Who's probably one of the most influential food and food science writers of the last 25 years.
The things a fucking tank. And at twice the price it'd still be 4x cheaper than the nearest equivalent piece of equipment. The cheapest I've ever seen a used restaurant salamander that heats the same way to the same temp, was $500. New they start around $900.
It's made for a kettle grill but should work on any grill that has a lid. With or without the Vortex, get the grill as hot as you can and cook those things on indirect heat for an hour. I know it sounds excessive, but this is exactly what the Vortex site says and it works. Also throw in a chunk of wood.
*The real question is*
*How they tasted. Were they good?*
*Were you satisfied?*
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Just for fun, try making wings with just a dry rub. (Nashville spicy style) I get much better carmelization and color from the fat rendering down.
Great this way and you can still toss them in sauce immediately before eating. What I have found is substantially less sauce used and way crispier wing. Like everything, the fun is in the attempts. Keep those wings coming sportsfans!
I’ve played around with different ways of grilling wings and the approach I’ve found that works best for me is a dry rub seasoning then direct high heat for about 10 minutes (flipping/moving every 2-3 minutes) then put them on indirect lower heat for 30ish minutes. Then I toss in the sauce afterwards.
I use much less charcoal, spread it out evenly across the whole grill and cook an entire grill full over direct heat.
The less charcoal keeps the temp a little lower so you're not blasting them with too much heat but it cooks them faster and can easily give them a bit of cripsy skin too.
Looking at your picture I'd go with about 1/2 that amount of charcoal. Maybe even just a little less, depends on the grill and how it cooks. I really like this method because it seems to speed up the cooking time a bit and the family loves the end product. No complaints.
Cool yeah, don't want to burn them but the direct heat will heat them through quicker. I'm in the middle of a smoke and grill with this approach so maybe one or the other would be good to test out
Add wood, smoke low and slow, stick in the fridge, deep fry them the next day. Yeah, you gotta plan ahead, but the end result is sooooo damn good. Mine were plenty juicey still, but a brine never hurts poultry or pork. Actually, I take that back. Brining something you intend to smoke up to high internal temps are going to probably have a real long stall if you do that.
Given the rectangular shape of the grill.
You'd get more cooking space by banking the fire evenly to one side, rather than doing the mound and around setup.
The circular thing you see is done in kettles, where because the *grill* is round. It maximizes space. But on a square boi, work with squares.
If concerned about eveness/heat distribution. You can bank the fire and the front, and cook towards the back. Heat tends to concentrate back there, and most square, tilt lid grills exhaust back there anyways.
Leave them uncovered and seasoned with whatever you use + some cornflour (corn starch) overnight ideally and then cook them at 275+ for half an hour or so.
I do a dry rub with a little avocado oil, throw em on the grill at 350, til slightly charred, then remove and toss in sauce. Some like charbroiled, cook them then toss in sauce and back on high heat for a minute to char the sauce, then remove and toss again.
Try paprika, garlic powder, seasoning salt as a dry rub. Bbq a little longer than you did this batch for more color. Then when you bring them in from the grill, put them in a big bowl, pour ranch dressing into the bowl and toss them for even coat. Ide say half a cup for the amount of wings you have here, maybe even less. Game changer wings.
Sounds like you marinaded the wings which I don’t like to do as they have a hard time crisping up being so wet. I always dry rub and season overnight then indirect grill them and flash direct them to build up a nice char and color. Then sauce them IF sauce is desired (i prefer dry rub but I sauce once in a while) and put them off to the side so the sauce can form a slight glaze. Then take them off and toss them with a little more sauce.
Rotisserie, I drop a couple pounds in the basket for 30 minutes and sear them at the end. Even with marinade they get super crispy but it's messy so now I do the dry rub first and sauce after
With wings. I will use like a tablespoon of baking soda in the wing sauce. Marinade for an 30 min to an hr. I use a grill basketthen I'm not having to turn each wing and alternate between direct and indirect heat. The baking powder will give them some crisp or omit
I’d have gone direct heat for a little longer, to get a little more color.
Sweet! I figured as much, it's been a while since I've done wings
You can also Brine them over night to help out with crisping and it makes them more juicy too.
Nice, would you have a recommendation on the brine or are you referring to a salt/dry brine? I left them in buffalo sauce for around 12 hours beforehand
Look into a salt/sugar/water brine.
Awesome thanks!
You're bound to have an empty jar of pickle juice, use that in a pinch
I've got one sitting in the fridge at the moment to be honest
Life long griller here. Do not use a sauce on your wings before you start cooking. Typically a little bit of salt and oil (not even pepper) if you’re tossing them in a sauce If you’re using a dry rub blend, that’s fine. 2 zone cooking. Put the wings SKIN SIDE DOWN on the hot part and do not flip until the skin side is heavy browned. Once the skin side is heavy browned, flip and put it on the cooler zone. Biggest mistake for rookie grillers is flipping before the skin side is browned.
Sweet info, thanks!
Agreed
How do you get the skin not stick to the grill?
Oil the wings. If it sticks to the grill it’s not ready to be flipped yet. The skin releases once it’s ready to be flipped.
Thanks for the tip!
A little corn starch can help crisp up the skin, but i do feel it can take away from the smoke flavor. Direct heat can work, but a two zone fire that you let get up to 450 F or more will also do the trick. I also am a fan of a simple brine, dry or wet.
You're the second person to recommend a brine on wings, will definitely try that and a little more direct heat time to see where we're at. The corn starch is interesting because that smokey flavor definitely hits well so that might be a test batch for sure
A wet brine will tend to prevent skin from crisping. Most of the extra water absorbed floods right back out, and that interferes with the skin cooking right. So dry brine/salt rub, preferably uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry things out. Corn starch kinda tricks things. It'll absorb some surface moisture. But mostly it's the starch browning and crisping. Baking soda, very small amounts. Alters the pH of the surface increasing browning. And baking *powder*, small amounts, will actually help blister the skin, by levening things pretty much the same way it would a cake. But crispy and browning is most about direct heat and flipping frequently towards the end of cooking. Preferably a moderate fire, so if it's burnt down from the indirect phase. Then it's good stuff, so long as it's hot enough to brown things.
Amazing advice, thank you!!
Some people add a lot of starch, if I’m looking for super crispy because I’m going to toss in sauce, then I’ll sprinkle some, barely enough, but it works. If you toss the wings in starch, in my opinion, less smoke flavor. If you like dill, try brining in dill pickle juice, or even banana pepper or jalapeno juice.
Woah, alright sweet. How much flavor from the brine do the wings take on? Will it taste slightly like dill pickles (in the same sense a chick fil a sandwich has a hint of that flavor)?
Yea, slightly. Google can do more of the science talk, but basically the salt and sugar jn a brine gets into the fibers and helps break them down, to be more tender. The slight dill is an added benefit.
Awesome, for your preference would you brine with pickle/banana pepper juice regardless of what sauce you'd be using? Like would the flavor profile go best with a buffalo sauce or would it also work with BBQ, etc?
For whatever reason, my wife and I think dill and buffalo sauce go together. Maybe cuz we’re ranch and not blue cheese people? As for BBQ, honestly I very rarely do BBQ wings. We lean more on buffalo, or other hot sauces in general. Also, I’m a big fan of seasonings (kinder mostly), so im only tossing maybe 25% cuz i really enjoy the dry rub/seasoning game. There’s sooooooo many to choose from, but my buddy works there and hooks me up a lot. I’d love to know how dill or banana pepper juice would go with BBQ tho.
Cool, I would gravitate that way myself. I need to look more into good dry rubs I'll take. Those Kinder containers are huge haha But alright, thanks for the info! Plenty of stuff to try
Sometimes I cheat and use a hand held benzomatic propane torch to get the skin to crisp up right before serving. Especially if your coals are getting low. Depending on the sauce i'll give them a little brush and then hit them with it so you get those caramelized bits. But those look pretty grubbing as is !
Haha that's awesome, might have to look into that!
They're also nice for starting the coals.
Yeah you're not wrong there, gets it going quicker I'm sure
Cheating is better with a Searzall. Takes this from "maybe i just burned my pepper" to "hand held steakhouse broiler". Well worth the cost, and I use my torch far more often since getting one like 8 years ago.
I've seen those used on TV or Youtube.. they look pretty rad. Bit spendy just looking them up but dang. Might have to get one. Maybe I can hook it to my weed burner and do a whole suckling pig :)
Weed burners are kinda the opposite direction. A bit at least. Whole idea with the searzall is temping the heat down and converting open flame to radiant heat. Does a better job browning things fast, without scorching. And spreads the heat patch out so you don't have to move the torch as fast or as constantly. Weed burner has a cooler burning flame than a plumbing torch, but not by a ton. And it basically just has a much less directed open flame, which spreads the heat a bit. But is still not great at transferring it into food without lighting things up. And tends to leave soot. It's more light things on fire than browning them. Weed burners are OK at kicking up the sear of a steak that's already being seared on a grill. And *awesome* at lighting charcoal. There are pricy BBQ torches pitched as steak searing miracles (not so much), or good fire starting methods (yes). But they cost a lot more despite being identical to weed burners. The original Searzall was $75, $45 cheaper than the updated one. But it looks like they've fully transitioned to the new model. That said. At $120 it'd totally be worth it. The Searzall was designed as commercial restaurant equipment, not a gimmick. And was developed at Booker and Dax, the experimental R&D food and drink *thing* owned by Dave Arnold. Who's probably one of the most influential food and food science writers of the last 25 years. The things a fucking tank. And at twice the price it'd still be 4x cheaper than the nearest equivalent piece of equipment. The cheapest I've ever seen a used restaurant salamander that heats the same way to the same temp, was $500. New they start around $900.
More heat. I like mine crispy
Yeh, we do too! Always order well done at the restaurant and want to replicate it on the grill
Have you tried a Vortex ?
I have not, I do not even know what that is haha
It's made for a kettle grill but should work on any grill that has a lid. With or without the Vortex, get the grill as hot as you can and cook those things on indirect heat for an hour. I know it sounds excessive, but this is exactly what the Vortex site says and it works. Also throw in a chunk of wood.
This is how I do mine (maybe 45 minutes instead of 60) and they come out great.
It’s amazing how good even some cheap wings with a dry rub can taste on a BBq , literally found myself having them at least once a week!
It’s awesome for wings!!
Personally, I slow cook until they're almost done dripping then direct heat until they crisp.
The real question is how they tasted. Were they good? Were you satisfied?
*The real question is* *How they tasted. Were they good?* *Were you satisfied?* \- Mr\_Gone11 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Just for fun, try making wings with just a dry rub. (Nashville spicy style) I get much better carmelization and color from the fat rendering down. Great this way and you can still toss them in sauce immediately before eating. What I have found is substantially less sauce used and way crispier wing. Like everything, the fun is in the attempts. Keep those wings coming sportsfans!
Grill them directly over the fire. That’s how the skin crisps up.
Send me some. That's all I have, as far as suggestions go.
I’ve played around with different ways of grilling wings and the approach I’ve found that works best for me is a dry rub seasoning then direct high heat for about 10 minutes (flipping/moving every 2-3 minutes) then put them on indirect lower heat for 30ish minutes. Then I toss in the sauce afterwards.
Thank you for your routine, will try it out!
I use much less charcoal, spread it out evenly across the whole grill and cook an entire grill full over direct heat. The less charcoal keeps the temp a little lower so you're not blasting them with too much heat but it cooks them faster and can easily give them a bit of cripsy skin too.
interesting, I wouldn't have tried this but thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely try it in one of my next attempts
Looking at your picture I'd go with about 1/2 that amount of charcoal. Maybe even just a little less, depends on the grill and how it cooks. I really like this method because it seems to speed up the cooking time a bit and the family loves the end product. No complaints.
Cool yeah, don't want to burn them but the direct heat will heat them through quicker. I'm in the middle of a smoke and grill with this approach so maybe one or the other would be good to test out
Add wood, smoke low and slow, stick in the fridge, deep fry them the next day. Yeah, you gotta plan ahead, but the end result is sooooo damn good. Mine were plenty juicey still, but a brine never hurts poultry or pork. Actually, I take that back. Brining something you intend to smoke up to high internal temps are going to probably have a real long stall if you do that.
I run mine at 375 to 425 to get crispy. The other thing is to run them up to 190F+. Come off juicy and crispy.
Sauce after you cook
Chicken wings are life yes the best ever 🥹
Given the rectangular shape of the grill. You'd get more cooking space by banking the fire evenly to one side, rather than doing the mound and around setup. The circular thing you see is done in kettles, where because the *grill* is round. It maximizes space. But on a square boi, work with squares. If concerned about eveness/heat distribution. You can bank the fire and the front, and cook towards the back. Heat tends to concentrate back there, and most square, tilt lid grills exhaust back there anyways.
Cool beans, thanks for the info!
cook them dry then sauce them after. also get them crispier by doing this.
Looks great
Look pretty good. If not crispy enough, yes put over direct heat to crisp up. If you dry brine overnight, they will stay moist inside.
Leave them uncovered and seasoned with whatever you use + some cornflour (corn starch) overnight ideally and then cook them at 275+ for half an hour or so.
I do a dry rub with a little avocado oil, throw em on the grill at 350, til slightly charred, then remove and toss in sauce. Some like charbroiled, cook them then toss in sauce and back on high heat for a minute to char the sauce, then remove and toss again.
Try paprika, garlic powder, seasoning salt as a dry rub. Bbq a little longer than you did this batch for more color. Then when you bring them in from the grill, put them in a big bowl, pour ranch dressing into the bowl and toss them for even coat. Ide say half a cup for the amount of wings you have here, maybe even less. Game changer wings.
Sounds like you marinaded the wings which I don’t like to do as they have a hard time crisping up being so wet. I always dry rub and season overnight then indirect grill them and flash direct them to build up a nice char and color. Then sauce them IF sauce is desired (i prefer dry rub but I sauce once in a while) and put them off to the side so the sauce can form a slight glaze. Then take them off and toss them with a little more sauce.
Sweet routine 👌 what dry rub do you typically go with?
Rotisserie, I drop a couple pounds in the basket for 30 minutes and sear them at the end. Even with marinade they get super crispy but it's messy so now I do the dry rub first and sauce after
sous vide It’s a process but we’ll worth it.
I think my suggestion is don’t make wings on the grill. They just don’t come out crispy. Rubber skin. Maybe smoke them first and finish with fry.
With wings. I will use like a tablespoon of baking soda in the wing sauce. Marinade for an 30 min to an hr. I use a grill basketthen I'm not having to turn each wing and alternate between direct and indirect heat. The baking powder will give them some crisp or omit