My sweet Poppie battled a rare form of cancer for nearly 10 years. He stayed strong and I'm so thankful I had that extra time with him. He finally gave in and went to be at peace in March 2019 after all those years of struggle - and even a few years of remission that we prayed would last.
After Poppie passed, my Nanny told me that she wanted Justin to have Poppie's electric smoker. We'd never used one before, so it was a learning process, but this was the very first thing we cooked in it.
It turned out delicious, and I think Poppie would have been proud. The only things he would say were missing were an ice cold beer and the swimming pool!
We sat outside on the porch during one of the bad Spring storms (4/19/20 - lots of damage throughout our state of AL) and watched the rain while the smoker did all the hard work.
Hubby was very happy with these super easy to make, tender, flavorful chicken wings!
INGREDIENTS:
10-12 large chicken wings (ours were drumsticks)
Dry rub of your choice (we used Justin's dry rub)
Hot sauce or BBQ sauce of your choice
Mesquite or Hickory wood chips for the smoker
About 1 cup of water
We used our homemade Habanero hot sauce as a baste on some of our wings. Spicy!
DIRECTIONS
Plug in your smoker and preheat it to 225*.
We added one cup of wood chips to the tray. Keep an extra 1/2 cup on hand to add as needed.
Line a baking sheet that is small enough to fit in the smoker with aluminum foil and lightly grease with non-stick cooking spray.
Mix up your dry rub in a large ziploc bag.
Remove the chicken from its packaging, and immediately dab it dry using paper towels. This helps the dry rub stick better.
Plop your chicken in the bag, seal it up, and toss it to evenly coat each chicken wing in the seasoning.
Remove each chicken wing from the bag and set on a plate. You can refrigerate these over night by covering in cling wrap if you choose. It does seem to help the seasoning stick better, but it is NOT necessary.
Once the smoker is at the correct temperature, pour the water into the water pan.
Place the wings on the greased tray and put the tray in the smoker.
Cook for 45 minutes, then remove the wings from the smoker.
Baste the wings in the sauce of your choice, being sure to evenly coat all sides.
Put the chicken back in the smoker and cook for another 25-35 minutes.
After that time is up, be prepared to eat the moist perfectly juicy and delicious smoked chicken wings you could imagine!
That seasoning sure does look pretty!
You can see here the difference between our dry rub and the very light seasoning we put on the wings our kiddos are going to eat. Our dry rub is too spicy for them!
After basting with Habanero sauce. Pop it back in the smoker to get the outside a little crispy!
HOW WE USE OURS:
We used several different sauces as an experiment. On one set, we used Hunt's Cherrywood Chipotle (mine and Blayton's favorite) and the other set we used our homemade Habanero hot sauce made from last year's crop (we'll share that recipe soon).
Justin loves the habanero sauce, but the best all around would be to use a good BBQ sauce.
And of course, dip em in some ranch dressing or bleu cheese!
The final product! Slightly crispy skin, juicy and tender inside, with great flavor!
Like our plates? You can find them on Amazon! We loved them so much we bought 2 sets!