This is a request for help with chicken wings....not on how to cook them, but how to hold them. The problem is I have 275 chicken wings to cook and I only have my PBC and Weber to do the job! I can get about 30 wings on each and they will need an hour. Of course the people will arrive all at once and I need to have most of them ready. So in the first hour, I cook about 60 wings...I had thought of holding them I we hold brisket...my cooler will hold brisket 24 hours at temp....(yea one of those expensive ones) and perhaps I should cook them all and them give them a quick sear over the coals just before serving.....anyone have a great idea...
how about this option... smoke them up (par cook) and then simply dunk them in a deep fryer quick when people are ready to eat? You get the heavy lifting out of the way, an a quick dunk to ensure doneness as the crowd demands should do the trick. YMMV
windquest2, I have used a Cooler (faux cambro) to hold Chicken Legs and Thighs (Can't Afford Wings!) I held them for about 2 Hrs with very little Temp Deterioration! I would think a Larger Quantity like You are doing should Hold Well! If You have an Oven Available You Should be able to Hold a large Quantity at Temp while Your Grills Catch Up. I think if you Lead Your Party by 3 Hrs (3 X 60 = 180) You will have a cook during the First Hr of the Party? The other Possibility is to Borrow or Rent another Grill! I hope this Ramble Helps You Some!
Eat Well and Prosper! From a Backyard Cremator in Fargo ND, Dan
What's happening Dan! Smoked wings hold well IMO. Oven, loosely covered at 200 is the easiest. I like to smoke wings ahead, let get to room temp, drop in the fryer in batches for about 30 seconds and serve. Give or take 12 wings per batch, should be able to have everything ready in 30-40 minutes.
I think your best bet if you don't have (or want to use) a deep fryer is to smoke them all ahead of time and hold them (either just in your kitchen if a short-ish time or in an oven on low if a longer time). You can even probably do this the morning of or night before and keep them in your fridge. Right before people are coming, get your grill cranked up to Mach 10 and sear them a bit on either side to crisp and heat. This worked best for me since I have a gasser that i can quickly get up to Mach 10 and is able to hold a ton of wings at once, so I can crisp up like 30-40 at a time and just keep rotating them off the grill. Hope this helps and good luck!
Thanks for all the suggestions!!!!!!! I think you have steered me into smoking and then finishing them on the gas grill and the charcoal one...Makes sense. Looks like I might have an oven to help with keep them warm before going back on for the final time.
Henry
I haven't done this but perhaps a redneck sous vide strategy would work. Bag them up, fill a beer cooler with hot water at 170, and finish on the PBC with the lid off (or just ajar) in batches to crisp them up?
I've been smoking wings on the PBC since I got it in 2014 and I don't know that it's ever taken an hour to smoke 'em. But I have added several different mods to my PBC, two of which make larger quantities of wings easier and faster to cook: 1. I added two additional levels of grate racks (an upper and a lower) and redneck airflow control to the lid (three 1/2" holes in a triangle pattern that I selectively cover with a flat piece of wood). This is much more controllable than cracking the lid. I only own 2 racks right now but with these two racks I can smoke 40 whole wings in about 30 to 40 minutes. When I get the 3rd rack I'll be able to do 60 whole wings (120 halves) in 40 min.
The trick is in creating much higher but controllable pit temp than I use for smoking. My PBC normally runs at 280 to 290, but with the 3 holes uncovered and the bottom vent opened 50%, it runs at 350 to 380 or so. Perfect for crispy skin smoked wings. I either salt and pepper the wings or use a combo of Moose's Chicken Rub#2 and my rib rib (that's what's on the wings in the pic), throw some hickory chunks on the coals and load 2 grates of wings. Let 'em run for 20 min then pull them all out, flip each wing over and swap the top and bottom racks. Cook another 10 min and check meat temp. I'm looking for 180 to 185 and when they hit that, out they come.
I don't sauce the meat in situ (sauce is for the table at my house) but I make a killer Georgia Mustard Sauce and Franklin Street BBQ sauce that the neighbors can't get enough of.
Unsauced Wings:
Here's a few pics to illustrate the grate mods and the Redneck Airflow Control System I mentioned...
Redneck Airflow Control System:
Outside Bolt for upper and lower grate rests:
inside view of upper and lower grate rests with original PBC rest in the middle. I did have to shorten the PBC L bracket so the lower grate would slide past it (at a slight angle).
Lower grate in place
Middle grate in place
Grage on upper posts (I only have two grates at present)
I sous vide'd a big frozen bag of wings and finished them on the PBC for the super bowl. They came out nice and crisp and tender on the inside. They didn't have as much smoke flavor as they do on the PBC the whole time but they were well-received. I bet sous vide + grill grates with pellets would do the trick beautifully.
Interesting, I just got a Joule and some Grill Grates for the holidays, and am looking for the best way to marry the two. Have you actually "quick-smoked" anything using the GG with some pellets or chips? It's one of the reasons I bought the Grates.
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