Equipment
Primo Oval xl
Slow n Sear (two)
Drip n Griddle
22" Weber Kettle
26" Weber Kettle one touch
Blackstone 36†Pro Series
Sous vide machine
Kitchen Aid
Meat grinder
sausage stuffer
5 Crock Pots Akootrimonts
Two chimneys (was 3 but rivets finally popped, down to 1)
cast iron pans,
Dutch ovens
Signals 4 probe, thermapens, chef alarms, Dots, thermapop and maverick T-732, RTC-600, pro needle and various pocket instareads. The help and preferences
1 extra fridge and a deep chest freezer in the garage
KBB
FOGO
A 9 year old princess foster child
Patience and old patio furniture
"Baby Girl" The cat
I don’t do "the best" thing. I have found quality chicken like "Mary’s Chicken" or similar (I buy at Whole Foods) dry brined overnight and super high heat is the best way to go.
These days I’m eating my beef towards medium and seasoning with salt n pepper in general.
We like to switch it up pretty often rather than stick to one recipe/flavor, but as everyone has noted the kettle/vortex process will get you there. Per HouseHomey 's suggestion, we've also found starting with better chicken makes a big difference, usually buying organic chicken wings. I like to dry brine them uncovered overnight and feel it gets the skin crispier. We didn't care for the taste imparted by baking powder, but it did add to the crispy factor. If I'm saucing them, I don't toss them in it until after they come off. I would encourage getting that vortex as full as you can, I usually end up topping it off (make sure the grate will still lay flat on top) after pouring an entire lit chimney into it, then let it preheat ~10+ min or so. I flip them once a little more than halfway thru.
Wings tend to be overpriced, probably due to high demand. Some folks go with drumsticks as they are often cheaper and have more meat. But you can't beat good wings which is what we will be going with next weekend.
I too don’t like frozen wings. The ones I’ve found are usually nasty and no flavor. I’ve been buying only fresh for quite a while now. And I also like to do legs as well with the wings.
Weber S-335 gas grill
Weber 26†kettle
Weber 22†kettle
Camp Chef XL Smoke Vault
Camp Chef 3 Burner cook top
Camp Chef Woodwind 36 Pellet grill with sidekick burner
PBC
Accessories:
SnS XL
SnS standard
Vortex
Weber Rotisserie for 22†Kettle
1st gen FireBoard
2nd gen FireBoard
Griddle for Camp Chef cooktop
Several Thermoworks items
Set of Grill Grates
I like to dry brine overnight then add my rub and cook using the vortex. Then have several different types of sauces ready so everyone can choose what they want.
you can smoke them low and deep fry to finish and crisp the skin
or
you can vortex blast them at 500+F air temp.
In both cases fry brine first at least overnight and up to 48 hrs in the fridge. Can use a light coating of rub here also.
in the latter case don’t sauce until near the end (you can sauce after they are done also but I like to get the sauce to set on them with heat, just stand right there - they go from perfect to burnt sauce quickly).
Equipment
Primo Oval xl
Slow n Sear (two)
Drip n Griddle
22" Weber Kettle
26" Weber Kettle one touch
Blackstone 36†Pro Series
Sous vide machine
Kitchen Aid
Meat grinder
sausage stuffer
5 Crock Pots Akootrimonts
Two chimneys (was 3 but rivets finally popped, down to 1)
cast iron pans,
Dutch ovens
Signals 4 probe, thermapens, chef alarms, Dots, thermapop and maverick T-732, RTC-600, pro needle and various pocket instareads. The help and preferences
1 extra fridge and a deep chest freezer in the garage
KBB
FOGO
A 9 year old princess foster child
Patience and old patio furniture
"Baby Girl" The cat
JimLinebarger as hot as you can go while cooking the inside without burning the outside.
So the opposite of "Dads backyard burned and raw chicken of yore."
For me that’s a SnS on the 26, wide open and loaded for bear.
Im with FishTalesNC on the baking powder thing. It’s completely unnecessary for this
cook and taste bad.
After the uncovered overnight brine the chicken skin should feel "leathery" or the like (proper term??) and will have pulled away slightly from the meat and bone.
These should cook in a real hurry too. Pull, toss and eat. Money!
I do not have a Vortex. FOGO gets pretty hot though.
I wanted to close this out by letting everyone know we had our "Cabin Weekend" where we grilled wings on a Weber Kettle using the Vortex and 6 different wing recipes. I was disappointed in the skin on the wings as it seemed more chewy than crispy. That might be attributed to grilling at 22 below zero, but the Vortex didn't seem to have a problem keeping the grill thermometer maxed out.
We polled the family after eating wings and the favorites came out as follows:
#1. Franks wing sauce - probably because for some this is what wings should taste like. Not my favorite.
#2. A custom rub and Asian Glaze found on another thread by Henrik
#3. Killer Hog Sauce and Mississippi Grind Rub as mentioned by gregtr1 above.
#4 Franks Original Sauce and Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing as mentioned by jerrybell and Huskee above
In no particular order, the last three were my personal favorites.
On another night I grilled six Ribeye and two T-Bone steaks around the Vortex and it was flawless. It worked really well for indirect cooking to have all the steaks equal-distant from the coals which meant they finished in about the same amount of time. I then reverse seared them over the Vortex. When grilling in temperatures 20 below zero I didn't t want to spend a lot of time moving steaks around and the Vortex was great for that.
I don't have pictures because with the temperature extremes I spent as little time outdoors as possible. Along with dark, smoke, and steam, there really wasn't much to photograph. Thanks everyone for sharing your favorite recipes.
Last edited by bep35; February 17, 2021, 10:32 AM.
I make my own hot sauce. The key to good wings is the right hot sauce in MYHO. I like it hot. Very hot. Last year's sauce was Chocolate Bhutlah peppers in a balsamic vinegar base. I use an air fryer starting with naked frozen wings. Usually about 30-35 minutes. Then toss the wings in my sauce with some olive oil. Here's a picture.
I have been doing 1Hour wet brine, 2 hours smoke after soaking in Cajun Chefs hot sauce. Then I can chill them unitl it is time to finish and I do that one a hot gas grill. I don't get left overs
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