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I have reached chicken wing nirvana.....

The Tradition

HR King
Apr 23, 2002
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This was so awesome, y'all.

2 lbs. of chicken wings.

About five teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning.

1 tablespoon of flour.

1 tablespoon of baking powder (not soda).

A splash of olive oil to get it all rubbed down and happy.

:)

So, you mix all that in a bowl and make sure everything is coated really good.

Then go fire up the Weber kettle with the Vortex cone set up with the small side up.

Get your kettle as hot as you can get it. All vents wide open. I was hitting 450 degrees or so. Put a piece of peach wood over the Vortex.

Arrange the wings around the Vortex so you're cooking on indirect heat.

Flip every 15-20 minutes and spin the lid so the smoke covers everything really good.

After about an hour, start checking temps. Although chicken is "done" at 165 degrees you want to take these bad boys a lot higher than that. They can take it.

This recipe is all about the skin and if you did it right, the skin will be crispy like it was fried, but with that awesome smoke flavor.

I pulled mine when they were all temping at 200+

They were FANTASTIC!

DO THIS!
 
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I don't get coating the wing before grilling....doesn't add anything and you run the risk of burning the flour

Seriously, dude. It's a very small amount of flour per wing. Not a coating at all.

Try this.

It was freaking awesome.
 
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And it's not flour and baking soda. Coat the wings in corn starch.

First season the wings with your preferred seasoning, base coat. Then put some corn starch in a baggie and drop a couple wings (thighs or drums) into the bag and shake to coat.

Grill using the same vortex method. Usually done in about 45 minutes.
 
And it's not flour and baking soda. Coat the wings in corn starch.

First season the wings with your preferred seasoning, base coat. Then put some corn starch in a baggie and drop a couple wings (thighs or drums) into the bag and shake to coat.

Grill using the same vortex method. Usually done in about 45 minutes.

The thread two months ago did the corn starch thing.

This is better. Much better.
 
That sounds pretty solid. Pics would have helped....

I say do everything all the same again and give old bay a shot. They go great on wings as a feature and as a compliment with a hot sauce.
 
I don't get coating the wing before grilling....doesn't add anything and you run the risk of burning the flour

I don't grill, but deep fry in a cast iron pot. I don’t put a batter on as I don’t like breading on the wings but I do dredge them in corn starch before frying so they’re not completely naked. This little bit of crispy cornstarch gives the sauce something to hang on to.
 
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So we took chicken wings out of the freezer for tonight's dinner but it was rainy, so I did this in the oven on the convection setting at 400 degrees. Put them on a rack over a foil-lined baking sheet. Took about an hour, turned them twice and it was absolutely fantastic. Crispy skin with wonderful moist, flavorful meat!

Again, don't be afraid to take them over 200 degrees. They can take it! Focus on when the skin crisps up instead of temp.
 
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I don't grill, but deep fry in a cast iron pot. I don’t put a batter on as I don’t like breading on the wings but I do dredge them in corn starch before frying so they’re not completely naked. This little bit of crispy cornstarch gives the sauce something to hang on to.

So cast iron. Do you do the reverse sear on steaks?
 
So cast iron. Do you do the reverse sear on steaks?

Not normally, but that’s because both my wife and I prefer steaks that are Pittsburg Blue or basically a scorching hot pan or grill barely kissing the steak so it’s so rare it moos on the inside. But when I’m cooking for others who want it anything other than rare I do use the reverse sear method and while I do mainly like steaks ultra rare, every once in awhile I do like doing a fatty ribeye, some flabby short rib pieces or something else with lots of fat and do it all the way to well. I’m not a fan of anything in between.
 
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Not normally, but that’s because both my wife and I prefer steaks that are Pittsburg Blue or basically a scorching hot pan or grill barely kissing the steak so it’s so rare it moos on the inside. But when I’m cooking for others who want it anything other than rare I do and while I do mainly like steaks ultra rare, every once in awhile I do like doing a fatty ribeye, some flabby short rib pieces or something else with lots of fat and do it all the way to well. I’m not a fan of anything in between.

Understood. My daughter, 10, loves the rare steak. So reverse sear works great.
 
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Not normally, but that’s because both my wife and I prefer steaks that are Pittsburg Blue or basically a scorching hot pan or grill barely kissing the steak so it’s so rare it moos on the inside. But when I’m cooking for others who want it anything other than rare I do and while I do mainly like steaks ultra rare, every once in awhile I do like doing a fatty ribeye, some flabby short rib pieces or something else with lots of fat and do it all the way to well. I’m not a fan of anything in between.

So, are you grilling at like 2 minutes on each side for rare?
 
So, are you grilling at like 2 minutes on each side for rare?

Maybe not even that long. I’ve got a gas stove that has two “power grill” burners that get ridiculously hot, so I crank that up and get a cast iron pot scorching hot. Once the dry rub starts smoking I flip it. Similarly, my outside gas grill doesn’t get quite as hot but I turn on all the burners and let the grill get as hot as possible.
 
Maybe not even that long. I’ve got a gas stove that has two “power grill” burners that get ridiculously hot, so I crank that up and get a cast iron pot scorching hot. Once the dry rub starts smoking I flip it. Similarly, my outside gas grill doesn’t get quite as hot but I turn on all the burners and let the grill get as hot as possible.

Interesting. I grill or smoke steaks to 115 degrees internal temp and then reverse sear on cast iron for 1 minute per side for medium rare. Very tasty, but will try your method.
 
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Interesting. I grill or smoke steaks to 115 degrees internal temp and then reverse sear on cast iron for 1 minute per side for medium rare. Very tasty, but will try your method.

That method is going to depend highly on the thickness of the steak and to a slightly lesser extent, the cut of meat. If I have thin steaks, the nuclear hot cooking surface is the way to go.

And since this thread mentioned the Vortex accessory, you can get that thing hot like a jet airplane afterburner.
 
That method is going to depend highly on the thickness of the steak and to a slightly lesser extent, the cut of meat. If I have thin steaks, the nuclear hot cooking surface is the way to go.

And since this thread mentioned the Vortex accessory, you can get that thing hot like a jet airplane afterburner.

I have Edgewood locker 3/4 inch thick steaks. Maybe my method is not the best. Still trying to perfect.
 
This was so awesome, y'all.

2 lbs. of chicken wings.

About five teaspoons of lemon pepper seasoning.

1 tablespoon of flour.

1 tablespoon of baking powder (not soda).

A splash of olive oil to get it all rubbed down and happy.

:)

So, you mix all that in a bowl and make sure everything is coated really good.

Then go fire up the Weber kettle with the Vortex cone set up with the small side up.

Get your kettle as hot as you can get it. All vents wide open. I was hitting 450 degrees or so. Put a piece of peach wood over the Vortex.

Arrange the wings around the Vortex so you're cooking on indirect heat.

Flip every 15-20 minutes and spin the lid so the smoke covers everything really good.

After about an hour, start checking temps. Although chicken is "done" at 165 degrees you want to take these bad boys a lot higher than that. They can take it.

This recipe is all about the skin and if you did it right, the skin will be crispy like it was fried, but with that awesome smoke flavor.

I pulled mine when they were all temping at 200+

They were FANTASTIC!

DO THIS!

And just like that Trad redeems himself as a HROT poster, sounds delicious.
 
Can't see a reason to ever put flower and baking powder on chicken wings. Ever.

Try it. It's not enough to really call it a "coating".... you're not building a big breaded layer. But the little bit you put on there helps the skin crisp up bigly in the dry heat of a grill or oven.
 
This sounds like a cool recipe, but I'm a wing purist...naked, fried, hot sauce and butter.

I've been making them fairly often, trying to get them more and more perfect. I mean, I can always make them A, but I've been trying to make them A+++. LOL, there aren't that many variables to work with.

One thing I've noticed...I've always underrated the quality of the chicken wing itself in the final product. Now that I'm really paying attention, I'm finding that's probably the biggest variable...you can do everything the exact same, and the chicken itself will decide how good it is.

That makes it a little tricky, because there isn't a great way to tell by looking at it, and I don't know if it's even consistent across a brand. Fresh vs frozen doesn't even make much difference. You don't really know if you have the good stuff until the end.

Unfortunately, while Costco is a go-to for so many meats, their chicken wings were quite poor as a final product.

That being said...most people probably wouldn't even care about the difference.

Here is one pro tip though if anyone is trying to do the real deal fried chicken wings like Buffalo...it's pretty much impossible to get with fresh oil. You have to strain, save and reuse oil to get the perfect flavor, browning and crispness. It starts to dial in more after 100-150 wings. It's ok, the wings that you make on the way there are still pretty damn good, I still like a B chicken wing more than most other foods.

The restaurant that I worked in had two fryers, one for mostly wings, one for mostly fries. When the oil was changed, the chicken wing fryer oil got disposed of, the french fry oil went into the chicken wing fryer, and fresh oil went in the french fry fryer. They never cooked wings in fresh oil.
 
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This sounds like a cool recipe, but I'm a wing purist...naked, fried, hot sauce and butter.

I've been making them fairly often, trying to get them more and more perfect. I mean, I can always make them A, but I've been trying to make them A+++. LOL, there aren't that many variables to work with.

One thing I've noticed...I've always underrated the quality of the chicken wing itself in the final product. Now that I'm really paying attention, I'm finding that's probably the biggest variable...you can do everything the exact same, and the chicken itself will decide how good it is.

That makes it a little tricky, because there isn't a great way to tell by looking at it, and I don't know if it's even consistent across a brand. Fresh vs frozen doesn't even make much difference. You don't really know if you have the good stuff until the end.

Unfortunately, while Costco is a go-to for so many meats, their chicken wings were quite poor as a final product.

That being said...most people probably wouldn't even care about the difference.

Here is one pro tip though if anyone is trying to do the real deal fried chicken wings like Buffalo...it's pretty much impossible to get with fresh oil. You have to strain, save and reuse oil to get the perfect flavor, browning and crispness. It starts to dial in more after 100-150 wings. It's ok, the wings that you make on the way there are still pretty damn good, I still like a B chicken wing more than most other foods.

The restaurant that I worked in had two fryers, one for mostly wings, one for mostly fries. When the oil was changed, the chicken wing fryer oil got disposed of, the french fry oil went into the chicken wing fryer, and fresh oil went in the french fry fryer. They never cooked wings in fresh oil.

The idea here is to get crispy skin without oil. Because it's healthier.

They come out like "plain fried" wings. You don't detect any flour or baking powder. If you don't add any seasoning, they would look just like plain wings and you could of course toss them in buffalo sauce. I personally don't care for the buffalo sauce.
 
This sounds like a cool recipe, but I'm a wing purist...naked, fried, hot sauce and butter.

I've been making them fairly often, trying to get them more and more perfect. I mean, I can always make them A, but I've been trying to make them A+++. LOL, there aren't that many variables to work with.

One thing I've noticed...I've always underrated the quality of the chicken wing itself in the final product. Now that I'm really paying attention, I'm finding that's probably the biggest variable...you can do everything the exact same, and the chicken itself will decide how good it is.

That makes it a little tricky, because there isn't a great way to tell by looking at it, and I don't know if it's even consistent across a brand. Fresh vs frozen doesn't even make much difference. You don't really know if you have the good stuff until the end.

Unfortunately, while Costco is a go-to for so many meats, their chicken wings were quite poor as a final product.

That being said...most people probably wouldn't even care about the difference.

Here is one pro tip though if anyone is trying to do the real deal fried chicken wings like Buffalo...it's pretty much impossible to get with fresh oil. You have to strain, save and reuse oil to get the perfect flavor, browning and crispness. It starts to dial in more after 100-150 wings. It's ok, the wings that you make on the way there are still pretty damn good, I still like a B chicken wing more than most other foods.

The restaurant that I worked in had two fryers, one for mostly wings, one for mostly fries. When the oil was changed, the chicken wing fryer oil got disposed of, the french fry oil went into the chicken wing fryer, and fresh oil went in the french fry fryer. They never cooked wings in fresh oil.
Where do you buy wings from if not Costco?
 
This sounds like a cool recipe, but I'm a wing purist...naked, fried, hot sauce and butter.

I've been making them fairly often, trying to get them more and more perfect. I mean, I can always make them A, but I've been trying to make them A+++. LOL, there aren't that many variables to work with.

One thing I've noticed...I've always underrated the quality of the chicken wing itself in the final product. Now that I'm really paying attention, I'm finding that's probably the biggest variable...you can do everything the exact same, and the chicken itself will decide how good it is.

That makes it a little tricky, because there isn't a great way to tell by looking at it, and I don't know if it's even consistent across a brand. Fresh vs frozen doesn't even make much difference. You don't really know if you have the good stuff until the end.

Unfortunately, while Costco is a go-to for so many meats, their chicken wings were quite poor as a final product.

That being said...most people probably wouldn't even care about the difference.

Here is one pro tip though if anyone is trying to do the real deal fried chicken wings like Buffalo...it's pretty much impossible to get with fresh oil. You have to strain, save and reuse oil to get the perfect flavor, browning and crispness. It starts to dial in more after 100-150 wings. It's ok, the wings that you make on the way there are still pretty damn good, I still like a B chicken wing more than most other foods.

The restaurant that I worked in had two fryers, one for mostly wings, one for mostly fries. When the oil was changed, the chicken wing fryer oil got disposed of, the french fry oil went into the chicken wing fryer, and fresh oil went in the french fry fryer. They never cooked wings in fresh oil.

Good post, Lou. I agree with you about the quality of wings......and Costco's shortcomings there. I've been fairly please with the wings from Amazon fresh.....I definitely think they cook better than Costco's.

Agree with you on the oil, as well. I've always got multiple jars of used to slightly used oil ready to go in the cupboard.
 
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Where do you buy wings from if not Costco?

I'll get them at whatever grocery store. I usually buy them fresh and whole, and separate them myself. Unfortunately, I have traditionally treated them as mostly the same, wings are wings, other than making sure not to buy anything too big or too small (both suck).

It's only now that I've been making sure to control every other aspect (mainly just a hobby type endeavor during covid) that I've really isolated what a difference the wing itself makes, after years of making wings. That's been accentuated by a standout in either direction...the Costco wings on the bad side...and a pack of wings that I unfortunately didn't pay any attention to when I bought it, which has been phenomenal.

Several weeks ago in Kroger they had a five pound bag of wings, already separated. They were fresh, but I believe likely previously frozen. Before I made them, I split them into a serving to make that day, and two servings to freeze, and threw away the packaging.

They made the best wings I've made at home I think. At first I just assumed I got it "more right", but cooking up the frozen ones later...same thing. I just knocked out the last batch last week, and still great. I have been looking at Kroger, because while I would recognize the bag again, I have no idea of the brand to search it out. Maybe I'll do some internet searching to see if I can recognize it, I would definitely be willing to buy them frozen and have them shipped.
 
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I'll get them at whatever grocery store. I usually buy them fresh and whole, and separate them myself. Unfortunately, I have traditionally treated them as mostly the same, wings are wings, other than making sure not to buy anything too big or too small (both suck).

It's only now that I've been making sure to control every other aspect (mainly just a hobby type endeavor during covid) that I've really isolated what a difference the wing itself makes, after years of making wings. That's been accentuated by a standout in either direction...the Costco wings on the bad side...and a pack of wings that I unfortunately didn't pay any attention to when I bought it, which has been phenomenal.

Several weeks ago in Kroger they had a five pound bag of wings, already separated. They were fresh, but I believe likely previously frozen. Before I made them, I split them into a serving to make that day, and two servings to freeze, and threw away the packaging.

They made the best wings I've made at home I think. At first I just assumed I got it "more right", but cooking up the frozen ones later...same thing. I just knocked out the last batch last week, and still great. I have been looking at Kroger, because while I would recognize the bag again, I have no idea of the brand to search it out. Maybe I'll do some internet searching to see if I can recognize it, I would definitely be willing to buy them frozen and have them shipped.
We have Publix and Walmart as the other choices vs Costco and Sam's.
 
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