40" First time fail

[vbredsoxfan]

I tried to cook the wings recipe from the Dadgum book. Cooked the wings according to the recipe for a total of two hours at 225 degrees and the meat in the joint was still under cooked. Plenty of smoke flavor but under cooked is not a good thing. Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong?

 

[tdwester]

Time is hard to judge on a smoker it is better to cook to temp, you may just have to leave them in a little longer.

 

[ironhorse07]

I am not familiar with that recipe but two hours seems short to me. When I cook in my smokers I use it (internal temperature ) and use time as general guideline. There are just too many variables that affect cooking time in smoking.
Doug

 

[s2k9k]

I smoke wings at 275*-300*, for 1 1/2 - 2 hours until they look and feel done. The higher temp helps to get the skin more crispy, low and slow isn't really necessary with wings. Crank up the temp next time.

 

[vbredsoxfan]

Thanks to all... I assumed I might need to crank up the temp BUT I tried to follow the recipe. Looking forward to my next attemp.

 

[whistlepig]

It's sure a lot easier to cook meat that can have a thermometor probe inserted or can be checked with a quick read thermometor. Just can't do that with wings. I really like smoked wings and have learned to judge the doneness by looking at them. Some times the grocery has big wings and sometimes they have small wings. So the cooking time is different for the different size wings. I cook mine at 240* for about 2 hours. Wings a little overcooked are a lot better than wings that are undercooked.    

 

[deltadude]

VBREDSOXFAN welcome to SMF and congrats on your New MES 40, also welcome to the MES owners club here.

It isn't difficult to discern if chicken wings are done, but a question first.

Are you breaking down the wing parts before cooking, thus are you cutting and discarding the wing tips, then cutting apart the upper arm (single bone) from the lower arm (two bones)?  Or do you leave the upper and lower arm attached and just discard the wing tip?

Personally for bbq and smoking I discard the wing tip and leave the upper & lower wing arms attached, this makes it easier because one turn you  are turning two pieces.  However if I'm deep frying the wings, I separate the upper & lower wing arm, like most restaurants serve the.

First the appearance needs to look cooked, if you are leaving the upper arm & lower arm attached, try pulling apart the upper/lower arms, if they come apart easily they are done.  If the meat feels like it has a rubber band attached to prevent pulling apart then they are not done.  Also you can take a fork and try to pull meat away from the upper single bone arm, if the meat comes off easily they are done, if the meat resists and you have to dig in a pull hard they are not done.

Sometimes, some of the wings will be done and others are not.  I like to take the ones that are done and stack them on the ones that are not done, so on the grate side of the wings not done is getting exposed to the heat and the other side which has the done wings sitting on them, the heat from the done wings is helping cook those wings not done.  Or you can simply remove and foil the done wings and just cook the rest.  However usually it is only another 3-5 minutes before those wings not done are finished.

 

[vbredsoxfan]

I did leave them attached minus the tips. I was afraid the 225 degrees was too low. Some folks indicated 250 was better. But I have the 40 so I should be using the temp probe anyway.

 

[smokinhusker]

Seems like a short time and more importantly, have you checked the temp of the MES? They seem to be lower than what it's set for.

 

[jrod62]

I stay around 225+ for first hour to get smoke on them then crank it up to 300 to finish.
Another way that i like is 1 1/2 hours in the smoker then deep fried to finish them off.
best of both worlds ( smoke/deep fried wings ) :drool

 

[dward51]

Also have you checked the actual temp of the probe in your smoker?  They are known for often being off by 25 degrees or more in a MES.  If yours is reading considerably low, that would also contribute to under done meat.

 

[vbredsoxfan]

I've only had the chance to use the smoker once (rain since). Do you know if there are adjustments that can be made to the thermometer if it is off?

 

[badbob]

Most of us with a 40 use a back up thermometer. I Have a Maverick and a Thermapen. They both work well.

 

[atomic dog]

Chicken is my favorite.  I find that chicken, which should be cooked to 160 degrees minimum, just takes longer.  With beef there is latitude if a few spots are a bit cooler, but with chicken it is better to err on the side of caution.  Due to this I usually add time to most chicken recipes or with larger pieces, use a meat thermometer.  I found that even cooking a small chicken at 240 (on my MES) for 4 hours can often not be enough to get the deepest parts over 160 -so 1.5 hours with wings sounds way short.  I would assume 2.5 to 3 hours at 225 -testing a couple pieces as time gets close.  It takes a while for cold meat to warm up at that low a temp.