If someone asks you to grill 80lbs of chicken wings...

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3montes

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Dec 26, 2007
1,299
160
Beautifull shores of Lake Superior
Don't!! I feel like I was hit by a truck today!
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I did a grad party yesterday and the grad requested chicken wings. I guess probably 200 people showed maybe 225. Besides chicken wings I provided Swedish meatballs. For these I went to a restaurant that a friend owns and he did up 2 pans full for me so all I had to do was pick them up and throw them in the steam table. Also pulled pork and Dutch's beans. So all I really cooked on site were the wings. No pics as I didn't have time to take pics.

I would cook a metric ton of ribs before doing that again! I bought the wings already cut and jumbo size. These went about 6 wings to a pound.  I used my Santa Maria wood fired grill I kept one side hot while the other side was used for moving wings off the fire so they wouldn't get charred and then back again. I kept monitoring internal temp to make sure they were done to proper temp before serving.

 I had the vertical going as well. Wings would be put in the vertical to get some smoke for a hour or so while I grilled a batch on the Santa Maria. When the grilled ones were ready they would get moved to the steam table for serving and the next batch would come out of the smoker to be grilled.

All in all about 9 hours of standing and wing flipping and tending 2 fires! That was probably one of the most tedious cooking events I have done and without a doubt the most labor intensive.

But as always the rewards were there. Tons of compliments and interested on lookers. One older guy even pitched in and helped me out for about 45 minutes.

Today I have a complete understanding of how many chicken wings are in 80lbs!
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Dang 3montes,
that sound incredibly labor intensive sure enough.
Does sound like a success story though, I bet that somewhat makes it worthwhile.
I hope it was a well paid gig.

My feet ache just reading about it, that would certainly fire up my plantar fascitis.
 
Don't!! I feel like I was hit by a truck today!:30:
Today I have a complete understanding of how many chicken wings are in 80lbs! :biggrin:  
Great job for the party!!
That is a lot of wings :biggrin:
Most I have smoked was 40lbs. How many wings could you fit at one time?
It's definitely one of them jobs where help comes in handy.
 
Turns out it was a great learning experience. One of those things I don't want to do again but know I can if I need to. That's the great thing about this hobby is you never stop learning. New things are always coming your way. Whether it's new foods or something you do all the time like chicken wings but in a new way that challenges you to develop a plan and execute it.

Then there is a place like this where you can share your experience that hopefully helps someone else with a similar challenge.

I did them in 5 to 7lb batches so it was a constant rotation from the vertical to the open fire grill. I spent the first 2 hours or so before I arrived at that plan. I started just grilling them on the Santa Maria and then dry rubbing the next batch. Then I decided to fire up the vertical and pre smoking them in there first which was my original plan until the host decided she wanted me to put about 8 pans of hash browns in there to keep warm. So that took up some room plus I didn't want to run it too hot if it was just warming hash browns. I didn't want them to burn to the bottom of the pan so I ran it about 200 which is really low for chicken. But it pre warmed them and gave them a little smoke as well. They grilled up nicely after that.

The entire day kept me on my feet both physically and mentally! It's always rewarding when you find out you can adapt to a new challenge on the fly!
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Sounds like an awesome day to me. Great thing you did helping them out. Next time strap a go pro on so there are pictures lol
 
Thanks for the replies and the points everyone! A Go Pro might not be a bad idea Brian I have one around here somewhere. I'm always too busy to take pics at my cooking events or forget to grab the camera.
 
 
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