I was really excited to fire up my kettle for the first time ever on Sunday. I acquired it about 12 years ago from my girlfriend's (now wife) neighbor on moving day after graduation. I'm a hoarder, so I saved it from the dumpster. I never really had the urge to cook with charcoal until I ended up on this website, so it just bounced around with us every time we moved. Scraped out the old baked on gunk and bought new grates. I was ready to go.
I was in the mood for garlic parm. I usually make a butter mixture with minced garlic and shredded parm to toss them in before serving. But after all these years, the wife finally decided to tell me that she doesn't like sauce on her wings because they make them soggy. Fair enough, but you could have mentioned that a decade ago. So I decided to go with a dry rub.
Dried and up to room temp:
1 Tbs garlic powder
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs baking powder (for crispy skin)
Tossed and resting while I heated up the grill:
Well I got the Weber all set and started to get it heated up. Thats when I noticed the distinct small of burning mouse pee. I was absolutely bummed. I guess I was so excited to use it, that it never dawned on me that its been sitting in the back corner of garages and storage units for over a decade. I'll get the it cleaned out the next time I have a chance, but theres no way I was going to cook in that thing. And there was also no way I was going to get the big smoker up to temperature in 20° weather. At that point, I was getting ready to give up and get the oven going. They would have come out just fine, but I wanted that smokey flavor.
Thats when my wife reminded me that I had one of those boxes to put chips in for the gas grill. It took me a while to come around to the idea, because I really love that charcoal taste in wings. I was too stubborn to use the chip box, so I had to come up with a better way before giving in to the gas grill idea.
The far left burner on high was perfect to keep the temp in the 250-275 range. I had to turn on the second burner to keep it up once the sun went down. A chunk of apple wood over the burner smoldered perfect to get good smoke. Once it caught fully, I got some ugly smoke, so I switched it out for another chunk.
One dumb mistake I made was I started out with the probe on the top rack and the wings on the bottom. I didn't realize how much of a temp difference there would be, even with the lid closed. But after an hour, I didn't see much happening with the skin, so I double checked and found the bottom grate was about 80-100° lower than the top. Kind of worked out though, because they really needed some time to get a little extra smoke.
So total, they went for about an hour at low heat and then another hour at my target temp, flipping every 20 minutes. My daughter came out to play in the snow, so I ended up losing track of the temp. It got a little higher than I planned, but still never hit much over 300°.
Pulled from the grill at about 170IT and sprinkled with some shredded parm:
It didn't get as much of the pink coloring that I've gotten when I do them on charcoal, but they still had some good smoke flavor and they were easily the juiciest wings I've ever had. Plus, they were crispier than some of the wings that I've dusted in flour and deep fried.
This was meant to be a practice run on the Weber for the super bowl. But I was informed by the wife that this is how I'm supposed to make them for now on. I'll probably sneak a couple chunks of charcoal onto the gasser though for next weekend.
I was in the mood for garlic parm. I usually make a butter mixture with minced garlic and shredded parm to toss them in before serving. But after all these years, the wife finally decided to tell me that she doesn't like sauce on her wings because they make them soggy. Fair enough, but you could have mentioned that a decade ago. So I decided to go with a dry rub.
Dried and up to room temp:
1 Tbs garlic powder
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs baking powder (for crispy skin)
Tossed and resting while I heated up the grill:
Well I got the Weber all set and started to get it heated up. Thats when I noticed the distinct small of burning mouse pee. I was absolutely bummed. I guess I was so excited to use it, that it never dawned on me that its been sitting in the back corner of garages and storage units for over a decade. I'll get the it cleaned out the next time I have a chance, but theres no way I was going to cook in that thing. And there was also no way I was going to get the big smoker up to temperature in 20° weather. At that point, I was getting ready to give up and get the oven going. They would have come out just fine, but I wanted that smokey flavor.
Thats when my wife reminded me that I had one of those boxes to put chips in for the gas grill. It took me a while to come around to the idea, because I really love that charcoal taste in wings. I was too stubborn to use the chip box, so I had to come up with a better way before giving in to the gas grill idea.
The far left burner on high was perfect to keep the temp in the 250-275 range. I had to turn on the second burner to keep it up once the sun went down. A chunk of apple wood over the burner smoldered perfect to get good smoke. Once it caught fully, I got some ugly smoke, so I switched it out for another chunk.
One dumb mistake I made was I started out with the probe on the top rack and the wings on the bottom. I didn't realize how much of a temp difference there would be, even with the lid closed. But after an hour, I didn't see much happening with the skin, so I double checked and found the bottom grate was about 80-100° lower than the top. Kind of worked out though, because they really needed some time to get a little extra smoke.
So total, they went for about an hour at low heat and then another hour at my target temp, flipping every 20 minutes. My daughter came out to play in the snow, so I ended up losing track of the temp. It got a little higher than I planned, but still never hit much over 300°.
Pulled from the grill at about 170IT and sprinkled with some shredded parm:
It didn't get as much of the pink coloring that I've gotten when I do them on charcoal, but they still had some good smoke flavor and they were easily the juiciest wings I've ever had. Plus, they were crispier than some of the wings that I've dusted in flour and deep fried.
This was meant to be a practice run on the Weber for the super bowl. But I was informed by the wife that this is how I'm supposed to make them for now on. I'll probably sneak a couple chunks of charcoal onto the gasser though for next weekend.
