Need a propane unit to smoke lots of wings twice a week...

[jedoran]

Hey guys, I'm helping out with a restaurant opening and need to hone in on the proper equipment to get a load of wings smoked once or twice a week.

Wings are the only smoked item on the menu right now, but I anticipate they will make up a good chunk of sales. The unit will be outside, and options are all wood or propane right now. I will likely only be there temporarily, so I'd like something that leans toward dummy-proof. The wings will be finished at service in a high-convection pizza oven, so they could even be chucked in the freezer after the smoke and be brought back to temp and crisped in about 4 mins, fryers are not part of the equation unfortunately

My initial thought was one or more 24" Smoke Vaults with a rack in every slot and a remote temp probe. The 44" Smoke Hollow propane unit came up in my search as well, but the extra space would probably be lost since it's got the same number of racks.

Any thoughts?

 

[challenger]

I have a Masterbuilt 30" two door and I like it a lot. I put a flame proof felt seal around the food chamber door to keep the smoke in, a 9"x13" steel pan fits right where the stock water pan bracket goes. I heated it up with a couple of standard oven thermometers and compared different temps with the door thermometer and now I know within a few degrees of actual using the door thermometer. It holds temp nicely with very small swings and using a cast iron pan sealed with foil I get really nice thin blue smoke for a couple of hours with a descent sized chunk of wood.

 

[indaswamp]

How many pounds of wings are you planning on smoking at one time?

 

[hardcookin]

Wings take up a lot of space. If the wings are a good seller you could be busy.
I smoke wings then crisp them on a gasser.
I would think It will be hard making much money trying to sell product to a restaurant.

 

[crazzycajun]

We used a cookshack for easy use and consistent product almost idiot proof. As asked are we talking 100# or a 1000#

 

[SonnyE]

Following Crazzycajun's lead here's a bunch.
They cost a bunch. But they'll do a huge bunch.
http://www.cookshack.com/Commercial-Products/Equipment

I love lookin at stuff I can't afford. It inspires me!
I would think a pellet model would beat a propane for the task at hand.
But I prefer electric.
If you called them up, they could probably answer a ton of questions.

My first question would be what's the lead time. Because Rome wasn't built in a day.