Wood Chips
I’ve been all over the internet reading about wood chips. For the perfect chicken wings, I use an undisclosed ratio of hickory and cherry. I have tried a few brands and I really can tell a difference, but not enough to rate different wood chips.
Big Green Egg does seem to be very proud of their name, but it is well deserved. I still have a bag of large hickory chunks and I like to use one or two big chunks mixed in with smaller pieces of the other brand of hickory and cherry.
Mild to medium smoke flavor is perfection for me. I don’t want to overpower the amazing flavor of a perfectly dry rubbed chicken wing.
There are two ways I use the wood chips in a kamado style smoker:
- Bring the smoker to about 350-400 degrees with charcoal only. Once you reach a consistent temp, I set the large chunk wood chip in the center over the red hot coals and the sprinkle the smaller pieces throughout the surface of the grill. I then place the porcelain plate in place and the grates. Putting the ambient temp indirect heating plate and grates on typically drops my temp to about 225. I let the grate heat up for a few minutes, put the wings on, and then dial in the temp. This is a faster way to get going.
- Add wood chips into the smoker mixed in with the charcoal. This will give more smoke flavor from my experience, but since I soak my wood chips, I find it is harder to get going and takes longer to get the smoker dialed in. The research I did said with a kamado style grill was to let it get to about 250 and then you can close it down and it should hold. It does, but it takes a while.
How long should wood chips soak?
I really don’t know if there is a correct answer to that, a lot of people have opinions. For my perfect chicken wings, up to an hour is enough. Getting the wood chips soaking is the first step in my process. I get a bowl, mix my chips and put a large chunk on top. Then I clean the smoker and fire it up.
Once the smoker is fired up, I prep the wings (usually coincides with grill getting to temp to add wood chips). Add wood chips, put indirect cooking plate in place, set plate, let it warm up, put wings on, set timer, prep next 30-60 wings, and wait for perfection. I’m not sure if that is a runon sentence, but that’s the process and wood chips start it all. I usually soak for ½ hour to 1 hour and then strain the water and let the chips absorb the excess moisture.
- Pro Tip 1 – Drain the water from the bowl long before you put chips into smoker. I may have been in a hurry one day and did you know that too much moisture on charcoal can extinguish charcoal? True story. Probably won’t happen more than once, but it’s a real pain in the rear.
- Pro Tip 2 – If you love your partner, use a strainer for getting the excess moisture off. Turns out my wife is not a huge fan of little wood chucks, tiny pieces left in the bottom of the sink.
Pic of wood chips soaking with a large chunk on top
Pic of bags
