Since I had the smoker grill all clean and still in barbecue mode I decided to try again. This time I would be smoking wings with a sweet and spicy glaze.
We knew our cooking time was way off and possibly the smoker’s temperature when we ruined our brisket.
I brined some chicken wings for a couple of hours and lit the hard lump charcoal in the smoker. While the fire was getting hot, I patted the wings dry and sprinkled on a rub that I made.
When the charcoal started to turn white, I added pecan wood. I watched a YouTube video of a guy doing wings on the same kind of grill/smoker we have. He used a fruitwood too. I don’t remember him saying how much to put in, but he did say to spread it around the outside of the charcoal, which I did.
After the pecan wood started smoking, I put the wings on the grill and shut the lid. I literally sat by the smoker to watch the temperature. I thought things went wrong when I saw the smoker was way below 100 degrees. I opened the lid, and it was smoking like hell and hot. The wings looked done after only one hour. What? The Youtube guy’s wings took two hours.
Shit, shit, shit! I ran inside and got a digital meat thermometer and sure enough, the wings were at 180 degrees and dark in color like the YouTube guys.
I closed up all the openings on the grill to shut the fire down and took the wings inside. I was happy with how they looked, and I know they weren’t overcooked.
I made a glaze and brushed it all over the wings. The plan was to reheat the wings later on for dinner; I popped them in the refrigerator until then.
As I reheated them in the oven, I brushed more sweet and spicy glaze on the wings. I just took the chill off; I didn’t want to dry them out.
I plated up the wings because I wanted to take a photo for a blog post. Marty and I both tried a wing at the same time. They were moist and came off the bone easily.
I know the glaze was delicious on its own since I tasted it as I made it, but on the wings, you couldn’t taste it at all because I over smoked the damn wings! 🤦🏻♀️
The wings were way too smoky for us, even though everything else was perfect. Fuck! I thought I hit a home run this time. As it turned out, I only made it between first and second base.
I didn’t eat anymore, and I didn’t keep the wings for Klaus since he’s off poultry on his limited ingredient allergy diet.
Ok…I used too much pecan wood. Poultry takes on smoke easily, which I now know. Probably one piece of pecan wood would have been enough, but I used several.
As far as waste, at least the wings came out of our freezer after being in there for at least a year when I remembered we had them. Some were freezer burned anyway, so they were perfect for another try.
Wednesday, I picked up a big package of chicken thighs for 99 cents a pound; I’m going to try again on Sunday. I’ll use the same brine, rub and glaze as before.
It took me seven years to develop our spätzle recipe, which happens to be the only gluten-free, fresh—no-boil spätzle in the world. As I was trying to develop the recipe, I used ingredient after ingredient only for the spätzle to fall apart as soon as the batter hit the water. Very, very frustrating. The more I tried, the madder I got. I made so many attempts I lost track, so I just started counting the years.
I knew I was getting close to success three attempts before I nailed the spätzle recipe. I feel the same way; close to getting the smoked barbecue chicken right.
Clearly the thermostat on the smoker isn’t worth shit, so I have to get one that works.
On the bright side, the brining was right. The rub was right. The glaze was right. The doneness of the chicken was right. The amount of wood was wrong, an easy fix…add less.
After the brisket catastrophe, I decided to practice barbecuing using chicken first since it’s less expensive than beef or pork if I mess up again. After I get the chicken right, I can move on to pork shoulders and ribs; then try beef brisket again. Brisket is the hardest meat to smoke even for people who know how to smoke meats; why the hell we chose it, I’ll never know.
Barbecue champions didn’t make award-winning barbecue their first or second time. It could have taken hundreds of times to account for each kind of meat, sauce, rub, barbequing method, and time.
Barbecue guru Aaron Franklin of the famous Franklin BBQ in Austin, TX said it took him seven years to get his brisket right; then, he opened a food truck with his wife. It took him seven years to perfect his brisket, just like it took me seven years to perfect my spätzle!
When it comes to learning how to barbecue, Aaron Franklin’s advice is only to change one thing at a time and keep track, which I am doing just like I did with my spätzle recipe.
I fixed the cook time on Tuesday when I did the wings, now I have to fix the amount of wood for smoking and watch the temperature closer.
I am not nearly as disappointed as I was with the brisket; I learned more about barbequing smoking the wings. These were actually edible for people who like a super smoky bbq taste which is more than I can say for the burnt brisket.
The score reads as follows: Barbecue 2 Julz 0. I’ll get it, just you wait.