Chicken wings are a favorite food of mine, and back in the day I could take down a couple dozen in one sitting. While those days are over, it is still a food I love and I have found that smoked-fried chicken wings on the Traeger are my favorite way to have them– homemade of course in my back yard.
While football season has ended, college basketball season is just ahead of us and it’s the perfect time to enjoy a big dish of smoked-fried chicken wings, hot off the Traeger. And you don’t necessarily need sports as an excuse to have chicken wings for dinner. These Traegered chicken wings hit the spot any time of year and are simple to make and super delicious.
This recipe will work well with a variety of kinds of chicken wings. If you use chicken wings purchased frozen from the grocery store, plan ahead to allow the wings to defrost fully before you start this recipe. Alternately, you can purchase wings fresh from the grocery store or butcher for equally-good results. And if you prefer wings that are intact (like bat wings), those will work great too. Regardless of the kinds of wings you start with (and if you prefer flats or drums), you will soon have delicious smoked-fried chicken wings, straight from your Traeger, in about an hour.
PREPPING THE WINGS FOR MAXIMUM CRISPINESS
One of the challenges of making chicken wings at home is that it is difficult to achieve maximum crispiness on the skin like you would at a restaurant. Let’s be honest– the crispiness comes from big industrial fryers that crank out lots of chicken wings each night– for very consistent results.
I have found that if you only cook the wings on the Traeger (smoked and then cranked up to a higher heat to finish), the skin on the wings can still be a little rubbery and chewy. It’s hard to get a great bite without some weird chicken skin issues.
With a lot of experimentation and practice, we’ve found that chicken skin that has been thoroughly dried and seasoned ends up achieving good results. In this recipe for smoked-fried chicken wings, we get great crispy skin thanks to the quick fry just before saucing and serving. But in addition, we have found that using a combination of baking powder and corn starch as part of the rub also adds to the crispiness.
DEFROST AND PAT DRY THE CHICKEN WINGS
It’s super important to defrost the chicken wings fully and then pat them dry with a paper towel as you are getting prepped for this recipe. These steps will make your life easier and the results of your smoked-fried chicken wings crispier!
Put the chicken wings on a wire rack over a cookie sheet during this process too, if you can. It gives the chicken a bit more room to breathe and will allow them to dry out even further. As backwards as it seems, the dryer you can get your chicken, the better the result.
SEASON WITH A POWDERY BLEND
For this recipe, we used a blend of seasoning (my Smoke Junkie seasoning from Spiceology), baking powder and corn starch. The ratio should be 2:1:½. This will make the seasoning blend pretty white and powdery but the science behind the application is what you need to focus on.
Baking powder acts like salt when applied to chicken wings. The powder draws the moisture out of the skin of the chicken and brings it to the surface, which allows it to evaporate. The evaporation means you end up with a crispier skin on the chicken.
Additionally, the corn starch in the blend helps bring crispiness throughout the chicken wings. Using corn starch acts like a bit of breading on the wings– adding surface area and allowing for more crispy bits to be developed.
When you combine the baking powder and the corn starch with the seasoning rub, you end up with some scientific drying, some surface-area adding and lots of flavor. If you have time, allow the chicken wings to sit, seasoned and uncovered on a wire rack in the fridge for at least 2 hours (and up to overnight) for maximum crispiness on your smoked-fried wings straight off the Traeger.
SMOKED ON THE TRAEGER
Once the wings are seasoned and dehydrated a bit, place the wings directly on the grill grates in a preheated Traeger grill at 225*. Allow the wings to smoke for about 90 minutes until the internal temperature of the wings reached about 145* internally. If you are crunched for time, bump up the temperature of the Traeger to 250* and you will still get good wood-fired flavor from the smoking, with a shorter overall cook time.
FRIED TO FINISH
As the chicken wings on the Traeger are reaching the 145* range, use the auxiliary induction burner on the Traeger Timberline XL to heat up a cast iron dutch oven with a few inches of vegetable oil. You don’t need a big vat of hot oil– 2-3 inches will be sufficient as you will want to fry the wings in batches to achieve maximum crispness.
Once the wings hit 145* in the smoker, remove them from the grill and carefully lower 3-5 wings at a time into the prepared hot oil. Allow the wings to fry for 2-4 minutes until they are crisp and browned all over and the internal temperature reaches about 180/185*. While chicken is safe to eat at 165*, we find that chicken wings cooked to about 180* result in better, crispier skin and a more delicious bite.
SAUCES I LOVE
Pull the fried wings from the hot oil and drain in a paper-towel lined bowl. While they’re still hot, I like to season them with the sauces that I have chosen for this batch of wings. In this particular case, we used some wing sauces from Melinda’s– particularly the Spicy Garlic Parmesan wing sauce and the Sweet and Spicy Sticky Asian wing sauce. In addition, we whipped up a quick batch of more traditional buffalo wing sauce to complete the trio. A few tablespoons of melted butter combined with about ½ a cup of Franks Red Hot Sauce makes a dynamite buffalo wing sauce.
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Chicken wings– drums and flats
- My Smoke Junkie seasoning from Spiceology
- Baking powder
- Corn starch
- Oil for frying
- Wing sauces– we used Spicy Garlic Parmesan, Sweet and Spicy Sticky Asian and buffalo wing sauces
WHY SMOKED-FRIED CHICKEN WINGS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
As mentioned, there is nothing as delicious as a terrifically-seasoned and fried chicken wing. We have found that by first adding a layer of wood-fired flavor by smoking the chicken wings first, you really get the ultimate bite. These smoked-fried chicken wings are full of flavor, have an incredible crispy skin and are sauced in some of my favorite flavors. Being all cooked on the Traeger in my back yard is the crown on this jewel of a dish.
STEP-BY-STEP
- Unpackage and defrost your chicken wings.
- Spread the chicken wings on a tray or cookie sheet, and use a wire rack if you have one.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
- In a shaker jar, combine 2 parts seasoning, 1 part baking powder and ½ part corn starch and mix until evenly distributed.
- Season the chicken wings liberally with the seasoning blend on all sides.
- Allow the wings to sit for at least 30 minutes and ideally between 2 and 12 hours uncovered in the refrigerator.
- Preheat your Traeger grill to 225* with the Super Smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, arrange the wings on the grill grates and close the lid.
- Allow the wings to cook for 60-90 minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken reads about 145*.
- As the chicken approaches the 145* mark, preheat a deep cast iron dutch oven with 2-3 inches of vegetable oil.
- Heat the oil until it reaches 375*.
- When the wings have reached 145*, remove them from the grill to a clean tray.
- Using a spider or slotted spoon, carefully lower 3-5 smoked wings into the hot oil.
- Fry for 2-4 minutes, turning once, until browned all over and internally the temperature reaches 180*.
- Remove the wings from the oil and drain on a paper towel.
- Sauce batches of the smoked-fried wings with sauce of your choice and serve immediately.
ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS
Here are some other chicken recipes on the Traeger to try:
Products used in this cook:
- Traeger Timberline XL
- Smoke Junkie seasoning by Spiceology
- Melinda’s wing sauces
- Lodge cast iron dutch oven
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Smoked-Fried Chicken Wings on the Traeger
Equipment
- Traeger Timberline XL
- Lodge cast iron dutch oven
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken wings– drums and flats
- 1.5 cups Smoke Junkie seasoning from Spiceology
- 3/4 cup baking powder
- 1/3 cup corn starch
- Oil for frying
- Wing sauces– we used Spicy Garlic Parmesan Sweet and Spicy Sticky Asian and buffalo wing sauces
Instructions
- Unpackage and defrost your chicken wings.
- Spread the chicken wings on a tray or cookie sheet, and use a wire rack if you have one.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
- In a shaker jar, combine 2 parts seasoning, 1 part baking powder and ½ part corn starch and mix until evenly distributed.
- Season the chicken wings liberally with the seasoning blend on all sides.
- Allow the wings to sit for at least 30 minutes and ideally between 2 and 12 hours uncovered in the refrigerator.
- Preheat your Traeger grill to 225* with the Super Smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, arrange the wings on the grill grates and close the lid.
- Allow the wings to cook for 60-90 minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken reads about 145*.
- As the chicken approaches the 145* mark, preheat a deep cast iron dutch oven with 2-3 inches of vegetable oil.
- Heat the oil until it reaches 375*.
- When the wings have reached 145*, remove them from the grill to a clean tray.
- Using a spider or slotted spoon, carefully lower 3-5 smoked wings into the hot oil.
- Fry for 2-4 minutes, turning once, until browned all over and internally the temperature reaches 180*.
- Remove the wings from the oil and drain on a paper towel.
- Sauce batches of the smoked-fried wings with sauce of your choice and serve immediately.
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