Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings

Name: Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 150 min
Total time: 180 min
Ingredients: 4-5 pounds whole chicken wings (thawed); Salt; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 2 teaspoons chili powder; 2 teaspoons packed brown sugar; 1 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 teaspoon black pepper; ½ teaspoon smoked paprika; ½ teaspoon onion powder; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon ground cumin; ¼ teaspoon mustard powder; Olive oil; Favorite wing sauce (for serving, optional); Ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing (for serving, optional); Celery and carrot sticks (for serving, optional)

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No party is complete without a platter of these crispy smoked chicken wings with all the fixings! After cooking low and slow for the perfect smoky flavor, these wings are blasted with a blaze of heat to ensure you get that crispy skin everyone loves — talk about one crowd-pleasing party snack. Whether you’re hosting a casual backyard cook-out or tailgating on game day, these best-ever smoked wings belong on your menu.

A white plate with smoked chicken wings and a bowl of ranch dressing on a straw placemat with two beers in the background and chopped parsley to the left.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Best Internal Temperature for Smoked Wings
Tasty Serving Ideas
How to Store, Freeze and Reheat Leftovers
Recipe FAQs
Favorite Sauce and Flavor Variations
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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📖 Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

That crisp skin and juicy meat: Thanks to a few tips and tricks, we get both crispy skin and perfectly smoky, tender meat. Some smoked wings recipes are great at delivering one or the other, but we get the best of both worlds here.

Tried and true recipe: We’re big wing lovers in our house, but we’re also particular about how we like our wings. I experimented with so many smoking temperatures and cooking times before feeling completely satisfied with the results, so you can enjoy the very best smoked chicken wings on your first try.

Always a party favorite: These wings always fly off the plate and leave everyone licking their lips, wanting more. You will look like the ultimate pitmaster when you serve these wings.

Mostly calls for hands-off work: Sure, these wings take some time, but most of the work doesn’t require your constant attention. That makes party planning and hosting as simple as can be.

Related: If you love this recipe, don’t miss these smoked turkey wings, smoked Buffalo chicken dip or sriracha chicken wings.

Ingredients

Chicken wings: I recommend buying whole wings rather than pre-cut party wings. Whole wings are significantly cheaper, and splitting them is much easier than you might think. Plus, I always find whole wings are meatier — so often those pre-cut party wings are sad and scrawny.

Baking powder: This is a key ingredient to achieving that crispy skin.

Salt: We use this to dry brine our wings, which not only enhances the chicken’s flavor but also contributes to the skin’s texture.

Dry rub: For this, we use the same dry rub as my favorite smoked chicken. This seasoning blend includes chili powder, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, ground cumin and dry mustard powder. Of course, you're welcome to use your favorite dry rub if you already have one.

Olive oil: We brush this on the wings at the end before blasting them with high heat. You guessed it — this is another trick to get that ultimate crispy skin.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Trim the Wings

Step 1: Let’s show you how easy it is to trim your own wings. We start by slicing off the wing tip (photo 1). Now we find the knobby bone between the drumette and flat (photo 2) and use a shape knife to cut right underneath that bone to separate the two pieces (photo 3).

A three-photo collage showing the process of trimming the wings into two separate pieces.

Dry Brine and Season the Wings

Step 2: For the best flavor and texture, we absolutely want to dry brine the wings. To dry brine, we dry off the chicken skin with paper towels, generously sprinkle the skin with salt and place them in the refrigerator uncovered (photo 4).

Pro tip: Plan ahead for this step. I recommend dry brining for 24 hours, but even at least eight hours will help. While you could dry brine for four hours in a pinch, it really makes a difference if you can give the dry brine process more time.

The chicken wings after they've been sprinkled with salt on a brown wooden cutting board to dry brine them.

Step 3: After dry brining, we remove the wings from the refrigerator, stir together the baking powder and spices in a small bowl, and toss the mixture with the wings (photo 5). I find stirring together the baking powder with the spices helps them both adhere to the chicken more evenly.

The chicken wings in a large glass mixing bowl on a brown wooden surface after they've been tossed with the baking powder and dry rub.

Smoke the Chicken Wings

Step 4: Now we spread the chicken wings on the greased racks, insert the racks into the baking sheets and then place the wings in a 250-degree F smoker with a water pan (photo 6). We close the lid and smoke the wings for two hours.

The chicken wings on a rack in a baking sheet that has been placed in the smoker to cook for the first round.

Step 5: After two hours of smoking low and slow, we’re ready to crank up the heat to crisp up the skin and finish cooking. We remove the wings and turn up the smoker to 400-425 degrees F. As the smoker heats to that higher temperature, we brush the wings with olive oil (photo 7) and put them back in the smoker.

Pro tip: I recommend waiting until the smoker reaches at least 400 degrees F before putting them back in the smoker to maximize their exposure to high heat, but this does take a little extra time. If you’re short on time, you can put them in after brushing with oil.

A silicone brush coating the wings with a layer of olive oil on a baking rack before the second phase of smoking.

Once the wings reach their final internal temperature, we remove them from the smoker and serve. You’ll never want to eat wings any other way.

Recipe testing notes: I tested these smoked wings on my Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker, but you can you any type of smoker, such as another type of electric smoker, charcoal grill, gas grill or offset smoker.

Best Internal Temperature for Smoked Wings

Chicken wings are safe to eat when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. But we’re talking about the best internal temperature here — 165 degrees F is not the ideal temperature for chicken wings.

At a minimum, we want our wings to reach 175 degrees F, but chicken wings reach their sweet spot between 180-200 degrees F. Wings have a lot of connective tissue and collagen that don’t break down until wings reach that higher internal temperature.

By allowing those to break down, we’re left with ultra juicy, tender chicken that easily falls off the bone. You won’t get the same succulent bite at 165 degrees F.

To check the internal temperature, we insert an instant-read meat thermometer into the middle of the meat without touching the bone. If the thermometer hits the bone, it will skew the reading.

Tasty Serving Ideas

These wings are great with your classic accompaniments, such as baby carrots, celery sticks, and a side of ranch or blue cheese dressing. But considering that wings are on your menu, you might need a few more appetizers for the occasion. These party snacks are always a hit, and you can make them right on your smoker as well.

Bonus: For more ways to smoke chicken, you'll also love these smoked chicken quarters, smoked chicken breasts and smoked spatchcock chicken.

How to Store, Freeze and Reheat Leftovers

For the best crispy texture, we want to serve our smoked wings immediately, especially for company, but if you have any leftovers, you can certainly enjoy them on your own. The skin won’t be as crispy, but the meat will still be delicious. Here’s how you can store and reheat your leftover chicken wings.

Once the chicken wings cool completely, place them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three to four days.
When you’re ready to reheat the wings, pull them from the refrigerator and keep them at room temperature for 15-30 minutes.
Spread the wings in a single layer on the greased rack of a baking sheet and spritz them with water for some extra moisture if desired.
Place the baking sheet in a 350-degree F oven for five minutes, flip the wings and bake for five additional minutes.

You can also freeze your wings to enjoy at a later time.

Like above, allow the wings to cool and transfer them to a freezer bag and lay it flat.
Freeze the wings for three to six months. While they’re still safe to consume after that, the quality eventually degrades.
To thaw, move the wings to the refrigerator for 24 hours, or place the sealed bag in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator if you need them sooner. Do not place the wings in warm water, thinking that will speed up the process — this creates a breeding ground for bacteria.
Follow the above directions to reheat.

Recipe FAQs

How long do you smoke chicken wings and at what temperature?

To help render the fat for crispy skin, we want to first use a low temperature — 250 degrees F for two hours. After that, we increase the heat to 400-425 degrees F for another 20-30 minutes. Of course, we also want to account for the time it takes the smoker to come to temperature, which is about 20 minutes, and then if you let the smoker hit 400 degrees F before the second smoking phase, that’s another 20 minutes or so.

That means we’re looking at a grand total of three hours with the caveat that smoking isn’t an exact science, so the time can vary. But planning for three hours is a good rule of thumb. Considering that smoking meat is generally a slow process, this really doesn’t take too much time.

What is the best wood for smoking chicken wings?

My favorite wood for smoking wings is hickory, which gives us a prominent smoky flavor without overwhelming the chicken. If you prefer a more subtle wood flavor, try a fruit wood, such as apple wood or cherry wood.

Do you flip chicken wings when smoking?

No, you do not need to flip the wings.

Do you have to dry brine wings before smoking?

Technically, dry brining is an optional step, but I highly recommend it for best results, especially if you want crisp skin. When we dry brine the wings, the salt brings out the moisture from meat to the surface of the skin. As the wings sit in the refrigerator, the moisture reabsorbs the salt back into the meat for juicier chicken while drying out the skin to give us that perfect crackling finish.

How many wings should you serve per person?

This depends on how you serve the wings. If these wings are an appetizer, four trimmed wings, or two whole chicken wings, per person is a good estimate. For dinner, plan on serving eight trimmed wings, or four whole chicken wings, per person.

An aerial view of a plate of smoked chicken wings on a straw placemat with two beers in the upper left-hand corner and chopped parsley scattered to the side.

Favorite Sauce and Flavor Variations

With that flavorful spice rub, you don’t need any sauce for serving, but you certainly can toss them in a sauce if you’d like.

Classic Buffalo sauce
Mango-habanero wing sauce
Honey-sriracha sauce
Coffee-bourbon BBQ sauce
Jerk sauce or jerk seasoning
Blueberry BBQ sauce
Cajun seasoning or hot sauce
Lemon pepper seasoning

Expert Tips

Thaw the wings before smoking: Frozen wings will not absorb the smoky flavor, and I can’t even imagine how long smoking from frozen would take. We absolutely need thawed wings for this recipe.

Don’t mistake baking soda for baking powder: These are two entirely different products. Make sure you use baking powder, not baking soda.

Serve with small plates and napkins: Wings are messy, so make sure you have plenty of small plates for the bones and napkins or wet wipes to keep fingers clean.

Don’t overcrowd the wings: They need space for the smoke to circulate, and if they overlap, they won’t develop the proper crisp skin texture.

Let the wings rest: While we want to serve the wings right away, give them five minutes to rest to allow the juices to redistribute to the meat after cooking.

Don’t rinse after dry brining: We want to keep the skin nice and dry for crispy wings. Otherwise, we risk gummy, rubbery skin.

Perfect Pairing

With smoked chicken wings, an IPA is the perfect beer pairing. The hops accentuate the spice from the dry rub while the malt backbone nicely complements the brown sugar.

For a wine pairing, look for a dry riesling. The touch of sweetness contrasts the spices, and it has a kick of acidity to cut through every meaty bite.

When you need a party appetizer everyone is sure to love, these smoked chicken wings are a guaranteed hit. With that crispy skin and succulent meat, these wings will have everyone left licking their lips and wanting more.

Cheers!

A hand dipping a smoked chicken wing into a small white bowl filled with ranch dressing with a beer in the background.

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Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Ingredients