On a lark, I decided this morning I wanted to smoke some chicken wings. Due to time constraints, I just didn't have the time to properly brine, season, then smoke a whole chicken....so off to Kroger I went. Well, they didn't have fresh whole wings, so I opted for the frozen drummies instead. I'm doing somewhat of a modified Alton Brown method, where he steams, chills, then oven bakes chicken wings. Since these were frozen, I decided to bring the brining water to a boil first to not only thaw the chicken, but to quickly put some flavor in the meat, as well as release some of the fat from under the skin. I seasoned them & chilled them on a rack in the fridge for a while to dry out while TAFKAP Jr. and I went to kill time at Bass Pro. They're smoking in the grill now, and I'll finish them in the oven to heat them up and crisp the skin....toss in our favorite sauce and go from there.

"Brining water" on the stove coming to a boil is mostly water, (1) Michelob Ultra since the wife had some leftover, lots of salt, lots of garlic, some cayenne, fresh-ground black pepper, and Sriracha sauce.


On the rack, I added more black pepper, as well as some Penzey's "Shallot Pepper" seasoning, and threw them in the fridge to dry out the skin a while.


Quick sear to both sides on the hot side of the grill


Slap them in the cool side of the barrel to begin smoking



Browning up nicely....



Thanks to Dodge Man, as the stash of applewood he gave me last summer is still going strong.
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Everything important in life was learned from Mary Jo Kopechne.