posted January 06, 2017

Honey Heat Smoked Chicken Wings

Name: Honey Heat Smoked Chicken Wings
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 120 min
Total time: 130 min
Ingredients: 2 pounds chicken wings; 1 Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil; 2 Tablespoons Caribeque Honey Heat Pork & Poultry Rub; 2 Tablespoons Caribeque Honey Heat Smack Sauce

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

These Smoked Chicken Wings pack a powerful punch of flavor. The rub is sweet and spicy, every bite is fall off the bone tender, and the little kiss of smoke flavor makes these the perfect wings!

Honey Heat Smoked Chicken wings and celery arranged on a wood cutting board.

I’ve spent a lot of time making and perfecting grilled chicken wings. I feel like my Beer Brined Wings could win an award. My friend’s at Vindulge created the Ultimate Buffalo Chicken Wings that have unbelievable crispy skin. These Jerk Chicken Wings are like a punch to the mouth of flavor. For this recipe I was on a mission to create the very best of the best Smoked Chicken Wings. One of the common issues with people doing smoked wings is the skin. They get gorgeous color, amazing flavor, beautifully cooked chicken, and totally rubbery inedible skin. The secret to these wings having the perfect texture is in the cooking method.

Chicken wings being brushed with sauce while on the grill.
I start with coating the wings in a light layer of cooking oil and a good dry rub (for these wings I used Caribeque’s Honey Heat rub). Then we hit the smoker at a low temperature for 2 hours. This helps infuse the wings with smoke flavor while slow cooking them for tenderness. Once the smoking phase is over, it is time to really crank the heat and get a nice crisp on the skin. This is where I like to sauce my wings. I am using Caribeque’s newest member of the family, the Honey Heat Smack Sauce. The key here is to make sure your sauce can be spread fairly thin. You’re not looking to have the sauce dripping down your fingers, we just want the sauce to act as a catalyst for crisping the skin. The high heat on your grill combined with the sauce solves the soggy skin problem and gives you those crisp edges you want in your wings!

Aerial view of wings and celery arranged on a wood cutting board with bottle of rub and bottle and small wood bowl of sauce.
Now that we’ve covered my method, I want to give an honest shout out to Caribeque. The owner, Kurt, is a man I feel lucky to call a friend and a part of my BBQ family. I haven’t been on the scene forever, but back when I was just first starting out with the blog and my social media pages Kurt was kind enough to reach out and compliment my skills. He asked me to share information and my experience and made me feel valuable. I’ll be forever grateful and I am honored to help promote his newest products! They are all dang good!!

This post is a part of a sponsored conversation with Caribeque. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Hey Grill Hey. I have been using Caribeque spices for over a year, and I am thrilled to create a recipe for my site with their product!