The Ultimate Smoked Chicken Wings (with crispy skin!)
Sep 27, 2023, Updated May 08, 2024
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Smoked Chicken Wings (Buffalo Style) makes for an incredibly flavorful chicken wing. Understand the challenge of achieving crispy skin while smoking for flavor and texture, and then learn the expert tips and tricks for crispy skin and great flavor in this popular smoked chicken wing recipe.
Buffalo wings, a pub staple, are usually fried for crispy perfection when you get them at a restaurant. But for those of us who want to make them at home, especially in a smoker or grill, the problem arises – how do you get crispy skin without deep frying wings?
If you’ve been trying to smoke your wings and keep getting rubbery skin results, keep reading for the solution to getting crispy skin without deep frying.
Smoked Chicken Wings Highlights
- Dehydrating wings is a natural way to dry out the skin, which helps in achieving a crispy texture without using baking powder or corn starch, and also without deep frying.
- Start by smoking the wings at a low temperature and then crank up the heat to finish them, which helps render the remaining fat.
- This tried and true recipe for works on any type of smoker or grill, from a charcoal grill to a pellet smoker.
Table of Contents
- Smoked Chicken Wings Highlights
- Recipe Ingredients
- Buffalo Wing Origins
- How to Smoke Chicken Wings
- How long to Smoke Chicken Wings?
- The Classic Buffalo-Style Sauce
- Wine Pairing
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Expert Tip
- More Grilled and Smoked Chicken Wings Recipes
- Buffalo-Inspired Recipes
- Smoked Buffalo Chicken Wings Recipe (with Crispy Skin)
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Wings – You’ll also see them labeled as “Party Wings”. If you go by number, look for around 24 wings for these ratios, which you’ll find about 20-24 wings in 2 pounds of wings.
- Seasoning – We use a touch of olive oil to help the kosher salt and coarse black pepper stick. You can explore all of our seasoning recipes for more flavor. We also have a dry rub for wings with a little more savory flavors.
- Buffalo Wing Sauce -This is classic Buffalo sauce with Frank’s RedHot hot sauce and butter. Just like the original.
See the recipe card for specific portions
Buffalo Wing Origins
Buffalo Chicken Wings are an upstate NY original and an American pub staple. And by “Buffalo” I’m referring to Buffalo, NY, the city where these indulgent treats originated at Anchor Bar. The classic way to prepare them is deep fry them.
But what about those of us who don’t want to deep fry, but still want that fried texture? There’s a great solution for that.
We’ve been making Buffalo style hot wings for years, and found the very best way to emulate the same signature style while maintaining crispy skin, and while cooking on the smoker for that sweet kiss of smoke flavor.
How to Smoke Chicken Wings
Follow these steps for the most incredible smoked chicken wings WITH crispy skin.
- Dehydrate Wings: First dehydrate the wings in the refrigerator. This allows for the skin to be fairly dry before you even start the smoking process. Pat dry your wings with some paper towels, then place them on a baking sheet and place them in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours. This is crucial to the end texture of the chicken. This process will prevent the wings from steaming when you cook it, which will result in a rubbery texture. We’re going for crispy here, trying to emulate the texture of fried wings.
- Season Wings: Toss them with olive oil then salt and pepper.
- Smoke: Smoke your wings for one hour at a low temperature (225 degrees F) to get that delicious smoke infusion.
- Increase Heat: Right towards the end, increase the heat to at least 375 degrees F (or higher) for 30 minutes to finish them off at that higher temperature.
- Alternatively (and not mentioned in the recipe or video) you can transfer them to a hot grill to finish them off, or place them under the broiler for a couple of minutes.
How long to Smoke Chicken Wings?
It takes roughly 90 minutes for smoked chicken wings. Smoke the wings at 225 degrees for one hour. Then increase the temperature to 375 for an additional 30 minutes. Conditions will affect the exact time.
The key is to not pull the wings until you feel that crispy skin on the exterior. You can tell by touch! If you’re looking for temperature, in addition to touch, we like to pull smoked chicken wings at around 175-180 F degrees internal temperature of the wings, using a good digital instant-read thermometer.
The Classic Buffalo-Style Sauce
We’re going classic for this sauce, and that means a Buffalo Style Wing Sauce, like they used at the classic Anchor Bar. For us that’s the one and only Frank’s RedHot hot sauce and some butter.
It is hands down my favorite sauce, and the most classic tasting. Our ratio is 2 tablespoons of butter for every 1 cup of Frank’s. If you’re looking for a BBQ sauce flavor, then I recommend our grilled BBQ chicken wings, you can adapt the recipe using any BBQ sauce in place of the hot sauce.
Slowly simmer the butter and hot sauce together, but DON’T melt at a high heat. If you melt the butter at too high a heat, and then add the Frank’s, the result is oily and the hot sauce does not integrate with the sauce. Instead, the hot sauce separates from the butter. You just want to slowly melt them together. Then place the sauce in a large bowl, and toss the cooked wings in the bowl while they’re still hot.
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For best results serve immediately, in the classic style with carrot sticks, celery, and blue cheese dressing (or ranch, based on your personal preference).
Wine Pairing
In the wine and food pairing world, they say “what grows together goes together.” Well my two favorite things from Upstate New York (besides my husband!) are the chicken wings, and the wine.
And yes, they actually do go quite well together. Look for semi-dry Rieslings from the Finger Lakes Wine Region of New York State for smoked chicken wings. They have lovely crisp juicy fruity aromas, lively acidity, and a cooling sweetness that will refresh and cool your palate from these wings.
Why is this so? Because these wines have a small amount of residual sugar in them, leaving a slightly sweet and refreshing feeling that cools the palate. When your mouth is hot from spicy food, what do you want? Something to cool it. It’s the same thing that happens when you take a sip of an ice-cold beer after a bite of something spicy, which is why beer is the typical drink of choice for most wing enthusiasts.
Alternatively, these wings work fantastic with a fruity rosé!
Frequently Asked Questions
Fruit wood, specifically apple or cherry wood is ideal for smoked chicken wings. The wood burns sweet and gives a touch of smoke flavor. Mesquite or oak will have a more intense smoke flavor if you want to really go big.
Plan 90 minutes of total time for crispy skin. One hour for smoke time and 30 minutes at 375 degrees at a higher temp to finish off.
There is no need to spray the wings. Simply start with an air dry in the fridge, then season with olive oil and your favorite seasoning then smoke. We don’t want to add any additional moisture, to avoid rubbery skin.
Expert Tip
Be sure that the wings have time to sit in the refrigerator uncovered to dehydrate.
More Grilled and Smoked Chicken Wings Recipes
- Grilled Buffalo Chicken Wings (hot and fast style)
- Hot Honey Grilled Chicken Wings
- Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Peanut Sauce
- Grilled BBQ Chicken Wings with Crispy Skin
Buffalo-Inspired Recipes
- Smoked Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Grilled Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Smoked Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers
- Smoked Buffalo Chicken Pizza
*This recipe was originally published in October, 2013, and updated in September, 2023, with new photos. The original recipe remains the same.
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About Vindulge
Mary (a certified sommelier and recipe developer) and Sean (backyard pitmaster) are co-authors of the critically acclaimed cookbook, Fire + Wine, and have been creating content for the IACP nominated website Vindulge since 2009. They live in Oregon on a farm just outside Portland.
Smoked Buffalo Chicken Wings Recipe (with Crispy Skin)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Chicken Wings, or "Party Wings" as you'll sometimes find them labeled
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon coarse ground pepper
Buffalo Wing Sauce:
- 1 cup Frank’s RedHot hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Dehydrate Wings: Pat dry your wings with some paper towels, then place them on a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours. This is crucial to the end texture of the chicken. This process will prevent the wings from steaming when you cook it, which creates a rubbery texture.
- Preheat Smoker: When ready to cook, preheat smoker to 225 degrees F, and remove wings from fridge.
- Season Wings: In a large bowl, toss the wings with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Smoke Wings: Place wings on the smoker for one hour, at 225 degrees F.
- Increase Heat: After one hour, increase the heat to 375 degrees F for 30 minutes to finish them off at that higher temperature.
- Serve: Remove from smoker and toss immediately with Buffalo wing sauce mix. Serve with your favorite ranch or blue cheese dip.
For the Buffalo Wing Sauce:
- Prep sauce just before the wings come off the smoker.In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring butter and sauce to a simmer (not boil!!) and remove from heat. Place into a large bowl to toss with the hot wings just as they come off the smoker. *see notes
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looks delicious! How do you get your buffalo sauce to thicken up like that?
Hi Mike, The key first is to use Franks Redhot 🙂 and not let the Franks come to a boil. The butter will help as the binder as it cools.
Next, be sure to apply the sauce as soon as the wings are off the cooker. I place wings in a large bowl and then pour warm sauce in. Then I flip the wings around to coat and plate. There will be extra sauce so either include in the plating or reserve in a ramekin.
As the wings and sauce cool it thickens up some. Hope that helps. (And literally I use just Franks and butter for the sauce.)
Room temperature butter and Frank’s hot sauce in a large mixing bowl and toss wing heat of wings melts the butter that’s the original way
AWESOME!!!
A couple of small differences from your method because my electric smoker won’t go to 325F. So I pulled them and put them in the oven for the last part.
The resting in the refrigerator to dehydrate for a while makes a HUGE difference! The skin on the chicken was amazingly crispy and not rubbery at all. If there is anything I hate more than terrorists and cancer, it is rubbery chicken skin! So thank you for that!
I used a light bit of oak for the smoke. It’s good, but I wish I’d have gone a tad lighter.
Mary, to answer your question, no, I am not from the North East. I live in Missouri. I just happen to have a pretty good collection of wood chips, chunks and pellets.
This is an awesome method for making smoked wings! I highly recommend it. Thank you Mary! 🙂
Tom
Awesome 🙂 So glad it worked out well for you!! And I’ll definitely try that oven method next time the skin isn’t getting crispy. And now I want to try to get our hands on some sugar maple wood!
Cheers,
Mary
This looks like an awesome method for smoking wings! I am trying it tomorrow. Is there a particular wood smoke you recommend?
My initial thoughts are oak or sugar maple, but would like to replicate your method as much as possible.
Hope to hear from you!
Thanks,
Tom
Tom,
It is fun. Oak wood be a great wood. I used hickory pellets in a Traeger for this recipe, but when I do them on my offset stickburner, similar style. I bump up the heat with charcoal to get it to crisp up for the second hour. During the heat up period, keep an eye on them, it can get overcooked quickly. I have never used sugar maple myself, are you in the Northeast? I would love to hear what you do with that wood! And most importantly let us know how it goes!
Looks good! A way to get rid of rubbery skin is to throw them under a broiler for a few minutes.
Thanks Bill. Good call on the broiler. I’ll try that next time the skins come out rubbery!
Glad I found this recipe! Going to smoke these today for the 4th of July and using an east-meets-west buffalo sauce. I smoke a lot of stuff but for some reason have never done wings. Also, drying out the wings in the fridge is key to forming the “pellicle” which is important so the smoke adheres to the whatever meat you may be smoking. I usually let a boston butt dry for 24 hours in the fridge, you can definitely tell the difference!
Hi Chris, I’d love to hear how your wings turned out. They can be tricky!! And we’ve never let a Boston butt dry for 24 hours before. We’ll try it next time and let you know how it goes! Cheers
I’m originally from Buffalo, NY, drying the wings in the fridge is definitely key. I can’t wait to get a smoker and try these. In the meantime I have to make do with my oven. Cheers!
Diane, it’s so true! Such an important step. And until you get your smoker you can always try them on the grill. I can’t give you exact cooking times off the top of my head, but they taste great grilled. And if you want the smoked flavor you can just add wood chips to your charcoal grill, then cook the wings on an indirect heat. Cheers!
Great post. Excited to try. I was wondering if we put in fridge to dehydrate for 12 or more hours be too long?
Matt, no I don’t think that would be too long, but also check where you get them from. For example at Whole Foods at the butcher counter they are already air chilled, but I don’t think you can over “dehydrate”. Great question!
I clicked through to your post from Darren Rouse’s facebook page, and was happily surprised to see the references to Rochester, The Finger Lakes and upstate NY wings (Buffalo gets too much credit for them, haha!) I live in Australia, but grew up in Rochester:) It seems that the Finger Lakes rieslings are finally getting noticed, which makes me smile. They were mentioned positively on America’s Test Kitchen’s podcast the other day as well. Anyway, looks like your persistence with the recipe paid off, yum:)
Hi Lynnette, So glad you found the post! From Rochester to Australia, wow, what a change! Yes, I agree, happy to see Finger Lakes wines getting more (well deserved) attention.
Cheers
I am also from Rochester and I must say I am excited to try this recipe in my smoker tomorrow.
Absolutely LOVE the intro you gave as well. So much that I had to read it to my wife who was laughing because of the similarities your husband and I share!!! Love, love, love bltrue buffalo wings, love the upstate wines, and cannot get enough of the rich Rochester history and foods!
Thank you for the inspiring recipe. My taste buds are hopping with excitement!
Thomas thanks so much, my husband is yelling across the room asking if we should experiment with smoked garbage plates and if you love Pontillo’s pizza as much as him…lol….you probably know what he is talking about 🙂
My mouth is watering! I must try this recipe, and I’m a big fan of Finger Lakes’ Rieslings, so looking forward to it. Cheers for the post!
Thank you!
Delicious post, Mary! I’m tempted to book my next trip for your next batch!
Diane, you are ALWAYS welcome here 🙂
The photo of your husband on New Year’s Day manning the smoker in the snow is awesome. Would not have guessed FLX Riesling as your wine pick. Along those lines of some sweet to meet the heat, some Bugey-Cerdon would probably be nice, no?
Good call on the Bugey Cerdon! Really, several wines would work. The idea is to keep it slightly sweet and refreshing to cool off any heat from the wings. I wouldn’t have really put much thought into the FLX Rieslings if not for having them all open the very day we made that batch of wings. They worked!
Plus it’s a nice homage to hubby’s upstate NY upbringing.