smoked chicken wings

Anyone have the secrets to good, smoked wings with a skin that isn't like rubber? I have made ONE good batch. We have always done it at a low temp. Is this the probelem? We have marinated them in Louisian hot sauce and then mopped them while smoking, then we brined and rubbed some. We did the same this week, but added brown sugar to the mopping sauce, and the dry rub. The wings also came from different distributer.

bea the secret to crisp skin is your pit temp. it needs to be in 375 to 400f area. the problem is at that temp there won't be much smoke flavor if any at all.what follows is a two step method to get around that problem. it works very well for production work even if you have only one smoker as you can do a large batch,refrigerate them and then finish. with two smokers it just becomes a production line.
set your pit to between 145-165f (thats the maximum smoke production area on mine) and smoke your wings for 2 hours and then remove.
kick the pit to 375-400f put the wings back on for about 25 mins. take them out and coat them and serve. do not coat them until ordered as the coating will sog up the skin again

Thanks again for your help!

In MHO I think you guys are making a lot of work out of a very simple job. I throw my wings on a bunch of old bath towels on the counter and let them air dry for about thirty minutes. Then throw them in a clean bus tub take them out to the pit and put them in the close smoker at 235 to 250. I sprinkle my yet to be famous rub on them and close up the pit. In 3 hours I take out those that are done and in another 1/2 hour the rest. They heat really well in the microwave and (knock on hickory) the skins never been anything but juicy and tender.
Jack@DrofBBQ.com

bea,
no problem. this was the technique we used to get 2nd place at super tailgatemania when the super bowl was in jacksonville (this was a wing only competition put on by the united way as a fund raiser and had many big hotels and restaurants involved and to be brutally honest i thought my wife had lost her mind entering us in this). we buried hilton,hooters,south beach grill and 7 others and they all and the winners were using fryers. we used our sm150 for the smoking portion and then transfered over to our fec100 which was running at 375. we did a little over 2 cases of wings in about 8 hours time in addition to pork butts and ribs. head count according to the united way was right at 5000 people.
if you are doing wings do yourself a favor and prep them by simply folding the wing tip under the main wing body. it will look like a triangle. learned this trick from a chinese chef. cool part is the tip doesn't burn and is also ez to serve. i swa in your other post that you have a 2 compartment smoker so i think the technique should work well for you.
dr of bbq,
heat well in a microwave??!!! good lord!!!! if i didn't know better i would swear that it's april fools day but my calender shows june 19th. read my instructions close. my TOTAL time is 2 hours 25 mins which is an improvement of 65 mins over your listed time plus i can keep it up all day long by using rotational cooking. more importantly the skin is crisp!!!! seems to me that's a 65 min savings in time over your directions and being a certified chef one thing i know is an hour and five minute improvement in any technique spells money in the bank and thats not an opinion just good fiscal sense. if i didn't know better i would swear that this was doctor bbq himself playing a joke(and he is quite good at that) as the microwave is a dead give away.

Prisonchef wrote: “read my instructions close. my TOTAL time is 2 hours 25 mins which is an improvement of 65 mins over your listed time”.

Correct but the original question was not producing chicken wings that are rubbery. Not with all due respect on a production line.

Prisonchef wrote: . if i didn't know better i would swear that this was doctor bbq himself playing a joke(and he is quite good at that.

I’m sorry but I do not know your friend.

Prisonchef wrote: as the microwave is a dead give away.

I’m not a big fan of the microwave ether but my reference was (and I wasn’t clear on this point) for reheating 3 or 4 days down the road. When I cook wings people always buy extras and take them home. These customers don’t own a pit for reheating and yet they often comment that after nuking them they are still tender and juicy and taste like they just came off of the pit. In that reference I was referring to the fact that the skin is not rubbery even after being nuked.

I apologize if I have some how or another offended you Prisonchef, and as to your friend DrBBQ I'm aware of him but wasn't until after I had named my business, registered my business, bought my web domain, designed my web site, and opened my business. By then it was just a little too late to rename my company. So if an apology is due you or him “I apologize”.
Jack

Jack@drofBBQ.com

ok,
still haven't read my post.
my techniques still beats your by 65 mins and the skin is crisp!!!!!
be advised that drbbq is my lifelong sworn enemy after his comments to my wife!!!!!!
no appologize are needed nor asked for.
i was giving bea my best advice on how to solve her skin problem in the minumum amount of time and with the best results possible.
and to reinterate drbbq is for sure no friend of mine!!!!!
i do however appologize to you for thinking that you were him!!!!
that was unfair,unjust and just plain not right!!!!!
jack

to put it more strongly and still keep it in a family friendly vein if drbbq's butt was on fire i wouldn't throw water on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what he responded to my wife in the cookshack site was inexcusable and certainly over the line.
i again apologize to you
jack
but if i ever get in an arms length of the other guy

ok let me be more specific. after drbbq's response to my wife in the cookshack site if his butt was on fire i wouldn't look for water to put it out. his comments to her question was over the top and quite frankly offensive. i again appologize to you for my quickness and do hope that you understand.
jack
ps. but he he gets within an arms reach of me i will follow my wifes instructions and her i am afraid of!!!!!!

Well good deal I thought I had done something stupid LMAO. But you know it seems that some of the guys in the BBQ business that have become pretty successful and equally prominent get a little bit of a big head. I have to say my favorites are David Klose, www.bbqpits.com , David is a Mad Scientist, Joe Ames from www.theingredientstore.com Joe is a genius, Bill Milroy Texas Rib Rangers, what a great guy, Chef Paul Kirk www.bbqcookoff.com Paul is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met and at the same time an Awesome BBQ Cook. Imagine cooking with Klose and Kirk in the world championship. Too Cool. Glad we got this thing totally over with. I have four briskets in the smoker and a meat delivery at 7:00 AM So I’m going to bed.

if it wasn't for paul kirk we never would have placed 2nd in the fba florida state championships at minneola in 2004. this was done with a smoker i had never cooked on since the rig was delayed due to 4 hurricanes and i only got generators 2 weeks before the event. since paul is an ACF certified chef (i'm certified at the csc level) i just followed his directions.
tell you another nice combo is mike mills and his daughter amy. they helped us a bunch when we were just starting out and thanks to amy's ed-i-kate course that i took i knew what i had to do after shooting my mouth off.
last but not least is billy bones. 3 years ago he didn't know me from adams cat but sure has taken me and peg under his wing and his advice has made us lots of money either by not taking a path we were going to or just hard advice on sales.
jack