Crispy and delicious these smoked chicken wings are spiced with a homemade seasoning and smoked to perfection for an amazing game day treat!

These smoked chicken wings are crispy on the outside with juicy, tender meat on the inside. While they do take a bit of time because they’re slow-smoked and marinated, it’s worth the wait. The perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and a touch of fantastic smoky flavor will make you popular at parties, game days, or potlucks if you serve these up!

Tips to Make Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings

The first few times I tried to smoke chicken wings, they were good, but they had rubbery skin. If you’re like me, you want crispy chicken wings. While you can deep fry them when they’re done, it’s messy. These are some tips to make the best crispy smoked wings you’ve ever tried without deep frying.

Start with dry chicken. Make sure you pat the wings dry with a paper towel. You want all the moisture off, any excess moisture will prevent the skin from crisping up.

Use baking powder and seasoning. Toss the dry wings in a ziploc bag of baking powder, then toss through seasoning. The baking powder helps pull excess moisture out of the wings and the seasoning will add so much flavor.

Chill. While a lot of folks say it’s not worth the time, I assure you, it is. Once you toss in baking powder and the seasoning, put them on a plate and cover them in the refrigerator to marinate and chill for at least an hour, preferably 3 hours.

Gradually increase the temp. Increasing to a higher temperature on your pellet smoker bits at a time helps maintain the juicy inside while helping render out the fat just enough to result in that nice, crispy skin. You’ll start at a cool 180°F, increase to 275°F, and finish them hot.

Finish hot. You’ll get your wings to around 130°F, remove them from the smoker momentarily while you increase the temperature to 425°F, and then put them back on.

Note: If you don’t have a pellet grill that can quickly increase the temperature, you can preheat your oven or gas grill, place them on a rack fitted above a baking sheet to finish them in the oven or simply place them directly on the grill grates on a grill.

Resist the urge to baste. I’m a sauce person, but these wings need to smoke as-is with sauce added later if you so desire. Otherwise, the sauce will add too much moisture and they won’t be crispy at the end.

Heat the sauce before tossing. If you choose to use sauce, any sauce will do, but you’ll want to heat it before tossing the wings in it to help keep them crispy. Tossing hot wings in cold sauce will make them rubbery.

How Long to Smoke Chicken Wings

While the size of the wings will affect the smoke time, it will take about an hour to smoke them. 20 minutes at 180°F, 20 minutes at 275°F, and then a final 15 minutes or so at 425°F until they’re cooked to the final temperature.

While wings are considered done at 165 degrees F, it’s actually better to cook them to around 180°F. This helps break down connective tissues and make them more tender and easier to consume. Your guests will thank you!

Ingredients for Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings Recipe

Complete measurements and full recipe can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post!

Chicken wings. Both wingettes and drumettes work for this recipe. You can use one, the other, or a combination of the two.

Baking Powder. This helps dry out the chicken!

Chicken seasoning. A combination of brown sugar, salt, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

How to Smoke Chicken Wings

Dry. If the wings are frozen, be sure to thaw them in the refrigerator overnight, then dry them thoroughly with paper towels, removing as much moisture as possible from the wings.

Cut. Optional but recommended. While you can use the whole wing, the best way to smoke wings is to cut off the wing tips and separate them into wingettes and drumettes.

It’s easy to do. You can follow the directions here on how to cut chicken wings if you want to separate the chicken wing into pieces.

Toss. Combine seasoning mix together in a small bowl. Place baking powder in a ziplock bag and toss the wings to coat them, then add the seasoning mix and toss to coat.

Chill. Remove the wings from the zip loc bag and place them on a plate. Coat them with the remaining dry rub. Cover the plate and chill for at least 1 hour, up to 3 hours.

Smoke. After chilling, remove the wings from the refrigerator and let them come to room temp for only 10 to 15 minutes while preheating your electric smoker to 180°F.

Smoke chicken wings for 20 minutes at 180°F, then kick the temperature up to 275°F and smoke for an additional 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the wings reaches 130°F when checked with a meat thermometer.

Remove the wings briefly from the smoker and increase the temperature to 425°F. Once the smoker is at temp, place the wings directly on the grill grates and smoke for an additional 20 minutes or so until they reach an internal temperature of 180°F on an instant read thermometer.

Rest and sauce. Rest the wings for about 10 minutes. Place the cooked wings in a large bowl and up your favorite sauce before tossing them in the wing sauce.

Best Sauce for Smoked Chicken Wings

These smoked wings are fantastic plain, the seasoning is phenomenal. That said, if you want to sauce your wings, pick what you enjoy or use a mixture of different sauces for your wings.

My personal favorites are buffalo sauce or honey barbecue. Some folks like to toss them in their favorite hot sauce other bbq sauce or even garlic parmesan sauce. It’s really up to you (and your guests).

Serve them alongside some homemade ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing, especially if you use buffalo wing sauce.

Best Wood Chips for Chicken Wings

You can use virtually any wood with chicken wings and get good flavor. But for the best flavor, I recommend using fruit wood. My favorite for this recipe is cherry wood, but apple wood will also work.

These choices give just a touch of smoke flavor, though. So, if you want a lot of deep smoky flavor try oak or mesquite.

For a mild, middle-of-the-road flavor, try hickory wood pellets.

How to Store Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings

Store in the refrigerator: Cool the wings to room temperature and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Store in the freezer: Put cooled wings on a tray, leaving a bit of space between each wing, and flash freeze for 2 hours. Once frozen, transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 6 months.

To reheat: Thaw frozen wings overnight in the refrigerator. Let the wings come to room temp for about 15 minutes, preheat oven to 350°F. Place wings on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 10 minutes, turning once if desired.

Smoker Recipes to Try Next:

• The Best Smoked Chicken Legs Recipe
• Smoked Pork Ribs (the best 3-2-1 baby back ribs)
• How to Smoke the Perfect Smoked Pork Butt Recipe

If you try these smoked chicken wings, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below! Also, I’d love if you could leave me a five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ recipe review on the recipe card below. If you want more recipe inspiration, make sure to follow me on Facebook or Pinterest!