Doing Chicken Wings on the Charcoal BBQ

Today we are going to take a look at what I think is the best technique for doing chicken wings on the charcoal BBQ. This method produces smokey wings with a nice char and texture, but avoids common problems when doing wings on the BBQ such as burning or the skin sticking to the grill / grill pan. 


You can use this method for wings that are simply tossed in a seasoning blend, or for wings that have been sauced or marinaded. It works either way. You could also toss wings in seasoning and then serve them with a commercially prepared or a homemade wing sauce such as the classic Buffalo Style Chicken Wing Sauce or a Spicy Mayo.

One great way to prepare them is to do your wings jerk style by following the marinading and jerk sauce preparation instructions in our post Charcoal BBQ Jerk Style Chicken and then using the wing grilling technique outlined here.

For this post I used both a commercially prepared seasoning blend and wing sauce. I also made around 3 lb. of wings.

First, I put all the wings in a large freezer bag and added Cool Runnings Caribbean Spice and Roasted Garlic seasoning, tossing the wings with the seasoning in the sealed bag until coated to taste. Again, you can use a homemade seasoning blend or any number of other variations such as Montreal Chicken Spice.

After seasoning the wings I poured a full bottle of Cool Runnings Hot Chicken Wing Sauce into the bag, sealed it and made sure the sauce was all around the wings. the Cool Runnings sauce is one of many available premade and I like its spice level and overall flavours.

Place the wings in the freezer bag in the fridge to marinade for one to two hours minimum.

When your charcoal BBQ is ready to go take the marinaded wings out of the bag and place them directly over the coals on the grill for around a minute to a minute and a half a side. Depending on how many wings you are doing you may have to do multiple batches. 

Watch for flare-ups and burning. You want a little bit of charring but not burnt wings!

Meanwhile, prepare a large aluminum foil pan by placing a layer of romaine lettuce across the bottom. The lettuce will prevent your wings from sticking to the tray. Place your grilled wings on top of the bed of lettuce arranging them so that they are, ideally, not too crowded and in a single layer. You can either discard or pour any remaining marinade over the top of the wings (I always do the latter) as in this case doing so is safe as you are cooking the wings for considerably more time. 

Place the tray right onto your grill above the coals. 

Cook the wings for 40-45 minutes or until done, flipping the wings once halfway through. You want to cook the wings regulating the heat by doing them approximately 10 minutes with your BBQ's lid down (flue open) and 5 minutes lid off. 

When done place the wings on a large platter discarding the lettuce. 

You will find these wings moist with that great charcoal BBQ flavour. Serve with all the things you usually want wings with; friends, cold beer or vinho verde, more sauce on the side, etc.

Enjoy.

See also: Southern Style Chicken Wings Stove-top Deep Fried

See also: Spanish-Style Fried Chicken Strips w. Spicy Mayo