Smoked Chicken Wings (0-400 method)

Get all that smoky flavor and delicious crispy skin with these easy smoked chicken wings you won’t be able to stop eating.

These wings have crispy skin on the outside and juicy meat on the inside and make for the perfect gameday appetizer, main course, or anytime wings!

What are you waiting for? Take your crispy wings to the next level with the 0-400 cooking method with this slow-smoking recipe.

If you love smoking meat, don’t forget to check out other great recipes like Smoked St. Louis Ribs on the Pellet Grill, Smoked Beef Shank on a Pellet Grill, and Smoked Parmesan Chicken Wings with Vodka Sauce!

The Best Wings

No matter the time of year, I love making smoked chicken wings.

To me, wings are one of those ultimate foods that are perfect for serving anytime. Whether it is a backyard barbecue, birthday party, game night, or you just want to relax and have friends or family over, wings have their place on the table.

This particular smoked wing recipe will leave you with an irresistible smoky taste and the perfect wing texture with only a few minutes of prep and with pantry staple ingredients.

Ingredients for Smoked Chicken Wings

Chicken: For this recipe, you will need 3 Lbs of chicken wings (whole wings or party wings). Depending on how many people you are cooking for, you may need to increase the number of wings you are smoking.

Oil: Before you do anything to your wings, you are going to hit them with 2 tbsp of avocado oil or olive oil. This will coat the wings, help the skin get crispy in the cooking process, and prep them for that tasty dry rub or seasoning!

Dry Rub or Wing Seasoning: I used 3 tbsp of my favorite BBQ Dry Rub. You can use your favorite rub or, if you are feeling adventurous, you can make your own homemade dry rub!

Wing Sauce: Before you serve your tasty wings, you are going to toss them in ½ cup of my Homemade Buffalo Sauce.

Now you can use whatever sauce you want.

I like buffalo sauce, but you can use BBQ sauce, hot sauce, or whatever your favorite wing sauce is.

How to Make the Best Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings

Prep the wings. Pat wings dry, then transfer to a large bowl and drizzle with avocado oil, and toss.

Season the wings. Season with your favorite dry rub or seasoning

Place the wings in the smoker. Place wings on the smoker spread out with at least 1 inch in-between the wings. Shut the lid and turn your pellet smoker on and set it to 400 degrees F (205 C).

Smoke the wings. Cook for about 35-40 minutes then flip the wings. Continue cooking for another 20-30 minutes until the wings are about 190-200 degrees F internal temperature.

Sauce the wings. Toss with your favorite wing sauce and serve with bleu cheese or ranch on the side.

Serve. Once your wings have been tossed in a tasty wing sauce, don’t wait. Serve them up and enjoy!

What is the 0-400 Method for Wings?

The 0 – 400 method is something anyone – kids, grandma, etc, can figure out.

The idea is that the wings will get a kiss of smoke as the pellet grill heats up and as the grill temp rises, the wings will begin to render fat.

Once the grill has reached 400 degrees F the wings can crisp up so that they are perfect and ready to devour.

All you have to do is place your prepared chicken wings on a cold grill.

Yes, you read that right, a cold grill – you don’t have to preheat it or anything.

Lay out your wings, close the lid, set the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and walk away.

After about 30 minutes, come back to flip your wings and check the internal temperature.

After another 20-30 minutes, your wings will be ready to enjoy once you toss them in some sauce!

Recipe Tips, Tricks, and Variations

Honey and Old Bay Smoked Wings: Cooking for kids or just looking for a different flavor? Split up some of the wings and toss them in a different bowl with a bit of honey and Old Bay seasoning. My niece and nephew love these and have that great East coast flavor with a kiss of smoke.

Seasoning: If you are looking to make your seasoning, don’t forget that easily added flavor can come from some classic seasoning, like garlic powder, black pepper, chili powder, and onion powder.

Wood Pellets: I use a blend of wood pellets; however, if you are looking for a particular flavor recommendation, I would use hickory or apple wood for these wings.

Leftover Wings: You won’t have any leftover wings because, yes, I am that confident you will just keep going back for more.

However, if you do have leftovers, storing them is simple – just toss them in an airtight container and pop them in the fridge.

Handy Kitchen Equipment: When cooking, grilling, or smoking, I always like to keep a trusty meat thermometer nearby.

This ensures whatever I am cooking is fully cooked or at a safe eating temperature and paper towels because, at the end of the day, we are all going to make a mess.

However, paper towels also come in handy when patting the wings dry before you prep them with oil and seasoning.

Grilling vs. Smoking Wings

If you don’t have a smoker, you can grill your wings using a charcoal grill or gas grill.

Using a two-zone method, simply light half of the gas or charcoal grill and place the wings over the cold side.

From here, you’ll just follow the same instructions in the recipe below.

How long do wings take to smoke?

This truly depends on the size of the wings.

It could take you as little as 45 minutes or as long as 90 minutes.

I recommend the 0-400 method using a pellet grill if you are feeling lazy and aren’t looking to spend all day minding your smoker.

However, that said, it will take you about 60-70 minutes total.

Do wings get crispy in the smoker?

Absolutely! Your wings will, without a doubt, get perfectly crispy in the smoker.

If you are new to smoking meat or the smoking process in general, it does two things, it infuses the wings with an incredible smoky flavor, and it gets the skin on the wings perfectly crispy.

The smoking process slowly removes moisture and dries out the skin, leaving you with crispy chicken skin on the outside and juicy and tender meat on the inside!

Do you flip wings when smoking?

I like to flip the wings after about 30 minutes because the heat source is on the bottom and I want the wings to cook evenly

With this recipe and cooking method, I recommend flipping your chicken wings at the halfway mark.

Can you reheat smoked chicken wings?

You can reheat the wings in the air fryer or oven at 400 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes.

Either one of these reheat methods will make your wings taste brand new; you might even forget they are leftovers!

Whatever you do, don’t microwave them … or if you do, don’t tell me about it.

More Amazing Wing Recipes

• HOW TO GRILL WINGS WITH CHARCOAL
• SMOKED HONEY OLD BAY WINGS 
• SMOKED PARMESAN CHICKEN WINGS
• SALT AND PEPPER GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS

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