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I absolutely love smoked chicken wings. This recipe is great for a small crowd, 3-4 people. It’s a quick, easy and flavor filled recipe that I hope you enjoy as much as my friends do. Happy smoking!

3 pounds chicken wings
1/4 cup garlic powder
3 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbs dried thyme
1 1/2 cups wood chips (hickory-or your choice) soaked for at least 1 hour

Soak the wood chips of your choice. For this recipe, I used hickory, but cherry wood also works well. Pat dry the chicken wings and place them into a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic powder, pepper, salt and thyme and blend well. Coat the wings well with the dry mixture and set aside. Prepare your smoker. If you don’t have a smoker, but do have a gas grill, please follow the link to make your gas grill a smoker: http://www.finecooking.com/item/51280/lesson-6-how-to-add-smoke-to-a-gas-grill

Set your smoker to 250 degrees. Drain the water from the wood chips and evenly divide the chips between two foil packets, punching about five holes into the top of each packet. Place the wings into the smoker along with the wood chip packets and smoke between 2 and 2-1/2 hours or until the internal temperature reaches between 165-170 degrees. To crisp up the wings, either place them in a preheated grill reading about 600 degrees for about 3-4 minutes per side or place in a preheated broiler for about 5 minutes. Please see the below link for more information on smokers, smoking meats and food safety:
http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/56047

Originally printed in the June 15, 2016 edition of The Somerville Times.