Posted on 11/10/2018 4:52:06 PM PST by PJ-Comix
These smoked turkey wings turned out VERY spicy. Just the way I like them. Plus they are low/no carb so they help me to lose weight.
After I tried them, my wife declared them to be too spicy for her. Me? I like to feel the heat. However, although I mentioned smoking them in addition to turkey for Thanksgiving, I better wait for another occasion since if my wife found them to be too spicy, her sister and her family will probably have the same reaction.
I frequently do that too. Buy a couple or three while they are so cheap to buy.
It depends on the year. Some years there is a shortage of turkeys due to one reason or another (bird sickness or weather related). I think we are okay this year though. I haven’t read or heard otherwise.
Yeah, turkey meat can be the best meat deal around. If you use Target cartwheel you can also good turkey deals. Recently it was down to 59 cents/lb at Target with the cartwheel.
I’ll save those cheap turkeys until July, since they will keep for up to two years, then have a sort of Thanksgiving in July during the hottest part of the summer. The smoker works better (faster) then too because it has the help of the outside warm air. On cool Fall days I generally have to warm it up a half hour in advance while I prep the turkeys. Not a big deal; I just have to remember to do it.
Brining the bird before the smoke makes it even better!!!
True! You can get trained up. I'm to the point now that if they bring me wings and they aren't moving around on the plate and cussing they're not hot enough. I send them back.
Little humor there. Turkey is good stuff. Smoked turkey is super good stuff!
I tried smoking turkey wings once, but it was too hard to keep them lit...
Exactly, to perfection. The skin had a slight crispiness to it, but it wasn’t dried out like a stick of jerky. Perfect balance of juiciness with a strong-but-not-overwhelming head of wood smoke infused all through the meat. I’d have shaken the greasy hand of the person who created that work of art. The steak on a stake was middling. I grabbed a couple spare legs and a few ears of fire-roasted corn in the husk on the way out, and it was dinnertime at the Viking Lodge when we got back. LOL!
I used to brine the birds first in a cooler overnight but I got lazy a couple of years ago and just smoked the thawed out turkey with pretty much the same results. About the only difference is the brined turkey was a bit saltier so if one brines then it’s best to leave any salt out of the rub mix.
I think it’s the slow cooking that really makes the big difference. I find it’s best to not even check on it for at least 3 hours; maybe even a bit more depending on the number of birds. Of course it all depends on the kind of smoker one uses as well. With the electric ones; the more times the door is opened and much of the heat escapes; the longer it will take to cook. That’s why 3 to 3.5 hours is a good time to check for the one I use.
I also find using just two cups of water soaked wood chips to be enough. Too much smoke flavor can overpower the flavor of the bird. Just my humble opinion. Everyone has their own way with their own equipment. I shoot for a temp of 235 then use a thermometer to check the inner meat temp has reached 165 degrees.
I have a lot of experience with that over the past year so I will be ready for Thanksgiving. BTW, I used to cover it with foil for a while to keep it from going dark brown but now I prefer it that way because to me it is the symbol of a smoked turkey as opposed to an oven cooked turkey.
Hmmm... I'll have to look into that. Smoking chicken thighs, especially since they are low in price at the store.
I use a lot of Adobo as part of my seasoning which already has salt. If I brine plus using Adobo it might be too salty. Oh, and we like Adobo so I can't cut that out.
Low carb’ing it here, as well.
I was buying 73/27 high fat ground beef at my local Ralph’s. I asked if they could do a special high fat grind for me, like 65/35 or so. He said no, they don’t have a code number for pricing it.
I asked if I could buy high fat trimmings before they went “into the barrel”. He said yes, so I came back the next day and he had about eight pounds set aside for me at $1.99/lb.
Instead of grinding them up, I take out a handful and give them a rough chop, say into 3/8” pieces, removing any silver skin I can.
Then put a piece of cling film in my hamburger mold and form a nice 6oz. or so patty.
It wants to fall apart, so be careful.
I pan fry it (cast iron, of course). Oh man is it good. Taste’s better than most steaks I get at Ralph’s. Really meaty with that good fat taste.
Bump for later
Ralph's. I used to go there when I lived in La-La Land. Do they still double the coupons?
I don’t do the coupons, except for the ones that come in the mail, where I get a free carton of eggs and a package of Jimmy Dean sausage. :)
Oh, and earlier in the week I picked up 20 FREE tubes of Colgate Optic White toothpaste also via coupons.
Thanks! That looks like a great recipe. Will try it!
Chicken thighs are dark meat and have more fat. They don’t dry out like chicken breast. It is my favorite piece of the chicken.
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