Smoked "Buff-a-que" Wings

Some things are just made to be together.  Peanut butter and jelly, wine and cheese, Ernie and Bert, and most importantly, sports and food.  Right now, there is no better time of year to watch sports and eat food.  For eons, people have been having parties that revolve around sporting events and food.  I'm certain that they even tailgated at the Colosseum in Rome (NSFW) before big battles.

One of my favorite times of year is March/April due to the NCAA basketball tournament, the Masters and the start of baseball season!   This is a recipe for perhaps the most common of sports foods, the chicken wing.  Chicken wings are arguably the most perfect "sports food" ever created.  You can completely eat them with one had, leaving the other hand for beer consumption, high fives and flipping channels.  This recipe is one that I've honed over the years.  I smoke my wings and sauce them several times with a mixture of bbq sauce and traditional wing sauce (hence the name "buff-a-que").  If you do not have a smoker you can achieve great results using the indirect method of grilling on your grill.

Ingredients:

1 "Family Pack" of chicken wings (remove the wing tips from the wings and discard.  Also remove the drumstick from the wing and cut away extra fat and skin)
1/2 cup of bbq seasoning
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce
1 bottle of your favorite spicy wing sauce (I use Texas Pete)
2 handfulls of wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes (I prefer apple wood)

Season with chicken wings with the dry bbq seasoning then coat the wings in olive oil.  I like to do this step in a 1 gallon ziplock freezer bag.  Next combine the bbq sauce, with the spicy wing sauce and set aside.  I prefer a mix of 60% spicy wing sauce to 40% BBQ sauce.  You can adjust the mix to your own taste. 

Saucy Wings

If you are using a smoker, prepare the smoker for cooking between 300 and 350 degrees.  If you have a water pan in your smoker, cover the pan with aluminum foil but do not put any water in it.  If you are using a grill, set up the grill for indirect grilling.  Place the wood chips or chunks on the grill or smoker directly over the coals.  If you are using a gas grill, place the wood chips in a smoker box or wrap them in heavy duty aluminum foil and put them over the burner. 

Place the chicken skin side down on the smoker or grill away from the flame.  Cook for about 40 minutes (60 to 90 minutes on a smoker), turning the wings about half way through cooking.  Start basting the wings with the sauce every 10 minutes or so during the last 20 minutes of cooking.  When the wings are cooked through, remove from the grill and serve with blue cheese dressing for dipping.  If you like your wings extra saucy, pour the remaining bbq sauce over the wings after they have been removed from the grill.  Turn on the game, invite your friends over, get out lots of paper towels and enjoy!