Vortex Wings...Finally!

[Mike in Roseville]

What’s one thing that I have been curious to make since springtime?

Vortex wings.

Ok, so I got my vortex thrown in when I bought my 26.75” earlier this year. Since I acquired it, I have used it for a bunch of cooks, but not wings.

That changed Sunday.



My whole process was very straightforward. Light coating of EVOO and a few dustings of rub. No smoke or sauce on these. 1 chimney of charcoal and I turned the lid 1/4 turn every 15 minutes. These were done around the 50 minute mark with all the vents wide open.





I split the wings and used a different commercial rub for each. One got Oakridge Secret Weapon and the other got Simply Marvelous Cherry.



Above are the Cherry, below are the Secret Weapon wings.



How’d they turn out?

Great! I loved the Simply Marvelous Cherry because it adds a nice subtle “unique” sweetness that’s a good departure from fiery wings. My wife preferred the Secret Weapon wings. Honestly, they were both excellent! Vortex wings are indeed, legit.

Next time, I’d probably repeat the process, but sauce or perhaps serve with sauce. I may even combine the rubs (one dusting of one, two dustings of the other to see how they play together).


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[Kneab]

Nice looking wings.
The vortex works great.👍

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Looks great!  I've been a diehard vortex fan for a few years now.  Yes I can pretty much reproduce it with my baskets but using my vortex is as easy as 1-2-3 every single cook!  I usually don't sauce my wings during the cook at all, but I will put out a bowl with wings sauce, sweet chili sauce, etc, so people can toss their own wings if they want them sauced.  I don't bother with air drying the wings in the fridge, I open the package, hit with a quick spray of EVOO with my oil spray bottle, then season and cook, or season then toss in flour that has more seasoning mixed in, hit with another quick EVOO spray then cook.

Did you rotate your lid or flip the wings at all during your cook?  I see this all the time as "the key to great vortex wings", but I stopped flipping the wings and rotating the lid a long time ago and get the same results.  One thing I did find on a wing cook on my 26er (which seems to do as good or better than my 22's) was that adding too much smoke actually chokes out the coals a bit.  I put my smoking tube above the vortex which gave a lot of smoke but the grill immediately dropped from 500-550 on the dome thermo to right around 400.  Now I put one small to medium sized chunk of wood and that's it.  I honestly think the wings don't soak up much if any smoke anyway.

I'm glad you had good results and look forward to seeing what seasoning/rub combos you try out in the future.

[Mike in Roseville]

Thanks Mike.

Yes I rotated the lid every 15 minutes and seasoned/flipped after 30 minutes. Seasoned one last time right before pulling them.

Thanks for sharing your experience with turning the lid and flipping. Good to know I probably won’t mess them up if I forget to turn the lid.


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[Campwhatnot]

Well done

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[blksabbath]

Those look excellent!  Try a quick flour toss before they hit the grate if you want a little more of a fried chicken style crust.  You can zing that up with rubs and all sorts of magical flavors too.


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[Schaefd2]

Oh man now I want wings!!
You took a schwing and hit it out of the park!!!
(Is that a bad pun?)


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[PhilipQ]

Simply stated the vortex is a must own if you own a kettle and like chicken wings, and no I do not work for them! It’s just a great piece of equipment, try thighs!!!


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[Kneab]

Simply stated the vortex is a must own if you own a kettle and like chicken wings, and no I do not work for them! It’s just a great piece of equipment, try thighs!!!


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Did boneless thighs tonight🐔😋

makes alot of cooks extra easy.

[WMT]

Great looking wings. The vortex make wings sooooo easy. I'm with mikerocksthered on the spinning the lid, I realy have'nt noticed any difference by not spinning it but when I happen to check them I will just for the hell of it, if I remember, but I don't make a point of it. But I do flip the wings, or other stuff, about mid cook.

[WMT]

Those look excellent!  Try a quick flour toss before they hit the grate if you want a little more of a fried chicken style crust.  You can zing that up with rubs and all sorts of magical flavors too.


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Interesting. I was wondering if the vortex was good for a "fried" chicken kind of cook. Do you have a good recipie that would be a good fried chicken one

[Firemunkee]

Such good knowledge in this thread!

[Big Dawg]

Wings and The Vortex go hand in hand.  You look like you've got it well under control ! ! !





BD

[greenweb]

Wings look great! Vortex or poortex wings is only way to go. Rotisserie for whole chicken.