With the release of our new Limited Edition Habanero Death Dust, I figured it probably was a good idea to go ahead and show folks one way they could use this new rub… Habanero Death Wings!

I decided to use our “Easy Chicken” method for these wings, with one minor modification in the prep process.

First, you start out with about 2 dozen chicken wings. Throw them into a gallon-sized zip lock bag and add ½ Cup olive oil and ½ Cup Habanero Death Dust rub. Zip the bag closed and massage the wings around until they are all evenly coated with the rub/oil mixture. If you mix the oil and rub separately then add it to the zip lock bag with the chicken, it makes this process much easier.  Place this into your fridge for one hour.

After an hour, dump the wings onto a half sheet pan and spread them out evenly. Then, wearing latex gloves, cover each wing with more Death Dust, flip them over and then repeat on the opposite side.

Prepare your smoker using lump charcoal and hickory (or whatever wood you like) and get it running right around 250º. Using lump charcoal is important, as you won’t be able to do the high heat finish (see below) nearly as easily if you use briquettes.  Load the rack with the wings and cook for one hour.

After one hour, they should look like this…

But, they’re not done just yet…

Now, with the wings still setting on the grate, ramp your smoker up to around 550º. To do this quickly, I opened up my side door and used my Stihl leaf blower on an idle, and aimed it right at the pile of lit lump in the bottom. In about 30 seconds, my lid temp gauge had wrapped all the way around over to 100º, which should have put my pit temp somewhere in the neighborhood of 550-600º.

Shut the big side door and trim the bottom vents down and let her ride for about 5 minutes. Lift the lid to check on the wing’s progress. Mine were just right after about 7-10 minutes. During this time the WSM slowly cooled to around 350º and hung there for the last couple minutes before I pulled the wings. Here’s what they looked like right before I pulled them…

And the finished close-ups… No sauce was added to these wings, it’s just the rub you see on the wings…

Final thoughts… These were, without a doubt, the best damn hot wings I’ve ever had. Smoky, tender, pull off the bone, but still very juicy. The high-heat finish gave them totally bite-through skin with a little crispness to it. The heat level was just perfect, they gave me hiccups after about three wings, but they were so damn good I just couldn’t stop eating them. After about 12, the heat buildup in my mouth was about all I could take, but I still wanted more!!!