What readers are saying about these pellet grill chicken wings
Gave this a try, and this is the only way to do it on a Traeger. Every other recipe I’ve tried from Traeger ended up raw or the skin was tough. This was crispy and pulled right off the bone.
Evan
How to get crispy wings on the Traeger (step-by-step)
Everyone loves nice and crispy wings, but you might be wondering how to get crispy and smoky wings on a pellet grill.
The key is in the seasoning and the technique we’ve honed from lots of trial and error. Through our testing, we’ve found that the baking powder in the seasoning helps crisp up the wings and finishing them with a high-heat sear gives you that crispy crunch you want with wings.
Here’s how you’ll do it:
Related ->> Try these Traeger smoked pork chops, easy smoked burgers and perfectly smoked meatloaf!
Recommended sides for these wings
This recipe isn’t a full meal, so here are some of our favorite combinations we’ve tried with these wings.
- With your choice of any fresh salad
- Any grilled or roasted veggies
- How about the best potato salad with bacon?
- With some rich and creamy coleslaw
- Either grilled sweet potato fries or air fryer potato wedges
An easy sauce to make Traeger hot wings
Included with the recipe is an easy homemade buffalo sauce that is perfect to slather all over these smoked chicken wings!
After cooking, you can toss them in the buffalo sauce to coat completely, dip them in the sauce or drizzle it on top.
Traeger Chicken Wings (Extra-Crispy!)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken wings
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
For the seasoning:
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
For the buffalo sauce (optional):
- 1/4 cup hot sauce, (like Franks Red Hot)
- 1 tbsp ghee, melted, (can sub butter or use avocado oil for dairy free)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your Traeger or pellet grill to 225° Fahrenheit.
- Add the seasonings to a small bowl and mix. Drizzle the wings with avocado oil and toss to coat. Dump the seasoning mix all over the wings and toss to coat as evenly as possible.
- Place wings on the grill to smoke for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to 450°. Flip the wings and cook for another 25-30 minutes, flipping every 5-6 minutes until fully cooked. Flipping helps to cook evenly and prevent burning. Note: Watch the wings closely after turning the heat up and move them away from any flames to prevent burning or a grease fire. This typically isn't an issue with Traeger grills but it can happen. The wings are cooked through when they reach at least an internal temperature of 165° Fahrenheit. However, I prefer wings that are cooked to between 180°-190° and are crispy on the outsides.
- While the wings are cooking, mix up the buffalo sauce if desired. After the wings are finished, toss them with the buffalo sauce to coat or serve it on the side for dipping.
Notes
This is without a doubt the best hot wings recipe they are cooked perfection, just following the instructions.😋🍺
Can I marinate the wings in the seasoning mix overnight for more flavor or will it make it too salty?
You can let the seasoning sit overnight, it should be fine. Enjoy!
Best wings I’ve ever had and especially great with the smoky flavor. Followed as written-no changes needed. Keep up the great recipes!!
Happy to hear that Susan, glad you enjoyed the wings 🙂
I made these tonight on my Traeger exactly according to your directions. They were great. Crispy, tasty – the best result I’ve ever had on my Traeger for wings. Thank you!
Happy to hear you enjoyed your wings! We love cooking them this way, too! Thanks for sharing how it went! 🙂
The wings were INCREDIBLE!!!!! This is the only recipe I will be using going forward! Can’t wait for football season 🙌🙌.
Hooray! Glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
My first cook on my Traeger tailgater grill and these were hands down the best wings I’ve ever had. And let me tell you I have a son in law and nephew and son who are really good cooks. Sorry to say this Momma out cooked them!Thank you for this awesome recipe!
Way to go Momma, show those boys how it’s done!
This was the first cook on my new Traeger, and it did not disappoint… Instructions were on the money, and the wings were incredibly tasty. The only thing that didn’t go perfectly was the crispiness – that simply did not happen. It won’t stop me from doing these again though. I’ll just keep experimenting until I get them to the right crispiness. Yes, I’m probably going to have to make – and eat – a bunch of wings. It’s a **** job, but someone has to do it. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! For the crispiness, try and find the hottest spot on your Traeger for cooking to crisp up the skin. On mine it’s the very back section of the grill. Enjoy!
Understood, but unfortunately I can’t fit all 3 dozen wings back there :). One thing that I want to clarify – does the sauce go on the wings after they are fully cooked, or before the high heat (450 degree) stage? I tossed the wings in the sauce before the high heat stage, so maybe that was the issue?
BTW, the buffalo sauce is perfect.
That could be your issue. I always toss the wings in the sauce after the wings are fully cooked. Hopefully that helps!
My Traeger only goes up to 375, then High.
Cook them on high.
Found this chicken wing recipe and decided to try it.. and lt me tell you it did not disapoint at all . Very flavorful. Nice crispy exterior and a very tender meat inside 100/100 . This is now my go to when i want wings on the traeger! Thankyou for sharing this!
You’re very welcome Jon, glad you found our recipe!
Great recipe. Love them crispy wings. It’s the only way I make wings. Great.
Thank you Daniel!
I made these for my son’s graduation. He was nervous about me trying these, but I received rave reviews from him and his buddies!
Happy to hear that!
Baking powder left a weird taste in my opinion. Good texture but can’t get over the taste.
That’s weird, I’m not sure why it would baking powder is usually neutral tasting.
Maybe you used baking soda and not baking powder?
You have to make sure to use ALUMINUM FREE baking powder!! Otherwise they will have a weird taste.
I’m not sure what went wrong but after I turned up the heat I had an inferno. I could not even reach into the grill to get them out. Wings would have to be classified as blackened. I will try again but I think I will pull the wings off and heat the grill up then put them back on.
Step #4 of the recipe has the following note – “Note: Watch the wings closely after turning the heat up and move them away from any flames to prevent burning or a grease fire. This typically isn’t an issue with Traeger grills but it can happen.”
If you have extra fatty wings near any flame it can start a fire and this is why that note exists. Sorry that happened to your wings and yes you can try taking them off while the grill heats back up and also keep them on a section of the grill away from any open flame.
This recipe is simply wonderful! I’ve tried cooking wings on the grill many times over the years and they never turned out. Too leathery, too chewy, no smoke flavor, increasing temp burns them, just not very good. My wife found this and talked me into trying again. On our smoker no less! We were amazed.
They turned out CRISPY. Never had that happen before. The secret ingredient must be the baking powder. I never would have thought to use that. I thought it was for cakes. We’ve had them several times since and they’ve always turned out great. We both like spicy so we’ve been experimenting by adding a few things to the rub like chipotle, cayenne, extra chili powder, paprika and cumin. We haven’t had a bad batch yet.
Thank you, Real Simple Good. 5 stars!!!
We love hearing this feedback! Thanks so much for taking a chance on our recipe. We love that it’s such a hit for you guys. Thanks for taking the time to come leave a review. We really appreciate it. 🙂
We smoked 5 lbs of wings yesterday and they were great. Everyone said they were very good without any sauce but ate the with and without. This was a very easy recipe to follow and finished within an hour. it will be one of our go to recipes in the future.
Happy to hear that John, we always love to hear that our recipes are used on repeat 🙂
Easily the best recipe that I have found. I’ve tried numerous recipes to smoke wings and get the skin even edible. I do have one question, and this is no fault of the recipe. Probably just my execution, but should the skin be truly crispy, like approaching fried wings? That’s what I am hoping for, but these ones were still a little bit moist in the skin but definitely very easy to bite through… Whereas other recipes that I have tried that claim to be crispy, the skin is not only not crispy but also very chewy. Just wondering what my expectations should be.
Fried wings will always be crispier, but hopefully these are close!
Good
LOVE the wings. We are so impressed we don’t plan on going to wing night ever again. So satisfying. We are new to pellet smokers and have used more than one of your recipes. PLEASE do more of them.
Hi Caley – So glad to hear you enjoyed the wings! We’ll put it on the list to do more smoker recipes, stay tuned 🙂
The recipe was simple and it worked out really great tasty only one problem not your problem. But my Traeger did catch on fire so I was dancing trying to get the meat off while it was on fire so I must’ve had too much oil or drippings so whenever. But thank you very much. The sauce was good too and can’t say more good things.
Bummer about the fire, I have added a note to watch the wings carefully when you turn up the Traeger as some people have had this issue. Hopefully you can try it again without that issue.
Things were going great until I had the same problem as someone else on here… I came out to check on them and flames were shooting out. Caught it before it caused a bigger problem. Not the recipes fault but I didn’t get to try them either!
Sorry to hear that Larry. I’m going to update the recipe advise watching the wings closely after turning the heat up and moving them away from any flames. We hope you get to try the recipe again with success.
Followed the recipe, just doubled it for the wings I was cooking, and it was awesome. Crispy and delicious wings. My pellet grill never quite made the 400 degree mark on cold day where I opened it to flip all the wings, but still worked out great.
We’re thrilled to hear it worked out great for you! Thanks for coming back to leave a review! We appreciate hearing how your wings turned out. 🙂
Simple, quick and SO tasty. We’d rather have these than restaurant bought wings. Our go to wing favorite.
I have frozen chicken wings and the package says to cook from frozen. Any changes to timing for frozen wings?
If the package says to cook from frozen are you sure they aren’t pre-cooked?
I haven’t cooked from frozen, so I’m not sure how much longer it would take. Probably about 30 minutes longer.
FYI, I tried this today and with the temperature at 450 on a a Ttaeger, I ended up with a grease fire from the chicken grease.
Sorry to hear that. I’ve never personally had this issue on the Traeger as there are minimal flames from the plate and the pellets.
You must not have cleaned your Traeger as recommended. If you had cleaned it I can not see how you could have a grease fire.
Really good and simple recipe for a pellet grill. Only changes I made was using a home made cajun spice I make for the initial coating and added some hot chipotle powder to the sauce. Gives it a lttle more heat and I am addicted to chipoltle. Experiment to your own tatstes with this one. Very forgiving.
Excellent! I’ve cooked wings on the Traeger many time and always use baking soda to add crispness but they still come out with chewy skin. Following this recipe especially the 5min flips for last 30 mins is the key to crispy wings.
Thanks! Bookmarked for reference
You’re very welcome, thanks for coming back to leave a review.
I have approximately 10lbs of chicken wings. Should I increase the cook time?
No, you can follow the same cook times.
First time ever trying smoked wings with a new smoker. This recipe and breakdown of how to cook was spot on. Family loved it! Mine was a Z grill but it worked exactly the same.
Happy to hear that Chris, thanks for coming back to leave a review!
Gave this a try, and this is the only way to do it on a Traeger. Every other recipe I’ve tried from Traeger ended up raw or the skin was tough. This was crispy and pulled right off the bone.
Perfect, thanks for coming back to leave a review!
This made some of the best buffalo wings I’ve ever had off my traeger! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for coming back to leave a review, happy to hear that!