Today we’ll be cooking some wood fired chicken wings using a combo of lump charcoal and wood chunks. I’ll show you how to cook wood fired wings in an Ooni Pro Pizza Oven, but you can use this recipe for any brick oven, kamado, or even your regular oven. Grab a beer and let’s cook wood fired wings!

[lwptoc]

Wood Fired Chicken Wings – The Video

Wood Fired Chicken Wings – The Recipe

You can use whatever chicken wings you like (I’m using Costco’s Party Wings in the vid) and you can cook your wood fired wings with any recipe flavor you like, but our recipe today features a flavor style of wings made popular by the restaurant Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza which is…

This recipe ideally uses a 3-Step Process

1. Marinate Wings 6-24 hours
2. Cook the Chicken Wings
3. Prepare the Caramelized Onions

I suppose the only ‘required’ step is #2 (cook the wings) and obviously if you are using a different flavor style than the Rosemary Garlic + Onions that would change Steps 1 & 2.

There are many versions of Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings online, here’s one I like best from Copykat.com and my recipe is a version of it. Thanks, @CopyKatRecipes!

Step 1: The Marinade

Ingredients for Marinade

Use the following marinade PER POUND of wings…

• 1 Tablespoon EVOO
  • Notes: Extra virgin olive oil; I’ve had good success with the California Olive Ranch EVOO
• 1/2 Tablespoon rosemary
  • Notes: Dried rosemary is fine; Whole Foods has a low-cost organic version.
• 1/2 Tablespoon parsley
  • Notes: fresh parsley if possible, dried if need be – Simply Organic has a good dried parsley.
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (fresh)
• 1 teaspoon salt
  • Notes: kosher salt – I like Diamond Crystals Kosher Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • Notes: fresh grind the pepper – I like Simply Organics or McCormick’s here)
• 3 cloves garlic (fresh)
  • SMASH the garlic like Martha Stewart does (don’t just mince or dice them because we want the most flavor)

Remember – these ingredients are PER POUND of wings so if you have more than 1 pound, increase the ingredients accordingly.

To make the marinade simply put all these ingredients in a small bowl and mix them up, or just toss it all in a gallon-size Ziploc bag and mix them in there.

Once the marinade is done, put your wings in the ziploc bag too, seal the bag, and then mix the wings around to get them coated with the marinade.

Once the wings are good and coated then put them in the fridge in that ziploc bag and let the marinade do it’s magic.

If you can leave the wings in for 24 hours that’s great, but if you’re in a pinch, any amount of time is better than nothing. In the recipe video I have here, I marinated my wings for 6 hours and they still came out with great flavor. Here’s what my wings looked like after I took them out of the fridge…(and BEFORE the cook)

Step 2: The Cook

DISCLAIMER – it should go without saying that you need to be careful when cooking on any grill and that’s true here too. PLEASE USE HAND PROTECTION. If you buy an Ooni, they’ll often throw in a pair of their Ooni Pizza Oven Gloves but there are many other good options too and even a pair of welding gloves would work great.

As I mentioned at the start, and as shown in the vid, I’m cooking my wood fired chicken wings on an Ooni Pro. I love my Ooni and I give it my full, honest endorsement that it’s an awesome addition to my outdoor kitchen.

That said, you can make this recipe in another outdoor oven like a brick oven or a kamado, or you can just do in in your regular oven too, but if you want that ‘coal-fired’ flavor try to use a wood-fired oven if you can.

After you have completed Step 1 – The Marinade, now it’s time to take the wings out of the fridge – I’d recommend you do this about 1 hour in advance of the cook. When you take them out of the fridge go ahead and throw a light coating of salt on them. If you don’t know about the amazing benefits of salt, you really need to read the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (the Salt section alone will change your cooking life). For this part of the salt process, my friends and I like using Maldon Sea Salt flakes (the larger size will add a bit of crunch to the crisp on your finished wings).

Now for the cook itself…

• Start your wood-fired oven
  • I like using an electric charcoal starter just like I use for my Kamado, but others like the torch version, and if you don’t have easy access to electricity, then go this route (JJ George has a good one).
  • For the Ooni Pro, I used a combo of lump charcoal for the base and then added wood chunks to increase the fire.
    • For the lump charcoal, like the Western Brand from Walmart of Kamado Joe Big Block
    • For the wood, I like the Weber Wood Chunks (in this case Apple & Hickory; Weber’s bag is a great price) or the Smoak Kiln Dried Cooking Wood (which is especially good for wood-fired pizza, but a bit more expensive). When you add wood, be sure to let any ‘white billowing smoke’ dissipate before you add your wings so you don’t over smoke them. Remember, this recipe is ‘wood-fired’ NOT smoked wings – if you want to cook smoked wings, a kamado or regular smoker would be better than a pizza oven, but that’s a whole different story. .
• Preheat the pan (if you are using cast-iron)
  • For my cast-iron, I’m always a fan of Lodge Cast Iron (then again I am from Pennsylvania originally so perhaps I’m biased). In this video, I used a Lodge Serving Griddle and Lodge 14-Ounce Serving Dish
  • My next purchase though will be the Ooni Sizzler and Ooni Grizzler pan because the are cast iron pans that have removable handles (read: so you don’t burn your hands)!
  • Take the pan out after about 10 minutes and let it cool for a minute or so. Then put your wings on the pans (but not into the oven yet).
• Get the oven temp up to 500-600 degrees
  • (On the Ooni Pro this should take about 15 minutes or so, with the main oven door ON).
  • If you are doing the Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings recipe, then WHILE YOU ARE GETTING OVEN UP TO TEMP, START STEP 3 – Caramelizing Onions (see Step 3 Below)
• Now go ahead and put your wings into the oven
  • (On the Ooni Pro, keep the main oven door ON)
  • (On the Ooni Pro, I keep my wings near the front door and away from the main heat in the back so they will bake and not burn).
• Let the wings cook on 1 side for about 10 minutes
  • If you have not already cracked open a beer, now is the time.
• After 10 minutes take the wings out of the oven, flip them over, then put them back in for another 10 minutes or until you reach your desired temperature (165F or 75C is my goal).
  • (On the Ooni Pro, keep the main oven door ON)
  • (On the Ooni Pro, I still keep the wings near the front door)
  • (On the Oon Pro, you may need to add more wood to keep the temp at 500+, do so now).
• After 20 minutes your wings should be at 165F/75C and crispy enough for most people. You can take them out of the oven and eat them now or if you are doing the Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings recipe add the onions you’ve had cooking (from Step 3 below).
  • Personally, I like my wings ‘well done’ so I put them back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes
  • (On the Ooni Pro, the coals & flames should be starting to die down so now I’ll move the wings to the rear of the oven so they can really crisp up without burning. I’ll also leave the main door OFF on the Ooni Pro for this step so I can monitor and make sure they are not burning.
• Once you have the wings where you like from an internal temp (165F/75C) and skin crispiness standpoint, you can take them out of the oven and eat them now or if you are doing the Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings recipe add the onions you cooked from Step 3 (below)

Here’s what your wings should look like…

STEP 3: The Onions

This step is only for those who are doing the Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings recipe and want to add Caramelized Onions on top.

**YOU SHOULD BE DOING THIS WHILE YOUR WINGS ARE COOKING. I like to do this step while my oven is preheating.

Ingredients for Caramelized Onions

Use the following ingredients PER POUND of wings…

• 1 Cup yellow onions – sliced thin
  • Notes: when slicing onions in the vid, I featured the Dalstrong 6-inch Chef’s Knife. Read my full review of Dalstrong Knives here.
• 1 Tablespoon EVOO
  • Notes: Extra virgin olive oil; I’ve had good success with the California Olive Ranch EVOO
• 1/2 tsp Salt
  • Notes: kosher salt – I like Diamond Crystals Kosher Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • Notes: fresh grind the pepper – I like Simply Organics or McCormick’s here)

How I made caramelized onions in the video…

• While slicing the onions, heat your EVOO In a small sauté pan over medium heat.
• Add onions, salt and pepper.
• Cook the onions over low heat for 20-30 minutes
• You’ll know their done when the onions are golden brown.
• Your onions should be done (aka. “caramelized”) by the time your wings are done, and if so, you can simply add your onions over the top of your wings after you plate the wings on your serving dish.
• Garnish with a little fresh parsley and you’ve got a winner!

You can see my finished wings below in “The Results” section…

Wood Fired Wings – Results

Well, let’s see how our cook came out vs the goal (Anthony’s Coal Fired Wings)…

Here’s a pic of the real deal from Anthony’s.

Here’s how my version came out…

While there may be no substitute for the original from Anthony’s, I felt pretty good about this cook – the process was easy, my family loved the flavor, and I believe I can repeat this cook again and again with ease.

YOUR Ideas – Recipe Tips, What to Cook Next, etc

If you’ve tried this recipe, let me know how it turned out in the comments.

If you have an Ooni Pro or another wood fired oven and you like it, please share your tips and feedback.

If you want an easy way to find our grilling accessories to buy on Amazon, check out the Lord of the Grills shopping portal.

Until next time, keep grillin’.

~Mike