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Who doesn’t love chicken wings? There are so many flavors you can choose from, and you can smoke, grill, roast, air fry, and even deep fry your wings to create your favorite wings at home.
If you’re unable to find cut wings at the grocery store, you may wonder how to work with whole wings. This post will walk you through how to cut chicken wings for grilling or smoking so that you can enjoy wings at home without spending a fortune.
Is it less expensive to purchase whole wings?
Yes! While you can purchase wing drumettes or wingette portions at the grocery store, you’re really going to pay up for them. At the time of this post, whole wings were $2.98 to $3.62 per pound, depending on the package size.
Frozen wing sections (fresh were currently unavailable) were over $4 a pound. Fresh would be even more expensive. Regardless, you are saving money.
How many pieces can you cut wings into?
The wing can be cut into three pieces. There’s the tip, wingette, and drumette. The wingette is the piece with two bones and the drumette is the piece that looks like a small chicken leg.
What do you do with the tips?
The tips are mostly useless when it comes to making buffalo wings, but the tips can be placed in a zip top bag and frozen until you’re ready to make chicken stock.
How do you cut the wings?
It’s important that you pick the wing up and see how it moves and bends. This will show you where the joints are. There are two joints that you’ll be cutting through. You’ll be cutting between the tip and wingette and between the wingette and drumette.
Look at each joint to see where the ball of the joint is. At each joint, there is cartilage that you’ll be able to cut through to separate the pieces. Find the joint and place your knife in the joint. Use the heel of your hand to apply enough force to the knife to cut through the joint.
If you have a particularly large wing, you can cut the skin to get a better look at the joint and where you need to cut.
What are the ways to cook chicken wings?
Chicken wings can be smoked, grilled, roasted, air fried, and deep fried. All will result in delicious wings.
When are wings done?
Chicken wings should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
What are some good recipes to try?
There are a couple great recipes on the site that I highly recommend:
