I've got a keto chicken wings recipe for you today! Now, I don't want to hype up your expectations or anything, but these were legit the best chicken wings I've ever had. No joke, half of them disappeared before I even had a chance to take pictures! Luckily, I was able to fight off the grabby hands long enough to preserve the photographic evidence of our smoked, low carb chicken wings.
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Smoking your chicken
See what I did there? ☝️ Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Apparently, I have the sense of humor of an easily amused teenage boy, sorry about that.
Let's talk about smoking the meat! Smoke is without a doubt the reason the flavor of these chicken wings is so over the top. If you've ever experienced smoked meat from a smokehouse or family bbq, you know just what I'm talking about.
Luckily, you don't have to be an expert pitmaster to smoke food on your own. It's really easy to do at home, tough to screw up and can be super cost effective. Also, did I mention there are no carbs in smoke?
If you don't already have a smoker hanging around your house, you can do one of two things: You could buy one or build one.
The price for a new smoker is anywhere from $40 - $1000+. I snagged a used charcoal smoker for $20 on OfferUp. It's not fancy, but it did make the best chicken wings in the universe, so I have no complaints. I've got my eye on this charcoal smoker when I'm ready to upgrade, but I'll be adding this electric smoker to my collection of kitchen gadgets ASAP.
The DIY route is a road well traveled. My cousin's husband made a smoker out of an old refrigerator (true story), and people are building them out of garbage cans and cardboard boxes all over YouTube. The point is, if you wanted to, you could get creative with things taking up space at your house and save all of your money for meat instead. #priorities
The Keto Chicken Wings Recipe
For the recipe, I used a simple dry rub using herbs and spices... no sugar! A lot of the dry rub recipes you'll find floating around out there are loaded with sugar, which is exactly what we're trying to avoid on the keto diet.
The dry rub:
1 tablespoon each: salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder
combined with
1 teaspoon each: dried oregano, dried parsley
Mix all of the herbs and spices in a small bowl. Add them to a shaker for a smooth application if you have one, otherwise just sprinkle it out of your mixing bowl onto the meat.
If needed, rub the spice mix over the chicken with your hands to evenly distribute the seasoning.
Once your smoker is prepped and ready at 200 degrees F, add your chicken to the grill. Smoke for 1 hour, flip the chicken, and smoke for an additional hour or until the chicken reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the chicken and let rest for about 10-15 minutes before serving.
Cover and refrigerate any leftover keto chicken wings, but I seriously doubt there will be any! These would be fantastic at a keto cookout! Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken wings skin on
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano dried
- 1 teaspoon parsley dried
- Hickory wood chips/pellets
Instructions
- Prepare your smoker for use with hickory wood chips at a temperature of 200 degrees F.
- Pat chicken wings dry with paper towel.
- Mix together salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, oregano, and parsley.
- Sprinkle the spice mix over the chicken wings. Ensure they are thoroughly coated by rubbing the seasoning over the chicken if needed.
- Place chicken on prepped smoker grill grates and let smoke for 1 hour.
- After an hour, flip chicken to other side. Smoke for an additional hour or until chicken reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove from grill and let rest for 10-15 minutes prior to serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
Brian Stump says
I have to say, the Weber Smokey Mountain is an excellent smoker. I highly recommend it. I have the 18" one like you linked. I smoked a brisket on it the other day and it was amazing for my first time ever smoking something. it was so easy.
Your wings look great and I will be doing this on this upcoming weekend. Thank you very much for your recipe!
Tasha Metcalf says
I hope you like it! Yay for smoking meat! I've read nothing but awesome reviews about the Weber Smokey Mountain. I'm going back and forth between the 14 and 18", they both seem like a solid size. Decisions, decisions!
Bob Robinson says
Hi Tasha. I'm getting ready to give Keto a try. I could live on good wings, so this looks perfect. The nutrition chart says per serving. Is a serving 1 wing? Thanks.
William Loges says
Hi Tasha. I'd like to know about how many wings are in a serving? Thanks..All of your recipes look simply amazing.
Dan Payne says
Made my 1st “Keto friendly” wings today. Absolutely wonderful, I may never go back to commercial! My puppy went crazy over them also.
I used your recipe with sea salt & black pepper pork rinds. Can’t wait to try other flavors of rinds.
Tasha Metcalf says
So glad you are enjoying the recipes!
Lorinda says
We just got a Traeger pellet smoker and coincidentally started KETO at the same time! So this recipe was just what we needed. This is now our go-to wing recipe! The first time we made them the meat was still slightly pink after the 2 hours. So we made them again tonight but we set the heat at 250 instead of 200. They were perfect! The flavor of the rub is delicious!