Gather your friends and fire up the wood fired oven for an unforgettable Hawaiian-style feast! This recipe for sweet and salty Huli Huli Chicken Wings get the wood-fired treatment for a flavor experience like no other. The perfect balance of sweet and savory makes these wings truly unforgettable!
WHAT YOU'LL LOVE
- Wood-fired, high-heat cooking: The Ooni Karu 16 holds a steady ~600°F, letting the wings brown and crisp in about 15-20 minutes total — real live-fire char without an all-day cook.
- Split marinade, double duty: Half the Huli Huli mixture goes on the raw wings to marinate overnight, while the other half is reserved untouched and reduced separately into a glossy finishing sauce — no cross-contamination risk, and a thicker glaze than a single-batch marinade would give.
- Scoring the wings before marinating: Cutting shallow slits into the skin and meat lets the salty-sweet marinade penetrate past the surface instead of just coating it, so the flavor reaches all the way through.
- Adding smoking wood mid-cook: Tossing in wood chunks partway through, rather than all at once at the start, keeps a steady stream of smoke flavor building as the wings brown instead of front-loading it before the skin can absorb it.
Category
Appetizer
Cuisine
Hawaiian
Servings
5
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
16 minutes
Calories
388
Chef Tom fires up the Ooni Karu 16 Wood Fired Oven for Huli Huli Chicken Wings! This classic Hawaiian chicken recipe features a sweet and salty marinade and sauce that coats every crevice of the wood fire kissed wings!
Ingredients
- 4-5 lb chicken wings, scored
-
Noble Saltworks Hickory Smoked Salt
-
Noble Saltworks Smoked Black Pepper
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
-
1/2 cup Hoff & Pepper Smoken Ghost Ketchup
- 1/2 cup tamari soy sauce
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp grated garlic
- 2 tbsp grated ginger
-
2 tbsp Hardcore Carnivore Amplify
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
Huli Huli Marinade/Sauce:
Directions
- Combine all ingredients for the Huli Huli Marinade in a bowl and whisk to combine. Place half of the mixture in a zip-top bag with the scored chicken wings. Reserve the other half of the marinade for saucing the wings. Marinate chicken overnight.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade. Season with smoked salt and pepper.
- In a Lodge 8” Skillet, reduce the remaining marinade by half, to thicken for finishing.
- Build a small hot charcoal bed in the fire box of your Ooni Karu 16. Place Kamado Joe Big Block lump charcoal (not too much!) in the basket with Kamado Joe fire starters. Place the lid on the oven. Close the door of the oven. Make sure the chimney baffle is wide open. Let the charcoal burn white.
- When the oven temp comes down to 600, place a Lodge Cast Iron Casserole Dish in the Ooni and preheat for a few minutes.
- Add the wings to the casserole dish.
- Add a chunk or two of smoking wood to the charcoal.
- After 10 minutes, toss the wings to turn. Keep cooking, adding wood as needed to brown the chicken.
- Remove wings when browned and the internal temperature reaches 180ºF, about 15-20 minutes total.
Remove the casserole dish from the oven. Add the reduced Huli Huli Sauce to the chicken and toss to coat.
Recipe Note
Recipe FAQ
Why score the chicken wings before marinating them?
Cutting shallow slits through the skin gives the salty-sweet Huli Huli marinade a way to reach the meat directly, instead of just sitting on the surface — the wings pick up flavor all the way through, not just on the skin.
Why split the marinade into two portions instead of using it all as one sauce?
Half goes on the raw chicken to marinate overnight and is discarded with the chicken; the other half is kept separate and never touches raw poultry, so it's safe to reduce and use as a finishing sauce without any risk of cross-contamination.
Why reduce the reserved marinade before saucing the wings?
Simmering it down in a skillet cooks off excess liquid and concentrates the sugar and tamari, turning a thin marinade into a thick, glossy glaze that clings to the wings instead of running off.
What internal temperature should the wings actually reach?
This recipe pulls the wings at 180°F, which is well above the USDA minimum safe temperature of 165°F for poultry. That's a safe target — no correction needed here, just a slightly higher bar than the minimum for extra insurance on tenderness.
Why add smoking wood partway through the cook instead of at the start?
Adding wood chunks in stages keeps a steady supply of smoke building throughout the cook rather than burning off all at once before the wings have had a chance to brown and absorb it.
How indoor-friendly is this recipe?
1 out of 5 — this recipe is built entirely around the Ooni Karu 16 wood-fired oven's high heat and smoke. An indoor oven or broiler can approximate the doneness, but you'll lose the wood-fired char and smoke flavor that define the dish.
Recipe Highlights
Scoring the wings: Shallow cuts let the marinade flavor the meat, not just the skin.
A two-part marinade: Splitting it into a discard portion and a reserved portion avoids cross-contamination while still delivering a finished sauce.
Reducing the reserved marinade: Simmering it down concentrates the flavor into a glaze that clings instead of running off.
Staged wood smoke: Adding chunks partway through builds smoke flavor steadily instead of front-loading it.
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Nutrition
Nutrition
- Nutrition Serving Size
- 10.57 oz
- per serving
- Calories
- 388
- Carbs
- 7 grams
- Protein
- 42 grams
- Fat
- 20 grams
- Sodium
- 1038 milligrams
