The best I have ever made or have eaten are brined, rubbed/marinade, smoked, fried, and then sauced. It takes FOREVER but is worth every minute. First I brine the wings overnight in water, brown sugar, sea salt. The next morning, I remove from the brine and liberally apply rub to them and stick them back into the fridge for another 24 hours. When they have soaked up all those flavors they go onto the smoker at 190-210 degrees for about 3 hours. It is almost a cold smoke, but not quiet. They cook a bit, but do not get done and a lot of the fat is rendered out. I take them off the smoker and then they go into peanut oil at 375F for about 4 minutes until they are done and very crispy. The last step is saucing. For the sauce I use a combination of one medium bottle of Frank’s hot sauce that I put into the food processor with a can of chipotle peppers, the oil/sauce that is in the can, and about 4-6 cloves of garlic and then warmed all this with a stick of unsalted butter. Went through 150 these babies last Superbowl.