Once you try cooking chicken breasts in a smoker, you’ll never want to eat chicken any other way. Serve your smoked chicken with sauteed mushrooms and onions, glazed carrots and baked potato wedges for a complete meal.
Smoked Chicken Breast Ingredients
To make this smoked chicken breast you will need chicken brine, boneless chicken breast, BBQ rub and BBQ sauce. If you want to smoke other parts of a chicken, check out my recipes for smoked chicken wings, smoked chicken thighs and a whole smoked chicken!
How Do You Make Smoked Chicken Breast?
To make smoked chicken breast first make chicken brine. Brine your chicken for a couple of hours before you smoke it. Remove the chicken from the brine, pat it dry with a paper towel and coat the chicken in BBQ dry rub. Smoke the chicken on a grill or in an electric smoker until a meat thermometer shows that the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Slather the chicken in BBQ sauce and smoke it for an additional 10 minutes. Take the chicken out and dinner is ready!
Tips For The Perfect Smoked Chicken Breast
Make sure your chicken breasts are roughly the same size so that they cook evenly and finish at the same time. In my opinion, homemade BBQ rub and homemade BBQ sauce taste best. If you need to use store bought, that’s also fine too! You can also skip the rub and soak the chicken in my BBQ chicken marinade for extra flavor. If you use a store bought rub, make sure it contains a variety of ingredients including brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, black pepper and kosher salt. The BBQ rub and BBQ sauce recipes will make more than you need for this particular recipe. The rub will keep in a cool dry place for 6 months, and you can freeze any leftover BBQ sauce. Smoked chicken leftovers reheat well. Place whole smoked chicken breasts in a covered baking dish and cook at 325 degrees F until warmed through. You can store the chicken in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Keep an eye on your smoker, as you may need to add more wood chips or pellets as the chicken cooks. I typically use an electric smoker for this recipe, but you can also use a charcoal smoker or a pellet smoker such as a Traeger.
Smoked Chicken Breast Variations
While this chicken breast is delicious, you can make some changes to fit your own preferences.
Spicy: Add some crushed red pepper flakes or hot sauce to your BBQ sauce. Mexican: Instead of BBQ rub, use a tablespoon of taco seasoning then omit the BBQ sauce. Herb Chicken: Use a tablespoon of my homemade chicken seasoning instead of BBQ rub and skip the BBQ sauce. Italian: Coat the chicken in two tablespoons of Italian seasoning and 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and skip the BBQ rub and sauce. You can use a little olive oil to help the herbs and spices stick to the chicken.
I served this smoked chicken breast at a family gathering recently and it got rave reviews, there were no leftovers. I love how easy and versatile this recipe is, it’s one of my all time favorite ways to eat chicken.
