Smoked whole chicken is the latest in my smoking recipe series. I’ve brought you some of the basics like smoked chicken thighs and smoked chicken wings, now it’s time to try our hand with a whole bird!
Smoked Chicken Ingredients
To make this smoked chicken recipe you will need chicken brine, a whole chicken, BBQ spice rub and parsley to garnish your dish. This smoked chicken is one of my favorite dinner recipes. You can enjoy this chicken with my favorite side dishes like oven baked potatoes, grilled brussels sprouts and three bean salad.
How Do You Prepare A Whole Chicken?
To get a chicken ready to go into the smoker, you’ll need to do a few things. I recommend that you brine your chicken to season it and lock in moisture for the smoking process. The next step once you remove the chicken from the brine and pat it dry is to tuck the wings underneath the front of the chicken. This will ensure that the wing tips don’t burn. The second step is to tie up the legs with a piece of kitchen twine. The legs will be less likely to burn if they’re close to the chicken, plus it makes for a neater presentation. If your chicken comes with giblets, be sure to remove and discard those too.
How Do You Smoke A Whole Chicken?
When you make this smoked chicken recipe heat your smoker and load it with wood chips. Next prepare your chicken for cooking and place it in a foil pan. Then coat your chicken in BBQ spice rub and place it in your heated smoker. When the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F, remove the chicken from the heat. Let it rest for a few minutes, carve it and enjoy!
Tips For The Perfect Smoked Chicken
I like to use disposable aluminum pans to reduce the mess. You can find these pans in your local grocery store. They look like stiff aluminum foil. However, if you want to smoke your chicken directly on a rack or grill in your smoker, that’s fine too. Coat your entire chicken in the BBQ rub. You want every part of your chicken to have that good flavor. I like to loosen the skin of the chicken and rub some of the seasonings between the skin and the meat, as well as all over the outside of the chicken. You can make your own homemade BBQ rub or use your favorite store bought rub. I recommend brining your bird using my chicken brine recipe which makes for delicious and juicy meat. If you don’t brine your chicken, consider basting the chicken with a little chicken broth every hour or so. You can add seasoning to the meat after the smoking process by brushing on a sauce such as my homemade BBQ sauce.
Smoked Chicken Variations
While this chicken is delicious as-is, you can modify the recipe to suit your own taste.
Seasonings: You can add to your BBQ rub some seasonings to change the flavor like my Cajun seasoning, creole seasoning, fajita seasoning or Jamaican jerk seasoning. Spicy: Add chili powder to your rub for a spicier chicken. Butter: You can mix your rub with melted butter and coat your chicken. You could also brush a little olive oil over your chicken before adding your spice rub.
This smoked chicken is everything you’d ever want in a chicken, it makes other whole chicken recipes seem dry and tasteless in comparison. The key is to be generous with the seasoning, then patient while the smoker does its work!
