Juicy Smoked Whole Chicken

What you need to smoke a whole chicken

• Whole Chicken - Start with a 5-7lb whole chicken from your local grocery store. They are quite inexpensive and easy to find. Remember, might as well grab two chickens!
• Brine - Brining a chicken in fresh water, kosher salt, apple juice, & dark brown sugar helps keep the chicken moist during cooking and will churn out a nice tender bird.
• Seasoning - Succulent flavors and great ingredients. We're doing two different flavors with these smoked whole chickens. Salt, pepper, garlic, butter, & parsley are good seasonings to go with.
• Wood chips - Using fruit woods such as cherry wood or apple wood chips are the best wood for smoking chicken. They don't overpower the chicken flavor, imparting a nice mild smoke on the bird.
• Potatoes, Carrots, & Brussel sprouts - Choose your favorite side to serve with these succulent chickens.

Prepping the chicken

Before starting the smoker or seasoning the chicken, we need to brine these bad boys to make sure our finished smoked chicken is tender and juicy.

Brine (Optional)

Brining the chickens before seasoning and smoking is optional. This will help keep the chickens moist while cooking, but is not required. To brine the chicken, grab a bucket big enough to submerge the chicken(s) fully in water, such as a 5 gallon bucket commonly found at Lowes or Home Depot.

In a pot combine brine ingredients and heat to boiling.

• 3 gallons fresh water
• 3 cups kosher salt
• 4 cups apple juice
• 2 cups dark brown sugar

After bringing to a low boil, stir pot until all ingredients are dissolved into the water. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Ice cubes can be added to speed up the cooling process.

Add chicken(s) to the 5 gallon bucket and pour the cooled brine water over the chickens until they are fully submerged. Place bucket in your refrigerator and brine for at least 4 hours, if not overnight.

Rinse

Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse with fresh cold water. Discard the brine, do NOT save to brine chickens in the future. Always use fresh brine when brining chickens or turkeys.

Pat the whole chickens dry with paper towels making sure to get around the legs and under any skin. Tie the legs together with butcher twine. This helps the bird cook evenly and prevents the breast meat from drying out faster than the legs and thighs.

Seasoning

Rub the entire chicken with olive oil or softened butter, outside and underneath the skin. Using your fingers, separate the skin from the breast meat and cover inside with olive oil or butter. The oil/butter will help the skin crisp up, the BEST part of the chicken!

Season liberally with SPG (salt, fresh ground black pepper, & garlic powder). Parsley and rosemary are also great to sprinkle onto the chicken skin before cooking.

Have a favorite chicken rub? Use it! Any one of your favorite seasonings can be used when smoking whole chicken. I personally love using Meat Church's seasonings. My favorite they have for chickens are their Honey Hog and VooDoo.

How to smoke whole chickens

Now that we have the chicken brined, dried, and seasoned; it's time to fire up those smokers and get to the fun part, cooking the chicken!

Smoke Low & Slow

Pre-heat your smoker to 225°F with a fruit wood such as cherry or apple. As mentioned earlier, this is the best wood for smoking chicken.

Once the smoker temperature has leveled at 225° Fahrenheit, place the whole chicken in smoker directly on the grill grates breast side up.

Smoke for 45 minutes to impart that great smoke flavor into the whole chickens. You can continue to smoke the chicken at this low temperature until it probes an internal temperature of 165°F, but keep in mind that the skin will turn out rubbery instead of crispy.

I recommend increasing the temperature and finishing the chickens off hot and fast to crisp that skin up!

Finish Hot & Fast

So to get that crispy skin, after 45 minutes increase the temperature in the smoker up to 350-400°F. Don't bother removing the chicken while you increase the temperature, simply leave them in the smoker.

Finish cooking the whole chicken (about another hour) until the internal temperature registers 165°F when checked with an instant read thermometer between the thigh and breast. The thickest part of the breast should also read 165°F.

Resting the bird

Once the whole chicken in the smoker probes 165°F, remove and place on a cutting board. Allow the bird to rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the chicken resulting in a tender and juicy smoked whole chicken!

Do NOT cover the chicken in aluminum foil when resting, this will result in soggy skin. We DON'T want that! You worked hard for that crispy skin, let's keep it that way!

How many people does one chicken serve?

Count on one 4-5lb roaster chicken serving 4-6 people. I recommend that if you are going to fire up the smoker, drink some beer, and make a day out of smoking a chicken. You might as well grab two chickens and smoke two at the same time. They both WILL definitely get eaten!

Choosing a smoker

Like always, the best smoker you can use is the one you already have! If you don't have one, it's time to decide whether you want to go with a pellet grill or a traditional offset smoker.

Pellet smokers

I'm smoking this chicken on my wood pellet grill, just like the Camp Chef 36 smoker or Traeger 780. Wood pellet smokers are an easy and great way to impart fantastic smoke flavor and are extremely easy to use.

They operate on wood pellets and hold a very steady temperature just like an oven. No worrying about temp spikes or dips with one of these bad boys.

Offset smokers

A traditional offset smoker is another great smoker to use. These can get very hot (which is great for cooking chicken) and are normally less expensive than a pellet smoker.

A traditional offset smoker, like this Oklahoma Joe's Smoker is a great option to use. Though it takes a little more attention than a pellet smoker, this produces amazing flavored meat.

Grill

Using a propane grill or charcoal grill is another great way to get that extra flavor over cooking a chicken in the oven.

There is no need to cook at a low temperature with a grill. Simply cook hot and fast until the bird is finished. An inexpensive charcoal grill and one I love cooking with is the classic Weber Kettle Grill.

Any grill will work however, fire up the one you have and I guarantee your chicken will turn out better than an oven roasted chicken.