To impress a small gathering, try smoking a whole chicken! This is an amazing way to infuse mouthwatering BBQ flavor that can be eaten as is or in a sandwich (or pizza, or salad or…) To setup the smoker, you can read this post to get started.
Smoking a chicken is a little easier than a pork shoulder, or something with a little more weight, since it will cook faster. I leave my chicken unstuffed so the smoke can penetrate the meat by going inside as well as outside. Considering this, It should only take 4 ½ hours to smoke a 7 pound chicken (I usually figure 40 minutes per pound.) This makes it easy to prepare for lunch or dinner.
Smoked BBQ Chicken
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time5 hrs
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: BBQ, BBQ Chicken, fall, Grill, Smoking, Summer
Servings: 6
Calories: 273kcal
Author: SatMorning21
Equipment
- Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken Whole
- My spice rub recipe below
- 1 Large bag of hickory wood chunks
- 1 Large bag of charcoal
- 1 Cup Favorite BBQ Sauce
Spice Rub
- 3 TB Paprika
- 2 TB Brown sugar
- 1 TB Garlic powder
- 1 TB Ground mustard
- 1 TB Salt
- 1 T Ground ginger
- 1 T Onion powder
- 1 T Ground black pepper
Instructions
Night Before
- Unwrap your chicken and rinse under cold water. Pat the chicken dry inside and out with paper towels.
- Mix all ingredients of the spice rub together in a small bowl.
- Place the chicken on baking sheet and cover with the rub. Really try to press the rub onto the meat to make sure that all surfaces are covered, even the inside.
- Put the chicken in the fridge overnight (you can apply the rub an hour before you put the chicken on the grill if you’d prefer.)
Day of
- Start soaking your wood chunks.
- If you didn't put the rub on the chicken the night before, do so now.
- Get your smoker up to 225 degrees.
- Cook chicken for 4 - 5 hours, checking the temperature inside the smoker and water level every 30 minutes. Adding wood, water and charcoal as need to get the desired smoke level.
- Once the chicken reaches 165 degrees in the thigh, that’s when you can pull it from the smoker. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes.
- Remove the skin and start shredding the meat with 2 forks.
- Serve on a bun with your favorite BBQ or give mine a try! I hope you enjoy.
Nutrition
Calories: 273kcal | Protein: 24g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 89mg | Potassium: 240mg | Vitamin A: 178IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 1mg
Leave a Reply