Smoking Chicken is Easy!  Here are the secrets to smoking chicken that will give you melt-in-your-mouth, smoke flavored, roasted chicken, that's far easier than grilling. The "Cookin Cousins" walk you through this easy, step-by-step method to smoking chicken starting with... 6 Secrets to the Greatest Smoked Chicken Recipe
This is one of our favorite ways to barbecue a whole chicken, and do it often! The only other method that will give you that incomparable result is, "beer can chicken" and this is covered on our "Beer Can Chicken" page. But lets use that smoker and...
Start with the stuff you'll need...
Patience Low and slow is the real secret to that great smoking chicken experience. We're talking about holding the temperature around 235°F (113°C) for an extended cooking period. You should figure about an hour/pound. Meat Try to buy a fresh, plump, 4-5 pound fryer! Go to Secret #1 for more on this. Spices We use rubs when barbecuing and enjoy putting together our own with these basic fresh ingredients:
Smoker The vertical "wet-pan" type is the most popular backyard smoker, so we wrote this smoking chicken recipe from our experience with this fun cooker. You can buy these wonders at any "big box" store, hardware store, or try the garage/yard ("jumble") sales for a real bargain! Our favorite economical, easy to use backyard smoker is this vertical propane model Hardwood chunks/chips Use only hardwood for any barbecue, like Pecan, Oven thermometer This tool is the only way you will really know what's going on inside the grill! We've learned not to rely on the "built in" ones. Our favorites are the Taylor Precision Classic Oven Thermometer Instant-Read probe type thermometer All fowl must be fully cooked! Be safe and ensure the meat has reached the ideal temperature of 165°F (74°C). Our favorite inexpensive tool is the fast reading CDN Proaccurate Stainless Digital Thermometer. Tongs A good pair of tongs are indispensable when handling chicken. Long and strong is the secret, so we suggest the professional type Lodge Camp Dutch Oven 16-Inch Stainless Steel Tongs Insulated Food Gloves These things are fantastic for smoked chicken, or your roast! We love our insulated barbecue gloves Chimney Starter For the charcoal smoker folks this is the best way to start, and maintain, the coals. If you've never used one of these ingenious tools, you're going to love the experience! Our favorite top performer is the Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter The chicken is first "rubbed", with a simple, dry, spice accented rub recipe and then smoked slow, with low indirect heat. All for that unforgettable tender, perfectly seasoned, eating experience! Sometimes, when time is a factor, we will use the readily available "Lemon Pepper" seasoning from our favorite purveyors. Works great, but for more fun and adventure... Let's start with a classic rub that will impart all of the flavors your drooling chops are hankerin' for. Do not let the simplicity of this basic rub fool you. It works great, and you can adjust the recipe (as the "pros" do) to make it "yours". Look at our Rubs page for other great recipes and ideas. Basic Rub Recipe Mix together thoroughly the following:
You can see other simple dry rub recipes that work wonders, at our dry rub recipes page. Are all chickens the same? Nope. If you were raised on a farm or before the '70's you know what we mean. Those yard birds don't taste the same as mass produced fowl! We're talking about "range chickens" where the birds range freely, have plenty of fresh water, exercise, and scratch the ground at will, with lots of grain 'n bugs for the peckin'. A good eatin' bird will go to market at about 180 days. Most chicken today is fast grown (80 days)... ...stressed out and raised in confined cages, fed goodness knows what and "mechanically" processed for mass sales. No comparison in taste, so we like to buy "free-range" chicken when it's available. No free range chicken available? Well...get the freshest, plump, 3-4 pound fryer you can find. If you don't want to mess with cutting and cleaning, buy the chicken parts you most enjoy and look for the freshest dates! Frozen the only thing around? Buy the most recent dated package, suck it in because smoking chicken will make it taste great anyway! NOTE: Chicken should be always kept in the refrigerator (below 40°F/4.4° C) before preparation.
Our recipe for smoking chicken is written for the vertical 'box", or "bullet" wet-pan type smokers, regardless of the heat source so...
Control the temperature using the bottom vents only. The top vent should always remain open and not used to control oxygen intake. Each cooker is different so, when smoking chicken, experience rules! NOTE: Always use tongs and a heat proof glove/mit when smoking chicken! Never use the forked, sharp, pokey thing that seems to come with all backyard barbecue tool sets. It will pierce the meat and allow the juices to run out. When the temperature (inside the smoker at the grill) has reached 235°F (113°C)...
For the Cookin' Cousins" taste, smoking chicken has all the flavor we need but... many folks like a "finishing sauce". This is nothing more than a barbecue sauce, of your choice, served as a side dish (or two), for the folks who would like to add more flavor to the chicken. Lets eat!  Custom Search Return from Smoking Chicken to Home
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