Smoked Whole Chicken

Don't let the long list of ingredients trip you up. There are 5 easy steps for a perfect smoked whole chicken.

Brine.
Apply the rub.
Place it on the smoker.
Baste it with a mop sauce.
Slather it with BBQ sauce.

Start with a flavorful brine for extra juiciness, then cover it with an award-winning smoked chicken rub. Smoke it low and slow to infuse it with an amazing flavor, and baste it with a chicken mop sauce during the smoke. Finally, coat it with a tangy BBQ sauce and finish it off hot and fast to give it a crispy skin and caramelize the sauce.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time: 1

Cook Time: 4

Total Time: 1 4

Servings: chicken

Calories: 410kcal

Author: Dahn Boquist

Ingredients

Chicken Brine for Smoking

8 cups cold water divided
⅓ cup kosher salt not table salt
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup black peppercorns
3 to 5 crushed garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
1 bunch fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh sage
1 bunch Italian parsley coarsely chopped
3 spring onions chopped
2 lemons quartered
2 cups ice
1 whole chicken 4 to 6 pounds

Smoked Chicken Rub (or use your favorite rub)

¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon chili powder
1-½ teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil.

Chicken Mop Sauce

1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon of rub reserved from above
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce more if you like it hot

Finish the Smoked Chicken

1 cup BBQ sauce

Instructions

Brine the Chicken

Pour 4 cups of water into a large stock pot. Add the rest of the brine ingredients, except for the ice cubes.
Heat the mixture over hight heat until it comes to a boil. Stir until the salt dissolves then remove it from the heat.
Add the ice cubes and 4 cups of cold water. Stir until the ice melts and the mixture cools completely. If it is still cold after the ice melts, let it sit in the fridge until it it gets cold.
Once the brine gets cold, submerge the chicken, breast side down, into the brine. Cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

Smoke the Chicken

Preheat the smoker to 225°F (pellet grill, electric smoker, or offset smoker all work).
Remove the chicken from the brine solution and pat it dry with paper towels.
Combine the smoked chicken rub ingredients and reserve 1 tablespoon for the mop sauce.
Loosen the skin and work some of the dry rub under the skin.
Rub olive oil all over the outside chicken then coat it with the rub. Get inside the cavity of the chicken as well.
Tie the legs together with butcher's twine, then tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders.
Place the chicken directly on the grill grates. Stick a meat probe into the thickest part of the breast or thigh (push it in until you hit bone, then back it out a tad). Close the pellet grill and let her smoke.

Make the Mop Sauce

While the chicken is smoking, mix the ingredients for the chicken mop sauce. After it smokes for 1 hour, use the mop sauce to baste the chicken every 30 to 60 minutes.
Smoke for 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours (see below).

Finish with BBQ sauce

When the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 150°F, baste it with BBQ sauce and increase the temperature on the smoker to 450°F to caramelize the sauce and crisp the skin (If you are using an electric smoker, you will have to do this final step in your oven). The chicken is done when the internal temperature reaches 165°F.
TIP: For the juiciest chicken meat, remove the bird when the breast meat reaches 157°F. The carry-over heat will continue to cook the bird while you let it rest.
Transfer the chicken to a cutting board, cover it with aluminum foil, and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Notes

If you don’t have Kosher salt for the brine solution, you can use 3-1/2 to 4 tablespoons of regular table salt. Do not use equal amounts of table salt for the Kosher salt.

Ensure the brine solution is cold before placing the chicken in it.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all the ingredients for the brine. All you need is salt and water (the sugar is nice too). The rest of the ingredients help give a very light flavor to the brine but they are not essential like the salt.

You can place the chicken in the smoker breast side up or down. You can even stick it on a beer can holder to keep it upright. There aren’t any hard and fast rules here. However, if you place it breast side down, all the juices from the dark meat will seep into the breast meat and help keep the breast meat juicier.

The smoked chicken rub was adapted from BBQ Revolution by Mitch Benjamin. We adjusted the amounts to make enough for 1 chicken and added garlic powder. If you double or quadruple the amounts in the recipe, you can store any extra rub in an airtight container for up to four weeks.
A delicious alternative to the mop sauce is to baste the bird with melted butter or a combination of butter and olive oil.

The time it takes to smoke a whole chicken will vary based on the size of your chicken and temperature fluctuations in the pellet grill. Smoke the chicken until the meat thermometer registers the correct temperature and not based on the time. We provided an approximate time guideline to help you plan the cook and the rest of your meal.

How long to smoke a whole chicken (approximate times)

225°F for 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours
250°F for 3 to 4 hours
275°F for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 hours

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