The Best Smoked Chicken Recipe

Name: The Best Smoked Chicken Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 lb whole chicken; ½ tsp sea salt; ¼ tsp black pepper (fresh ground); ¼ tsp garlic powder; 1 tbsp Meat Church’s "The Gospel" seasoning

The Best Smoked Chicken Recipe – delicious tender, juicy spatchcocked chicken in the smoker with crispy skin and a smoky, crunchy crust.

smoked chicken drumstick and slices of smoked chicken on a white plate

At Ajpal, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. My goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

Spatchcocked Smoked Chicken

This method is the best way to smoke a whole chicken – it is tender, juicy, and delicious – with a great smoke ring and delicious spice rub cooked over wood chips – great for cookouts, parties, and picnics.

You can serve this smoked chicken as a main dish, or serve it on salads, in sandwiches, in tacos, wraps, burritos, and more – it is incredibly versatile and insanely delicious!

If you have a Traeger,Kamado Joe, Big Green Egg, or other smoker, you need this delicious recipe for whole smoked chickens! You can also use an electric smoker if you have one.

We designed this recipe to be keto appropriate, as we’re using a dry rub that is easy to adapt to seasonings and a bbq sauce you love, and you can always change up what wood or smoke you use, too!

Be sure to check out our other favorite smoked recipes (from my husband Luke, our in-house pitmaster) like our Smoked Pork Ribs Recipe, Smoked Brisket Recipe, Perfect Smoked Turkey, and Smoked Pulled Pork.

We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

two spatchcocked smoked chickens on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil

How to Smoke Whole Chicken

Spatchcock. Spatchcocking does not mean removing all bones from the chicken – as the wing and thigh bones will remain in the chicken.

Spatchcock might sound like a complicated and scary cooking term – but it really just means to de-bone part of your chicken, so that it can lay flat for cooking to promote quicker, more even heat circulation.

By removing the breastbone of the chicken, you can ensure the chicken breast and thigh meat cook at the same time, so that the meat does not dry out.

Using your boning knife or chicken sheers, cut down each side of the back bone in order to remove it.

picture of raw whole chicken on a metal cooling rack over a baking sheet

picture of spatchcocked raw chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet

Once you’re removed the back bone, cut the wishbone that connects the two breasts in order for your chicken to lay flat.

Your chicken will cook more evenly and quicker when you’ve spatchcocked it.

This method also makes cutting chicken to serve extremely easy.

This method to smoke chicken is amazing because you can go so many ways with it – and change up the flavors you want to profile based on what rub you use!

If you’re making your own rub, you’ll want to focus on garlic, cumin, turmeric, paprika, a little brown sugar, onion, salt, black pepper, and a touch of cayenne or aleppo pepper.

You can find some of our favorite smoked chicken rubs available for purchase here:

Meat Church the Gospel Rub (what we used in photos)
Traeger Chicken Rub
Poultry Perfection Rub
Chicken Sh*t
Bang Bang Chicken Seasoning

Tools You Need To Smoke Chicken. Smoking takes a bit more equipment than many other types of cooking, but if you already have a smoker, you likely have everything else you need to make this smoked chicken on hand:

Poultry sheers
Boning knife
Plastic cutting board
Paper towel
Sheet tray and cooling rack
Foil to cover
Temperature probe. We recommend either the Thermoworks Signals or Smoke model.

We smoke on a Kamado Joe Big Joe II, but this recipe works on a Traeger, Big Green Egg, or other smokers, including electric smokers.

Smoking a chicken is a pretty straightforward process, but we’re going to break down the steps so it’s easy to understand before you fire up the smoker.

Pat chicken dry with a paper towel. This helps your rub stick to the chicken and prevents chicken from giving off too much water.
Wash your hands often to prevent the risk of salmonella.
Spatchcock your chicken – removing breast bones help to evenly cook chicken meat.
Season well – chicken has a neutral flavor, and can use a lot of seasoning to shine!
Let chicken come to room temperature before placing on smoker.
Aim for a pit temperature around 250-275 degrees.
Cook the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.
Let chicken rest at least 10 minutes before carving to let juices redistribute and to finish any carryover cooking.

Chicken is fully cooked at 165 degrees when probed with a digital thermometer inserted at the thickest part of the chicken, taking care to not hit bone.

Smoked chicken can be a little tricky to tell doneness by its appearance, since chicken develops a bit of a ring from smoke, giving it a pinkish hue which can throw you off if you’re not used to smoking chicken, as it could look uncooked – though it is actually very much cooked through.

Always rely on a meat thermometer to gauge correct temperature instead of cook time for accurate results.

picture of smoked chicken drumstick and slices of smoked chicken on a white plate

FAQs

Smoked chicken can last for up to four days in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or frozen for up to four months.

Smoked chicken is fully cooked when the thickest part of the chicken reads 165 degrees internal temperature with a digital meat thermometer.

smoked chicken on a foil lined baking sheet

What To Serve With Smoked Chicken

Smoked chicken is an incredibly versatile main dish that goes with just about anything – try it with Air Fryer Corn on the Cob, 4th Of July Sugar Cookie Bars, Slow Cooker Baked Beans, Spicy Grilled Watermelon, Cranberry Basil Margarita, or some icy cold Easy Frozen Gin and Tonics!

You can find some of our favorite side dishes below:

Other Grilled & Smoked Recipes You’ll Love

If you’re ready to break out your Traeger, Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, Weber, or other smoker or grill, we’re sharing our other favorite recipes made over fire and smoke:

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