Smoked Whole Chickens Revisited
Have been wanting to cook these again since upgrading to a new smoker. I'm keeping the same basic flavor but using my chicken rub recipe with a few adjustments in the smoking technique.
Smoked Whole Chickens Revisited
Have been wanting to cook these again since upgrading to a new smoker. I'm keeping the same basic flavor but using my chicken rub recipe with a few adjustments in the smoking technique.
Cooking Instructions
- 1
Combine the kosher salt, sugar, bay leaves, pepper and chopped dehydrated onion into the 3 gallons of water. Soak the chickens in the refrigerator overnight.
- 2
Get smoker heating to 325°. I have an offset barrel smoker that I modified to use a water bath. I did not add water to the pan because I was worried that might make the skin rubbery.
- 3
Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry.
- 4
Cut the orange and lemon into 1/8 wedges.
- 5
Stuff each chicken with half an orange, half a lemon, 1 sprig rosemary and 2 sprigs of tarragon.
- 6
Cover all sides of the chickens with the AP rub and BBQ chicken rub.
- 7
Place the chickens in the smoker breast side down. I'm using a charcoal, maple wood and peach wood combination. I have an abundance of maples on my property which gives a nice sweet smoke and used peach chips that I bought as another sweet smoke to balance the charcoal.
- 8
After 1 hour check the temp of the white and dark meat. You're looking for 165 in the white and 175 in the dark. With my smoker I wasnt there, about 2 hours or so away.
- 9
Brush the skin with oil and rotate in the smoker to ensure an even cook. You can use any oil you like, olive would give it a nice fruity flavor. I used canola for the neutral flavor plus it's what I had on hand, next time I will try peanut oil because it's amazing!
- 10
After one more hour rotate the chickens and check the skins to see if they need oiled again.
- 11
When the temps are good pull the chickens and let rest about half an hour before carving.
- 12
The skins on my chickens cracked and started to pull away. I think 325° was too hot. My goal was for them to only cook for 2 hours but the dark meat was not temping. I contemplated tenting with foil to protect the skin but wasn't sure what it would do to the texture. Next time I'll stick with my original temp of 275° and cook longer brushing multiple times with peanut oil... it tastes so amazing so I'm not at all disappointed, plus I get to keep cooking this recipe over and over to get it right!
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