Today I am going to walk you through an Easy Smoked Chicken Recipe for some great tasting smoked pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches. This is one of my family’s favorite dinners because it is easy and oh so tasty. When I first started cooking on my smoker, chicken was the very first thing I tried and I was so excited because I actually smoked it to perfection. Ever since then I have never stopped smoking chicken. It is one of my go to meats to smoke when I’m short on time because it doesn’t take as long as beef does usually. It typically takes 4-6 hours to smoke and that’s it! You can put the chicken on the smoker around noon and have it for dinner around 7 PM. It is just that easy.
How to Smoke a Chicken
Smoker (I have the Weber Bullet)
BBQ Sauce of your choice
**This smoked chicken will be on the smoker for 4 to 6 hours
Step One: Start heating up your smoker, you are going to want it to be at 225 or what we smokers call the smoke range. I use the minion method any time I smoke meat for that long lasting burn. Click the link if you are interested in learning about the minion method. It has saved me many trips out to the smoker to reheat.
Step Two: Season your chicken with a smoked chicken rub of your choice. I prefer seasoning my chicken with salt and pepper but you can’t go wrong with any chicken rub out there. It’s really just what you prefer.
Step Three: This is the time we get to put that chicken on the smoker. Once you have seasoned your chicken and your smoker is at or around 225, you can put the chicken onto the smoker. Close the lid and let it smoke for 4 to 6 hours. Try to refrain from opening the lid too many times as that just adds minutes to completion. My wife is always asking me to go check the chicken and I have to keep reminding her to just stick to the process. I use a charcoal smoker so I have to continually make sure my temp is still in the smoke range. This is what I enjoy about smoking. It’s a project in my eyes.
Step four: We are at the end! You have now had your chicken on the smoker between 4 and 6 hours. It is now time to pull the chicken off. We still need to make sure that the chicken is done so we want to use a meat thermometer to see what the internal temp is. The internal temp needs to be 165 degrees. insert your thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh but not touching bone. It it reads 165, you are complete!
Step five: Put the chicken onto a baking sheet and cover it in foil. I let my chicken sit for around 30 to 45 minutes to let the juices settle. You never want to cut into your smoked meat right after taking it off the smoker. Let is sit!
Step six: After the 30 – 45 minute mark, it is time to cut into the chicken. At this point you already know what you are doing with your smoked chicken. For this post I am turning this chicken into BBQ pulled chicken. I cut all the meat off of the bone and have placed it in a platter. I then take my shredding claws and shred the chicken into fine pieces so that I can make BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches.
Step Seven: Pour your favorite BBQ sauce over that sucker and now IT IS TIME TO DEVOUR! Enjoy everyone.
If by chance you do have some leftovers…they cook up real nice the next day with some extra BBQ sauce in your slow cooker.
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