Smoked Whole Chicken is the holy grail of smoker recipes. So perfectly delicious when done right — but dry and bland when you get it wrong. This smoked whole chicken recipe is perfect every time. Full of flavor and easy to prep for the smoker or grill. And this bird comes off the smoker tasting fabulous!
We love hanging by the grill on the weekend, you can find all of our smoker and grill recipes here. If you love the idea of whole chicken on the grill smoker, we LOVE this Beer Can Chicken too!
But on weeknights, nothing beats this whole chicken in the crock pot. You just toss it in the slow cooker and go… Come home to a tasty dinner.
Smoked Whole Chicken
We started experimenting with recipes for whole chickens when I started experimenting with how to decrease our grocery bill.
We have a family of five — and I run this website full of recipes that all get tested. So the grocery checkout line can be full of angst. LOL! Whole chickens are less expensive than just white meat. And we’ve figured out that we actually all like both white and dark meat on the bird, so it works for us.
Considering how much we like being outside, it didn’t take long for us to drag our chicken to the Big Green Egg smoker sitting in the garage.
How to Smoke a Whole Chicken
Preheat your smoker to 280 degrees. Trim chicken of any excess skin, rinse and thoroughly pat dry with a paper towel. Making sure the skin in dry keeps the skin from steaming when you place the chicken on the hot smoker. The result is a crisper skin.
Mix remaining ingredients into a soft paste. Gently separate the skin from the breast of the chicken and place about 1 Tbsp of seasoning paste under the skin of each breast. Place the skin back down and gently massage the skin to help distribute the butter over the chicken breast.
Heat remaining butter mixture just until melted, then pour over chicken and rub with your hands to coat the entire bird. Tie tips of legs together with butcher’s twine and tuck tips of wings under legs to help keep the bird compact and cook more evenly.
How Long to Smoke a Whole Chicken
Place your seasoned chicken in your smoker and cook for approximately 3.5 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature of the thickest part reaches 165 degrees. The size of your chicken will ultimately determine your cooking time. Remove the chicken from the smoker, tent with foil for 10 minutes, then slice and serve.
Make sure to let the chicken rest. It allows the juices to redistribute in the meat, making for a juicy bird!
If you don’t have time to smoke a whole chicken, try these smoked chicken breasts. Make sure you toss a few extra on the smoker because they are great over a salad for a weeknight meal.
Whole smoked chicken
Equipment
- Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken about 4 pounds
- 5 Tbsp butter softened
- 3 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp cayenne powder
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 Tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 280 degrees
- Trim chicken of any excess skin, rinse and thoroughly pat dry with a paper towel.
- In a small bowl, mix remaining ingredients into a soft paste. Gently separate the skin from the breast of the chicken and place about 1 Tbsp of seasoning paste under the skin of each breast. Place the skin back down and gently press to help distribute the butter over the chicken breast.
- Heat remaining butter mixture just until melted, then pour over chicken and rub with your hands to coat the entire bird. Tie tips of legs together with butcher’s twine and tuck tips of wings under legs to help keep the bird compact and cook more evenly.
- Place your seasoned chicken in your smoker and cook for approximately 3.5 hours or until the internal temperature of the thickest part reaches 16Remove from the smoker, tent with foil for 10 minutes, then slice and serve.
Nutrition
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