Smoked Whole Chicken Recipe - Little Sunny Kitchen (2024)

This home-style smoked whole chicken is flavorful, juicy, tender, and better than any rotisserie chicken that you can buy! It’s smoked slowly till perfection, infused with the best smoking flavor for a great-tasting and economical family meal.

Good news for BBQ lovers who are in a rush and can’t wait for 8, 10, or 14 hours to make a BBQ! Throwing a chicken on a smoker is so easy and it’s done quicker than smoking a brisket or a chuck roast!

If you follow my ‘low and slow’ smoking method and read throughout my tips, you will get an incredibly moist and flavorful chicken that is never dry or tough, with gorgeous crispy skin! So let’s get started!

Check out my other smoker recipes! Recently I’ve made smoked bologna and smoked chicken wings too!

If you’d rather bake or grill your whole chicken, check out my recipe for making Chicken Under a Brick.

My method for smoking a whole chicken is so simple, we’re not gonna inject it or do anything special. We’re just gonna take the chicken out of the package, season it, and throw it on the smoker!

Did you know that you can smoke chicken wings too? They are totally delicious and fast!

How to Prep a Whole Chicken

Prepping a whole chicken is easy, here’s what you need to do:

• IF you have time, it’s always recommended that you brine the chicken in a salt and water solution for up to 24 hours. Brining isn’t a must, but it ensures that your chicken is juicy, moist, tender, and seasoned really well. So every time I have smoked chicken or roast chicken planned in advance, I brine my chicken (try my easy chicken brine recipe). If there’s no time, I just skip this step.
• Check if your chicken comes with giblets, remove the giblets and discard them. Then get your chicken to room temperature, I just let mine chill out on the counter for 20-30 minutes.
• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, and spray or drizzle some olive or cooking oil (this will give it a bit of flavor and help the seasonings stick to the chicken).
• Season the chicken well. I like to keep it simple and just season with SPG (salt, pepper, and garlic powder), or what is often called stone house seasoning. If you happen to have a shaker, use it! With a dusting technique from a good height, season the bird from all sides, and don’t forget to season underneath the wings and the cavity with a good coating.
• Optional: You can season the chicken with a second layer of seasoning for extra flavor. Use a BBQ rub or any other spice rub that you like.
• Truss or tie the legs with butcher twine, this will ensure that everything cooks evenly and that the legs don’t burn. It also makes a better presentation.
• Tuck the wings’ tips underneath/behind the back of the bird so that they don’t burn (we don’t always do this, but try to remember to do it!).

How to Smoke a Whole Chicken

After you have seasoned the chicken, it’s time to cook it on a preheated smoker!

• Place the chicken on your smoker breast side up (I don’t like using a pan as it blocks the smoke from penetrating the chicken and accumulates juices that cause a lot of steam), and cook at 275°F for about 2-3 hours (the exact time depends on the size of your chicken). The chicken will be cooked slowly, render down the fat and make the meat juicy, and give it an incredible smoking flavor!
• The chicken is ready when it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. I recommend using an electric probe thermometer that you can insert in the chicken to be able to read the temperature as it’s in the smoker.
• After the first 45 minutes, check on the chicken, and give it a spray of cooking oil or butter to help the skin crisp up and turn into a beautiful bronze/mahogany color.
• After 1.5 hours, rotate the chicken so that it cooks evenly and give it another spray or coating or cooking oil or butter. Check the temperature at this stage, it should read around 140°F for the breast, and around 150°F at the thigh.
• After about 2 hours, it should read 165°F at the thickest part of the breast, and 175°F at the thickest part of the thigh (make sure that the thermometer is not hitting a bone to get a correct reading). That’s when the chicken is ready!
• Remove the chicken from the smoker and let it rest for 15-20 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute before carving and serving. To learn how to carve a chicken, I have a full tutorial that you need to check out!

How Long to Smoke a Whole Chicken

It depends on the size of your chicken. A 4-pound chicken usually takes around 2-3 hours, but you have to keep checking the internal temperature of the chicken to make sure that it reaches 165°F.

At 275°F, it takes about 30 minutes for every 1 pound of chicken, so do your math here and keep checking on the chicken! If it browns too quickly, and the internal temperature of the meat is still low, you can always shield it with a piece of foil.

If you have one of these fancy electricmeat stainless steel probes that come with a wire, they work much better as you won’t have to keep opening the smoker to check the temperature and you can always monitor the temperature.

Best Wood for Smoking Chicken

Always smoke with hardwood and never with softwood, the difference is that softwood comes from evergreen trees while hardwood comes from trees that lose their leaves in the autumn. Softwood burns faster and contains more moisture, and that produces black smoke. Use hardwood for clean smoke that tastes amazing!

For smoked chicken, I usually go for cherry or apple wood as they have a mild sweet smoking flavor that complements the chicken. Maple, peach, hickory, and mesquite are also perfect for smoking chicken.

What to Serve with Smoked Chicken

Serve smoked chicken with mac and cheese, coleslaw, and a drizzle of Alabama white sauce because it’s simply amazing and it comes from Texas! Or with BBQ sauce.

You can also serve it with just smothered potatoes and a side salad, or if you’re grilling, then make these baked potatoes on the grill. They’re SO good!

If you have leftovers, this chicken is perfect for chicken salads, pasta bakes, pies, or to make sandwiches.

Other Smoked Recipes to Try

If you loved this smoked chicken recipe as much as I do, check out some of my other favorite smoked recipes, below:

• Texas Style Smoked Beef Chuck Roast
• Succulent Smoked Turkey
• Smoked Brisket