This Applewood Grill Smoked Chicken has a mild smokiness and the dry rub gives hints of sweetness for a perfectly juicy chicken.
What I have here folks, is probably some of the tastiest and juiciest chicken known to mankind!!
After smoking those pork chops (they were oh so good, you must try them) on the grill I had to try other meats and first up, chicken. I debated heavily on how to go about doing this. I almost went with the route of leaving the chicken whole and smoking it on a beer can, but I was afraid it wouldn’t catch enough smoke.
And since I was smoking these on the grill at a faster rate than a traditional smoker I wanted to be able to capture as much smoke with the chicken as possible, so that led me to splitting the chicken in half. I placed the chicken halves directly above the smoke pack and kept the grill at around 350 degrees F.
Needless to say, I may never, ever grill chicken any other way!! It was tender, juicy and lightly smoked with a subtle sweetness from the brown sugar dry rub.
It was perfect in my opinion.
This chicken was also great cold on sandwiches the next day (just in case you have some leftovers). Your welcome!!
Applewood Grill Smoked Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 cups applewood smoking chips not chunks
- Heavy aluminum foil
- Dry Rub:
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pepper to taste
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Combine all dry rub ingredients in a small bowl, set aside.
- Place the chicken breast side down on a cutting board and with kitchen shears cut through the bones on both sides of the backbone. Remove and discard the backbone. Flip the chicken over and cut through the center of the breastbone.
- Rub each chicken half with 2 teaspoons of olive oil then sprinkle with the dry rub. Cover and place in the refrigerator.
- Soak the applewood chips in 2 cups of water for 15-20 minutes. Then place on a large piece of foil and wrap to make an 8x4" smoke pack. Cut 4 large slits in the smoke pack. Remove the grate from the grill and place on top of the primary burner. Return grate. Turn on all burners to high, cover and let the grill preheat for at least 15 minutes. Clean and oil grates. Place chicken halves on top of the smoke pack. Turn off all other burners, leaving the primary burner on high and cover grill. You may need to turn on more burners to maintain a cooking temperature of about 350 degrees F. Cook for 45 minutes. Flip to other side and cook for an additional 45 minutes or until the breasts read 160 degrees F and the thighs read 175. Remove from grill and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.
