Smoked Barbecue Pulled Chicken
(
REVIEWS)
PREP:
15 minutes
TOTAL:
4 hours 15 minutes
SERVES:
6
It’s county fair season, and my favorite thing to do is go by the food stands and get some smoked meat! Nothing beats some smoked brisket or pulled pork followed by a tall glass of ice cold beer!
Unfortunately I don’t own a smoker so this is always a treat for me, however I recently picked up a new propane grill and found out that you can actually use it as a makeshift smoker! So I thought, hey why not smoke up some barbecue pulled chicken!
My son’s birthday was last weekend and my first thought was to do pulled pork sandwiches, but I wanted to cook up something that would please the whole crowd, since some people don’t really do pork. So I went with the next best thing, pulled chicken!
So I picked up a couple whole chicken, and leg quarters, bought some Apple wood chips, and decided to have a go at smoking the chicken on my grill.
It was definitely the way to go for this day because it’s pretty hands off once you put it on the grill. It also gives you plenty of time to prepare any other sides you need to get going! Like some bomb red cabbage and bacon slaw!
Prep
Since this was chicken, I didn’t want to risk drying it out so I kept it covered in foil and lathered it in a generous amount of butter seasoned with my Texas Style Rub, or you could use a bottle of my Killer Beez Barbeque rub.
I recommend using dark meat for the most part of this recipe. Whole chicken’s were on sale, so that’s what I used. You’ll need to keep an eye on it in the last hour so that the breast wont dry out. I found that leg quarters are more forgiving and stay moist throughout the entire cooking process.
I used smoker chips in this recipe, and there’s a huge debate on weather to soak or not soak chips. I personally don’t soak as I find it just takes longer to get the smoke going. I haven’t really experience much difference in soaking. Totally a personal preference here, so it’s up to you!
Cooking
Keep your grill temp around 230-250° F, anything higher will risk giving you a tough/dried out bird. When I was done cooking the meat just fell off the bone, and pulled apart with no effort at all! As far as using smoke, If you have a smoker, smoke away.
If you’re like me and don’t have a smoker, use a smoker box or you can use tin foil, and poke some holes in it. That’s the method I prefer!
Wrapping the chicken in foil will help keep your chicken moist and also keeps the meat from absorbing too much smoke. Correction: don’t bother smoking during the tin foil phase. I’ve learned that I just wasted my time and good chips. If you’re doing the grill and smoke method just smoke after you take it out of the grill!
I recommend using the heavy duty aluminum foil. It handles MUCH better than the regular stuff and you wont have to worry about it ripping apart.
On To The Recipe
Smoked Barbecue Pulled Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup Texas Style BBQ Rub
- 1 whole frying chicken or 3lbs leg meat
- 1/4 lb apple wood smoking chips
Instructions
Prepping the bird.
- In a bowl mix about 2 tbsp of the Texas Style BBQ Rub into the soften butter.
- Rub the butter mixture under the skin of the bird. Really get in there and get as much of the meat as possible.
- Rub a little extra butter on the skin as well.
- Shake your Texas Style BBQ Rub seasoning liberally all over the chicken, make sure you get every nook and cranny.
- Wrap it up in heavy duty aluminum foil.
Cooking the bird.
- Place on your grill/smoker at about 230°
- After about 3/12 hours take off the grill and make sure the internal temperature is 165° F. If it is go ahead and remove it from the foil and place back on the grill
- Add some smoker chips to a smoker box, or you can use tin foil
- Wrap the tinfoil into a rectangle as tightly as possible, then poke a few holes into the top
- Continue to cook and smoke your unwrapped chicken for another 30-45 minutes to increase the smoked flavor, and dry up the skin. Keep the lid closed on your grill to capture all the smoke!
- It should be a beautiful golden brown when it’s done!
- You can serve as is, or pull it apart with a fork. I like to shake in a little more bbq rub into the chicken after pulling as well as a couple squirts of bbq sauce. Then serve on a bun with some BBQ sauce and enjoy!
