Smoked Barbecue Pulled Chicken (2024)

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 bombred 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 asmoker boxor 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.