It is often the first thing new smoker owners cook – chicken. It’s easy to find in grocery stores, fairly inexpensive and can feed a family with ease. However, there can be challenges with smoking chicken. This recipe will promise the juiciest, smoked chicken recipe ever!

Jeremy Richards is fan of House of Q and shared by sending us an email with one of his favorite recipes. Between the photo’s he sent, the structure of the recipe and his own comments, Jeremy is proud about his creation and enjoys cooking chicken regularly. It sounds tasty and the pictures look really good!

Why Brine Chicken?

There are many House of Q recipes that use the cooking technique of brining before cooking. This immersion into a liquid helps to accomplish a few things but most importantly it provides moisture. It provides seasoning as well deep inside the meat and in certain circumstances can be used to cure for longevity of the meat. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves… let’s focus on moisture because we all love juicy chicken.

A simple brine liquid is a mixture of water, salt and sugar. From there, you can add your option of ingredients for different flavours. The liquids can also be changed for flavour as well such as using juices, beer, or even vinegar instead of water. For Jeremy and his Juiciest Smoked Chicken recipe, he adds plenty of flavour by adding Slow Smoke Gold BBQ Sauce to the brine. This adds both tanginess, acidity from the vinegar and plenty of seasoning from the mustard, pepper, and garlic.

House of Q posted another recipe discussing more about brines. If you want to read more, see the recipe Easily Scalable Basic Brine. This might be helpful if you want to have the “basics” but want to create your own recipe.

Why Dry the Skin Before Cooking?

Another key technique that Jeremy points out in his recipe is after brining the bird, he let’s it dry on a rack in the fridge before cooking. This is a great technique to help cooking chicken.

Chicken skin when smoked can become rubbery, tough and in some times, inedible. This can be frustrating when biting into or through chicken skin can be very delicious. But how do you avoid this chicken skin issue?

When you dry the skin before cooking, and after brining, will help with this chicken cooking challenge. The air circulation around the chicken will reduce moisture in the skin and slightly tighten it onto the chicken. This drying will not dry the meat inside but only the skin. The reduced moisture in the skin will allow the fat either on top of the skin (applied as one of your cooking steps such as applying olive oil) or naturally underneath the skin to render more quickly. This rendering process will reduce the thickness of the skin as it cooks and has a tendency to crisp.

So to help you achieve a juicy yet crisp-skinned chicken, apply a little science to help you along the way! Start with a brine and then, air-dry the skin. Taking these steps will dramatically change your chicken eating experience.

Juiciest Smoked Chicken

Print Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Grill, Kitchen, Oven, Smoker

HoQ Product House Rub, Slow Smoke Gold BBQ Sauce

Author House of Q

Ingredients

• 1 cup Kosher Salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 L water
• 1 cup House of Q Slow Smoke Gold sauce
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika or smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• House of Q House Rub (volume depends on chicken pieces, whole bird and how many…)

Instructions

• Add all of the brine ingredients to a large stock pot or a brine bucket and mix well. Make sure the salt and sugar are thoroughly dissolved. Taste the brine, and if it is too salty, add water. Test again. Add the chicken pieces or whole birds to the brine. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour per pound of meat… if one whole chicken is being brined and weighs 5 pounds, refrigerate for a minimum of 5 hours.
• Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well, and pat dry. Place the bird on a drying (cooling) rack on a baking sheet so there is air circulation around the bird. Place in a refrigerator to dry the skin before cooking for approximately 2 hours.
• When ready to cook, coat all sides of the chicken with your homemade rub or your choice from House of Q. House Rub would be really good with this brine recipe.
  
• Prepare your smoker for medium heat approximately 250 F. Cook the chicken for approximately 2-3 hours checking wood chips, rotating for even cooking if needed and verifying meat temperatures. Remove from the smoker when the meat reaches 165 F in both the dark meat (thighs) and white meat portions (breasts).
  

Notes

NOTES: Jeremy comments that he finds chicken meat is nicer (really moist, juicy and delicious!) when cooked to 165 F and the skin is a little more crispy. BBQ Brian adds that cooking at 275-300 F will help the skin to be more crisp and possibly a shorter cooking time than cooking at 250 F.

Got a Recipe to Share?

Jeremy loves cooking and using his smoker and that comes through when you see his Juiciest Smoked Chicken Recipe. If you have a recipe to share, we’d love to share it with House of Q fans. They could learn from you and what you have mastered at home. Send House of Q an email with your master-piece!

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