Delicious low and slow smoked chicken thighs on your favorite Traeger or pellet grill. This smoked BBQ chicken classic is tender, juicy and full of flavor.
Pellet Grilled Chicken Thighs are the perfect no-fuss quick grilled meat for smokers and newcomers alike. Their rich dark meat provides all the flavor while their fat content keeps them from drying out. No sheets and no marinades. Just rub them dry before throwing them on your pellet grill grates and they’ll be ready in an hour. Easy.
From how to prepare meat to the best wood pellets, find out how to smoke chicken thighs on your pellet grill today.
Chicken thighs explained
Chicken thighs come off the top of the chicken thigh, just above the knee. The hamstrings are well-processed, meaning the meat IS dark and well-processed, a sure-fire ingredient for delicious flavor.
also contain more thighs than chicken breasts, meaning they’re perfect for grilling. The slow, gentle cooking method helps the fat slowly dissolve, leaving the drumsticks tender and juicy.
This easy-to-cook cut of meat IS SOLD boned or boneless, skinned or skinless, making it a versatile cut of meat. While the chicken breasts remain prone to drying out as they cook, the thighs remain and have a lot more flavor.
For this recipe, we’ll be using bone-in and skin-on thighs. These are cheaper to buy than boneless and have more flavor too. If you want to use thighless instead, no problem, just keep in mind that they cook a little faster, so keep an eye on the meat sensor reading.
Dry massage
For our dressing we use our homemade smoked chicken dressing. It’s a blend of paprika, thyme, and cayenne pepper for an earthy yet spicy kick. If you don’t trust spices, simply swap out the chili powder and cayenne for more paprika and a brown sugar.
Be sure to blot your thighs with paper towels before applying the massage. This will help dry out the surface and give the smoked chicken thighs a crispy finish.
Time and temperature
Chicken thighs should be cooked at 135°C(275°F) until they reach an internal temperature of 74°C(165°F). This usually takes between 1 and 1 ½ hours, but factors such as the amount of meat and whether or not it is boned will affect the cooking time. Always cook by temperature, not time.
Why not fry at 225°F? At a lower temperature, the chicken thigh skin shrinks significantly due to a combination of evaporation of the water content of the meat and hardening of the proteins. With a higher cooking temperature, we can shorten the cooking time before the skin shrinks.
Quick tips
- If you don’t like chicken skin, I recommend you don’t buy skinless thighs. The skin contains a large amount of juices that help enrich the flavors of the ready meal. Smoke them with skin instead and remove the skin afterwards if you prefer. Do not remove before cooking.
- Make sure the chicken thighs are placed skin-side up on smoking racks. This reduces the risk of the skin drying out and shrinking during cooking.
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
