This Smoked Spatchcock Chicken recipe is the perfect way to master your griddle presentation. Prepared with a nice dry rub and smoked over applewood, this whole butterfly chicken is guaranteed to steal the show.
Spatchcocking Chicken is one of the best ways to smoke your precious chicken and add an amazing flavor every time. It cooks evenly while retaining a delicious amount of moisture and flavor.
In this post I will show you how to prepare your bird for cooking on your grill or smoker and how to baste him properly. With a few tips and tricks along the way, you’ll learn how to get the best possible results.
How to roast a chicken
Smoking a whole chicken isn’t always easy, it requires a balancing act between preserving flavor and drying out the meat. In addition, you have the challenge of developing a crispy golden skin on the outside while ensuring it’s perfectly cooked on the inside.
The best way to combat this is to season your chicken. It’s an easy way to ensure your smoked chicken is fully cooked, and it’s a lot easier to prepare than it sounds. Luckily, it’s a lot easier than shredding a turkey .
The cooking method involves dividing a chicken in half with poultry shears . Then you cook it with the skin on one side and the meat inside on the other side. It’s often made to roast whole birds indoors, but we take the stuff outside and make it in our BBQ smoker!
- Be sure to remove the legs, neck, and inside of the chicken first.
- Rinse the chicken well inside and out and pat dry.
- Using kitchen scissors, cut along the right side of the spine along the length of the chicken from the tailbone to the neckline.
- Then cut along the left side and remove the spine.
- Press the chicken to break the bones of the bird’s breast until it’s flat.
- Remove wingtips.
- The chicken is now flat and ready to be cooked to your liking.
Times and temperatures
Smoke your chicken at 107°C until the internal temperature is 74°C ( source ). This usually takes about 60 minutes per pound of bird, so about 4 hours for this recipe. This low and slow approach to cooking ensures the meat has had enough time to absorb the flavors of the smoke.
Your chicken isn’t done until it’s reached a safe internal temperature, so use a smoker thermometer and meat probe for best results.
Smoked wood
Mild and sweet hardwoods pair best with smoked chicken. All gear wings have a delicate flavor that can’t stand up to an expected exposure to strong flavors from strong woods like hickory or mesquite.
Instead, fruitwoods like apple, walnut, or maple go beautifully with chicken. They have a mild, sweet flavor that allows the natural flavors of the meat to come through. You can learn more and find some useful information in our guide to the best woods for smoking chicken.
For this recipe we use apple wood. It’s soft and fruity without overpowering our chicken.
How to Smoke Spatchcock Chicken
We can now start with our butterfly chicken. Begin to light your smoker at 225°F. This is our usual smoking temperature for most meats, and chicken is no different.
If you are using a charcoal grill, be sure to set it for 2-zone cooking with the hot coals on one end and the food on the other. We recommend using a charcoal chimney (also called a chimney starter) to make it easier to light the embers.
While your smoker is heating up, let’s move on to the dry BBQ mix. I use this spice in many of my favorite smoked chicken recipes. It’s a perfect blend of ingredients like paprika, chili powder, and thyme to give us a well-rounded blend of spices. With a herbal flavor and hints of spice, it complements perfect roast chickens. The full ingredients are in the recipe below, but you can learn more about our BBQ Chicken Seasoning here .
Now that the chicken is fully cooked, we can place it in the smoker racks. Once in place, close the chamber door and adjust the vents as needed. A four-pound chicken should take three to five hours to cook, but you should always let the internal temperature be your guide. Use a meat sample to measure the thickest part of the bird. Once we reach 165°F your chicken should be ready.
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
