Simple smoked whole chicken on the wsm


 

Dan A

TVWBB Member
Hey everyone, I spent quite a bit of time researching how to slow smoke a whole chicken on the weber smokey mountain 18.5". I'm a somewhat inexperienced smoker / cook and it seemed most recipes were a little to technical or confusing. I also tend to like the simpler taste of garlic salt and the natural meat flavor with a mild to medium smoke flavor. So here's what I did and it turned out super juicy and flavorful.
1. Bought a 5.3lb whole chicken from the store.
2. Cut it out of the package and washed it.
3. Made a solution to brine it.
4. Brine ingredients were
3/4 gallon of water and lots of ice to equal a gallon
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup table sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
5. Mixed ingredients together in a 2 gallon ziplock and dropped the whole chicken into the brine solution
6. Brined it for 4 hours and 30 minutes in the fridge
7. Dried the bird.
8. Lightly sprinkled garlic salt on the outside skin of the chicken, and rubbed some garlic salt inside the cavity.
9. Plastic wrapped it overnight in the fridge.
10. Took it out and let it sit on the counter for 45 minutes to warm a bit
11. Got my wsm to 250 with a full bowl of water in the bowl.
12. Threw in one golf ball size chunk of hickory
13. Placed the whole chicken on the top rack and started smoking.
14. After one hour I added one more golf ball size chunk of hickory.
15. At 2 hours I removed both chunks of wood and continued cooking.
16. Continued to cook at 250 until the chicken temp hit 156 degrees.
17. Then opened all the bottom vents and the temp rose to 290 degrees.
18. Cooked at 290 until the bird hit 167 degrees and took it off
19. Placed it to rest on the counter for 15 minutes.

It was super juicy, tender and flavorful. Had the perfect mild to medium hickory smoke flavor and was a piece of cake to prepare and smoke. I used digital thermometers to constantly monitor the temp at the grill and in the bird. Hope this recipe helps others smoke / cook a simple good tasting whole chicken. I would post a finished pic, but I guess it won't let me yet?
 
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Congrats on your first cook! How was the skin? I've found that low and slow isn't best for chicken, temps at 350+ makes for some great chicken

You Can't attach photos, you have to have a online photo library and do links to display

Welcome to the forum!
 

 

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