Smoked Chicken Halves: Recipe and Cooking Tips

Smoked chicken halves are a classic barbecue dish made by cutting a whole chicken in half and cooking it via the indirect heat of woodsmoke. Smoking meat is the process of exposing food to smoke to preserve, brown, and add flavor. It’s one of the oldest cooking techniques, likely developed right after cooking with fire. Smoking involves hanging meat or placing it on racks inside a chamber that traps the smoke, created by a hardwood fire.

Cutting the chicken in half allows for quicker and more even cooking without sacrificing any smoky flavor. Round out the meal with barbecue sides like potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, and cornbread.

Smoking chicken can take anywhere from two to five hours, depending on the weight and cut of your chicken. It takes about forty-five minutes per pound of meat to cook a chicken through smoking. Halving a chicken reduces the cook time to two and a half to three hours.

Smoking chicken halves is more straightforward than tackling larger barbecue cuts like brisket and pork butt, but it still requires thoughtful planning. Here is what you need to know.

1. 1. Remove the backbone. If you’re halving a whole chicken yourself, use the spatchcock method, where you remove the backbone and break the chicken’s breastbone. After removing the backbone, use poultry shears to cut the chicken in half along the center. Halving your chicken will save you cooking time and optimize space in your smoker. Plus, you can save the backbone to make chicken stock.
2. 2. Choose the right smoker. Decide what kind of smoker you’re going to use: Pellet grills or smokers are easy to use but can be difficult to troubleshoot because of how high-tech they are. Charcoal smokers benefit from the addition of wood chunks to add extra flavor, though most of the smoke comes from charcoal. Learn about the different types of BBQ smokers.
3. 3. Select your wood. Research the type of wood that works best for your smoker, which will usually be a type of hardwood such as hickory, pecan, or applewood. Different types of smokers require different types of wood, so it is important to do your research. You’ll need wood chips for grill smoking, whereas wood chunks are best for kettle grills.
4. 4. Get an accurate temperature reading. You can remove your chicken halves from the smoker when the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 157 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a digital thermometer with an external probe or check the temperature frequently using a meat thermometer or instant-read thermometer to know exactly when to pull your chicken.