Smoked Pulled Chicken Recipe: How to Smoke Chicken

Pulled chicken is meat that you pull off the bones and shred. Stir the shredded chicken into soups, tuck it into tacos, make it into chicken salad, mix it with BBQ sauce, or serve it as a main course along with your favorite side dishes.

For a classic and flavorful BBQ chicken sandwich, toss the pulled chicken in barbecue sauce and serve it atop toasted buns along with creamy coleslaw.

Here’s how to make juicy, flavorful smoked chicken at home:

1. 1. Use chicken thighs. You can smoke a whole chicken for pulled chicken, but keep in mind that chicken breasts are leaner than thighs and cook at a different rate. Using thighs alone ensures even cooking time and juicy, tender meat.
2. 2. Brine the meat. Smoking is a slow-cooking process that uses indirect heat. This cooking method can dry out leaner cuts of meat like chicken and turkey if not brined first. You can use a wet or dry brine. Learn how to brine chicken.
3. 3. Use hardwood. Choose hardwoods like cherry, pecan, mesquite, hickory, or applewood when smoking meat. Each of these smoking woods will impart a unique flavor, and you can use any of them in a smoked chicken recipe. Softwoods, like pine and cedar, or chemically treated lumber are not ideal for smoking as they contain resin, sap, and toxins that could cause illness.

1. 1. Brine the chicken. Use a dry or wet brine to prepare your chicken. Unlike large cuts like brisket or pork shoulder, chicken thighs are relatively thin and only require about two to three hours of brining time. Learn how to brine meat at home.
2. 2. Prepare the smoker. Select hardwood or pellets and heat the smoker to 230 degrees Fahrenheit according to the manufacturer’s directions.
3. 3. Season with a rub. A dry rub creates a burnished coating on the chicken, giving it a rich flavor and deeply caramelized color. After the chicken has marinated, pat it dry. Then coat the chicken with a few tablespoons of mustard and apple cider vinegar to help adhere the rub and get an even, seasoned coating on the chicken thighs.
4. 4. Smoke in a roasting pan. Transfer the seasoned chicken to an aluminum roasting pan or an aluminum foil–lined pan with a rack that fits into your smoker. Smoke until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. 5. Rest before pulling. Let the chicken rest for at least twenty minutes after removing it from the smoker, allowing the heat and juices to redistribute. Using forks, pull the meat off the bones after the chicken has rested but is still warm. Save the bones to make homemade chicken stock.