We’re going full bird! Today we’re going to smoke a whole chicken on the pellet grill. It’s fast and relatively simple from beginning to end. All you need to do is spatchock the chicken (for a faster cook), season and smoke….You’ll have a fully cooked, TASTY chicken in about 1 – 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the bird.

Prepping Your Bird

The first thing you need to do is spatchcock the chicken. You do this by removing the spine. Why do we do that? Well, it allows the bird to cook a lot faster and more evenly than it would if you put it on whole. We used poultry shears from our friends at Mercer. They sent us a lot of great stuff that we can’t wait to share that with you in another video. All you need to do is cut the spine out from the neck to the tail so that the bird lays flat.

Next, really dry the bird with paper towels to help promote a nice crispy skin as it smokes. Once it’s nice and dry, it’s time to season! We used Top Gun Rub from our friends at Code 3 Spices. Once the outside is seasoned, it’s time to season under the skin, You’ll want to create a little space between the skin and the meat. What’s next? Take some softened (soft not melted) butter that’s mixed with fresh herbs. We used rosemary and oregano. Take this mixture and coat the bird under the skin and really massage it into the meat.

Once your chicken is seasoned, get your thermometer ready. We are using this wireless thermometer. It is a Bluetooth thermometer that you can leave in the meat as it cooks and give you real time temperature readings straight to your phone or tablet. Put your thermometer into the thickest part of the breast.

How to Smoke a Spatchcock Chicken

We let our pellet smoker heat up for about 20 minutes until it is running at a temperature of 350 degrees. Why? Well, we’ve hot and fast is the best way to smoke a chicken because we want that really crispy skin look. This chicken should take about 1 hour to cook. You want to pull it off the heat once it reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes after it reached the appropriate temperature.

You’re going to end up with a beautiful, delicious tasting whole smoked chicken. You can quarter is for your family. Or you can shred it and use it for other recipes. Make sure you save the bones and make some delicious homemade chicken stock for soup!

How do you guys smoke? What tips and tricks do you guys use to smoke chicken? What’s your favorite part of the bird? Let us know in the comments! Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informational cooking videos! And visit our website for even more chicken recipes.