Applewood Smoked Whole Chicken

Chicken. One of the favorite grilling meats. A flavor sponge of char, smoking flavors.  Also one of the most unforgiving. Cook it too long, particularly the white meat, it becomes dry and tough. Cook it too little, it is slimy and in the salmonella danger zone. What about a whole chicken? Often an inexpensive grilling option, but it is more difficult to get it just right. By following these simple (and flexible) steps you can grill a whole chicken to smoky, flavorful perfection.

Start with a whole, thawed chicken. Choose your spices to make a dry rub. Remember spices are for you, the chicken just wants the smoke. Salt of some sort is necessary, in fact salt (and maybe pepper) alone will do. Just be sure to go easy if you are dry rubbing it. I love using garlic salt. For this chicken, I have chosen Asian flavors. Brown sugar also works nice with these ingredients.

Mix your spices together with a ratio (sorry, I’m not big on measuring) of ⅓ salt with the rest being other spices. Once mixed work the rub underneath the skin. If you are using salt alone, or primarily, work in enough salt to lightly cover the meat.  If you accidentally rip the skin, which I have done, you can sew it back together with a skewer.  In addition, you can use the skewer to truss the drumsticks.

Next gather you chicken and  pre-soaked applewood chunks. I let these soak over night. Depending on the size of your chunks, you’ll want to soak the anywhere from 30 minute to 8 hours.

Spread burning coal out over one side of the grill. Lay the applewood over the hot coals.

Place chicken on the grates opposite the coals.

Put the lid on with the vent sitting over the chicken. Leave covered for at least one hour. Feel free to add quicker cooking foods after that time. The chicken will take longer than one hour, but you want to keep the heat in.

Using an instant read thermometer, check for an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Remember, dark meat can handle a higher temperature better than the white meat. Check various areas. You may have to position cooler areas closer to the coal for even cooking. Once finished, let the chicken set for 10 minutes before carving. Then enjoy.

Did you try a whole chicken? How'd it turn out? What spices did you use? Let me know. I'd like to know if you discovered anything.