Smoked Spatchcock Chicken

Look at this gorgeous bird! Plump and juicy and smoked to perfection. This is a simple recipe that takes only minutes to prep. Imagine serving this for your next big gathering or maybe just keeping it for yourself and making smoked chicken tacos and grilled panini's later in the week. There's no end to what you can do with this tasty chicken.

This recipe starts the day before you plan to smoke it by spatchcocking the chicken. It's a very simple method of removing the backbone of the chicken and pressing the chicken flat.

There are lots of video's online if you'd like to see it done but simply said, it's easy.

How to Spatchcock a Chicken

1. Lay the chicken on it's breast on a cutting board.

2. Using kitchen shears cut from the thigh to the neck along one side of the back bone.

3. Now cut along the other side of the back bone in the same way.

4. Discard the back bone or reserve it for stock.

5. Turn the chicken over and press down firmly on the breast to flatten the chicken.

All done! You have spatchcocked a chicken!

After rinsing and thoroughly drying the chicken with paper towels, add your favorite rub and liberally rub it into all of the nooks and crevices. Try this one! Our Favorite Barbecue Dry Rub.

Place the chicken onto the bottom shelf of a refrigerator uncovered to spend the night. Be sure to put the uncovered bird onto to the lowest shelf to ensure that juices from the chicken cannot drip or be spilled onto foods below it. The whole process of spatchcocking and dry rubbing the chicken takes about 15 minutes.

The next day the chicken is ready and all you need to do is fire up the smoker according to your smokers directions and add the beautifully prepared bird.

I smoked this chicken at 225 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. It was moist and juicy! I took it out of the smoker when the internal meat probe registered 165 degrees and then covered it with heavy duty aluminum foil for about 25 minutes.

After the chicken had rested and the juices had redistributed themselves comfortably to make the juiciest bird possible, it was time to carve the bird. If the bird doesn't rest, the juices tend to run right out of the chicken and all over the cutting board leaving the chicken very dry so please be sure to give your chicken a rest after smoking it and you will be rewarded.

The skin is crisp, the chicken moist and so flavorful!

This can make for some great party food if the pieces are cut a bit smaller. I think a lot of people would be happy if you brought this bird to a pot luck or a picnic too!

I really should get one of these into my smoker again this fall. Yum!

Cheers!

~Melisa