Easy Brined Smoked BBQ Chicken

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If you want a sure-fire recipe for juicy, tender, perfectly smoked BBQ chicken, look no further. My simple brine for smoked chicken is what makes the difference between dry, stringy meat or moist and tender yardbird. This easy, foolproof brined BBQ chicken turns out juicy, flavorful chicken breasts, thighs, drums and wings. Use a whole cut up bird like I did, or your favorite chicken parts. You can also use this chicken brine for grilling pork chops too.

I’ve had my share of smoked BBQ chicken — both good and lackluster. The common thread with all the “good” chicken was the brine. For smoked chicken, brine is essential. Aside from infusing the bird with flavor, it also plumps the chicken cells with moisture, preventing it from drying out on the grill.

What is brine?

At its most basic level, brine can is a simple salt & water solution. Dissolving kosher salt into water and soaking the meat in the mixture, plumps the cells of the chicken. With more moisture in the cells, the chicken doesn’t dry out when it’s cooking. I consider brining to be an essential fail-safe and also a flavor-enhancer for smoked BBQ chicken.

Brine ingredients for BBQ chicken

• Kosher Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Bourbon
• Whole Juniper Berries
• Whole Peppercorns
• Cloves
• Cold Water
• Ice

Making the soaking solution just takes a few minutes and it’s a hands off process after the chicken starts soaking. Note: even if you’re only grilling the chicken, you’ll want to brine it to ensure moist, juicy flesh.

How to make brine for smoked chicken

1. Add the salt, sugar, juniper, peppercorns and cloves to a bowl (large enough to hold 5 cups of brine AND the chicken.
2. Pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water into the brine and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
3. Add the ice and remaining cold water to dilute the concentrate and cool down the brine.
4. Brine should be at room temperature or cooler before adding chicken.
5. Add the chicken to the brining solution and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
6. Note: DO NOT OVERBRINE. Here’s where some people make a critical error, thinking that if one or two hours is good…. 4 or 5 hours or overnight must be BETTER. Not so. If you brine the meat for too long, the cells will actually burst in the chicken, resulting in a soft, mealy texture that’s quite unpleasant. Don’t do it.

Best wood for smoked BBQ chicken

While the chicken relaxes in the brine, soak the wood chips. You can use whatever type of wood chips you like for the brined, smoked BBQ chicken, but we prefer, lighter woods like cherry, apple, hickory or pecan. The chips should soak for an hour in water (or you can also add beer or bourbon to the chips as another flavor enhancer).

Optional Cool Gadgets

Wood Chip Soaker

My husband has a neat soaker container (not an affiliate link) for his chips. You fill it with the wood chips, add water and then secure it with a lid that screws down below the surface of the water, keeping the chips submerged, so they really soak.

Jury-rigging a wood chip soaker

1. Add the wood chips to a bowl.
2. Fill the bowl with water and float a plate (about the same diameter as the bowl) on top of the chips, to hold them down in the water.
3. Soak the wood chips for an hour before using.

Smoker Box

Another “make your life easier” tool for brined smoked BBQ chicken (and so much more) is a good smoker box. They’re re-usable and last a good long time. Ours is made specifically for our type of Weber grill and fits neatly between the flavor bars. The best one for your grill will probably be different, based on the type of grill you have. Fill the box with the wood chips and set them over the flame until they start to emit white smoke. That’s when you put the chicken pieces on the grill.

Jury-rigging a smoker box

If you don’t have a smoker box, here’s how to fashion a substitute:

1. Create a pouch with heavy duty tin foil.
2. Filling the pouch with the soaked wood chips and seal it.
3. Poke holes all over the foil.
4. Place it over the heat source on the grill and wait for the chips to smoke.

Remove the chicken from the brining solution and pat the pieces dry with a few paper towels (If you place wet chicken to the grill, it will steam more than grill/smoke). Transfer the chicken to a rimmed baking sheet, grab your BBQ mitt and your tongs and head out to the grill.

How long to cook brined BBQ chicken

If you’re cooking all drumsticks or only thighs or exclusively breasts, then the cooking time will be about the same for each. However, if you’re making a whole smoked BBQ chicken cut into pieces, the cooking time is slightly different for each different cut. The breasts will take the longest and the wings, the shortest. Another mitigating factor is the size of the chicken. Use the chart below as a guide, but to be on the safe side, check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer.

Tips on grilling & smoking brined chicken

1. Brined BBQ chicken will take LONGER TO COOK than chicken that hasn’t been brined. That’s because the chicken has more moisture and volume.
2. Because of the differing cooking times for different cuts of chicken, we always put the brined chicken breasts on the grill first, and cook them for a few minutes before adding the thighs, drums and wings.
3. Place the chicken breasts, skin side down over direct heat (opposite the smoker box) and cook for about 10 minutes before flipping for the first time.
4. Add the chicken thighs and drumsticks (skin side down) to the grill about 6-8 minutes after the breasts go on and a few minutes later add the wings.
5. Don’t fuss too much with the chicken. Just let it smoke and grill. When it’s ready to be flipped the skin will release from the grates.
6. Have a squirt bottle of water at the ready in case of flare-ups.
7. Keep the grill lid closed unless your checking temperature or flipping the chicken.
8. Try to maintain your temperature between 400°-450°.
9. You’ll want to cook the chicken to about 5 minutes before it’s done before adding the BBQ sauce. If you add the BBQ sauce to the smoked chicken too early, the sugars in the sauce could cause flare ups and burn the chicken. Better to add the BBQ sauce toward the end of cooking, just to lacquer it.

Have you ever grilled a piece of meat, only to discover when you (and your guests) cut into it, that it’s still bloody and raw inside and needs another 10 minutes on the grill. Or even worse, you’ve over-cooked it and there’s no salvaging that chewy, bone dry cut. Buy a GOOD instant read thermometer {affiliate link}to prevent those embarrassing, mishaps and BE THE MASTER OF YOUR GRILL!

My favorite instant read thermometer is the Thermapen Mk4

Here’s why:

• 2-3 second readings! It’s fast.
• High accuracy to ±0.7°F (As we discussed, accuracy is important).
• Foldaway thermocouple probe – so it doesn’t skewer your hand in the drawer.
• Patented auto-rotating display – it’s smart that way.
• Use in either hand.
• Motion-sensing sleep & wake mode.
• Intelligent backlight – for grilling at night.
• Waterproof to IP67, but I still don’t put it in the sink – wipe off the probe with a sponge.
• 3,000 hour battery life (AAA Battery – not some obscure, hard to find size).
• Display temps in °C or °F.

What’s a safe temperature for grilled chicken?

As the chicken is closer to being done, use your instant read thermometer to check the temperature. Chicken is considered cooked and safe to eat at 165°, but because the smoked bbq chicken continues to cook after you remove it from the grill, I usually pull it off a few degrees short of that, around 160°.

Rest the brined smoked BBQ chicken

After pulling your BBQ chicken from the grill, let it rest for about 5 minutes before diving into it. This allows the juices to redistribute and allows the chicken reach its optimum doneness of 165°.

My husband and I made this batch of smoked BBQ chicken on a Saturday at about 11 o’clock in the morning (it’s the best light for taking pictures on the grill). After shooting just a few final shots, our plan was to wrap up the chicken and eat it for dinner (the life of a food blogger — you NEVER get a hot meal)… but temptation was too great and the two of us dug in to the drums and thighs, literally hunched over the plate at 11:30 in the morning., devouring those pieces. We saved the breasts for that night — and despite being reheated in the oven for 20 minutes, the breasts were STILL moist, tender and juicy. That’s the magic of brine, my friends. Do it!

Homemade BBQ sauce recipes for your smoked chicken:

• Jim Beam BBQ Sauce
• Spicy Guava BBQ Sauce

What to serve with Brined Smoked BBQ Chicken:

• Southern Cole Slaw
• Bacon and Egg Potato Salad
• Homemade French Fries
• Barbecue Baked Beans
• Hatch Chile Skillet Cornbread

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