Poultry gets the least real estate on most smoking sites, and it’s not hard to see why. Chicken skin turns rubbery at smoker temperatures unless you actively fight it, which means poultry asks for a different playbook than the low-and-slow default everybody learns on brisket and pork.
The short version: run hotter. Somewhere around 275°F to 325°F renders the skin instead of just steaming it under a layer of smoke, and a whole chicken will still pick up plenty of flavor in two to three hours at that range. Go low and slow on a chicken the way you would on a brisket and you’ll get good smoke flavor wrapped around skin nobody wants to eat.
That said, dark meat is more forgiving than white meat here, the same way pork shoulder is more forgiving than a lean loin. A thigh can ride a little past done and stay juicy. A breast can’t.
Spatchcocking, higher heat, and a thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, not the breast, are the three things that actually move the needle. 165°F in the thigh is the number that matters — the breast will read higher by the time you get there, and that’s fine.
Spatchcock the bird, dry brine it overnight, and smoke it at 325 degrees for about two and a half hours. Here is why each of those numbers is what it is, with times by weight and what to do when the breast runs ahead of the thighs.
Smoked Spatchcock Turkey: Why I Stopped Smoking Birds Whole Read Post »