If you struggle to get crispy smoked chicken then you’ll love this approach to smoking chicken in a pellet grill.

Getting crispy skin on your smoked chicken isn’t always guaranteed, but if you follow the advice you shouldn’t have any trouble. Chicken is one of the best easy smoker recipes and it deserves a crispy skin every time.

Crispy Smoked Chicken Pellet Grill Recipe

Dry Brine For Crispy Smoked Chicken

Dry brining your chicken for a few hours in the fridge will really help in crisping up your chicken. It’s a simple process involving dusting the chicken with your favourite BBQ dry rub (homemade or bought) and leaving the chicken uncovered in the fridge for 3-24 hours.

Often the easiest way to do it is to leave your chicken in the fridge overnight the day before you want to smoke it. You’ll need to pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper before smoking it, and to make sure you use plenty of dry rub, making sure to get it into the cavity and under the skin of the whole chicken.

Crispy Smoked Chicken Rub

Using a good BBQ is definitely part of getting a crispy skin on your smoked chicken. Salt in particular helps to draw moisture out of the meat which helps to crisp up chicken skin.

If you want to make your own homemade BBQ dry rub combine the following ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder (increase or decrease according to heat tolerance
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons onion powder

Crispy Smoked Chicken Pellet Grill Method

To ensure crispy skin on our smoked chicken we are going to smoke the chicken in 2 stages – firstly low and slow to take on smoke flavour and secondly at a higher heat to make sure the skin crisps up.

• Remove dry brined chicken from the fridge, pat dry and leave for 30 minutes or so to come up to room temperature
• Put wood pellets of choice in the hopper of your pellet grill (hickory, apple or cherry are good choices) and preheat to 225F or 107C
• Place the whole chicken in the smoker and smoke for around 1 hour with the lid down
• Increase the heat in your pellet grill to 400F or 232C and smoke the chicken for about 45 minutes more until the internal temperature is 165F or 74C
• Rest the chicken for 5-10 minutes then serve

Smoked Spatchcocked Chicken with Crispy Skin

Another method worth considering to ensure crispy smoked chicken is the spatchcock method. This involves removing the chicken’s backbone with a pair of sharp scissors and pushing down on the bird to flatten it out.

This allows the chicken to cook evenly, get better smoke penetration and helps the skin overall to crisp up nicely. You can watch the process on our Instagram video below.

Crispy Smoked Chicken Traeger

You can of course smoke your chicken on any pellet grill, but if you want to smoke chicken on a Traeger we would recommend using the Super Smoke setting for extra smokiness.

What is the Best Wood For Smoking Chicken?

If you like a strong smoke flavour you could use hickory wood. Mesquite is probably too strong for chicken however, and better for beef.

If you like a milder, sweeter smoke flavour you can’t really go wrong with fruit woods such as cherry or apple. It’s also worth considering a medium ground of half hickory and half apple wood to get the best of both worlds.

If you would like more on the topic of smoked chicken you could try our article on best smoked chicken recipes. If you are looking for smoker recipes with similar smoke times to this one try our 2 hour smoker recipes post.