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This Dry Brined Smoked Chicken is slowly smoked then finished with a Carolina style BBQ sauce glaze. If you’re looking for your next favorite chicken recipe then you’ve have to try this!
I don’t know about you, but I feel like chicken never gets enough barbecue love. At least that’s what life is like around here with my beef-loving pork-swooning husband. I get it. But this dry-brined Carolina Chicken is one of our favorites.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
The portions for this recipe are for one whole chicken, cut in half, and good for 4-6 people.
- Whole Chicken – Also known as roaster or fryer chicken. You can also have the butcher cut in halves for you. Or use our Dry Brined Spatchcocked Chicken recipe and add this glaze.
- Seasoning – We are using a simple kosher salt and coarse black pepper seasoning. You can add more flavor with our chicken rub.
- Glaze – We are making a Carolina Vinegar Sauce glaze for this dry-brined chicken recipe. You can find vinegar sauces in the grocery store or make your own. Then add honey or agave nectar and some Dijon mustard which will help thicken the glaze.
Buying Chicken Tip
One option is to get a whole roaster chicken and butcher it yourself. But what we like to do is buy the chicken and have the butcher cut it in half. You get more surface area of the bird exposed to smoke flavor by having it cut in half.
Having a whole roaster (also called “fryer”) you have the open cavity, but you don’t necessarily get all that smoke throughout. If the butcher can’t prep it for you, use a good chef knife and then halve the chicken by removing the breastbone and backbone.
You can also modify this recipe by spatchcocking the chicken.
How to Dry Brine Chicken
Simply put, you are salting the meat (or any dry rub with salt as a good base) well in advance of cooking so that salt pulls moisture out from the meat, dissolves the salt, and then is reabsorbed back into the meat again using osmosis. This helps get a good flavor inside the meat.
Place your chicken in a large dish or on a baking sheet. Liberally sprinkle (Diamond Crystal) kosher salt on all sides of your chicken, and then place it in your fridge. Let it sit in your fridge (uncovered) for a couple of hours (up to six) for the full effect.
This allows the fridge to air dry and the dry brine to happen at the same time.
Dry Brining Tip
We recommend brining for up to 24-hours for the best flavor.
How to Cook Dry Brined Chicken on the Smoker
The goal is to smoke, then glaze when it’s almost done, then rest and glaze one last time. Since we are glazing, it won’t be super crispy skin. If you are concerned, you can remove the skin and then season.
Prepare and Smoke Seasoned Chicken
Start with a low heat, like 225 degrees, to get that smoke influence. We use oak or apple wood for flavor. If you want to highlight crispy skin, then run the smoker hotter, like 300 – 325 degrees. That can help render out the fat a little more at the expense of smoke flavor.
Smoke
Smoke the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 150 – 155 degrees Fahrenheit using your instant-read thermometer. The skin will slightly crisp up. Now it’s time to glaze. Note that glazing will soften the skin but you offset that with incredible flavor.
The Glaze
When using the glaze, this is where your favorite flavors can stand out (like mixing sweet with heat and savory). In our case, we used a Carolina style BBQ sauce, with some added agave nectar and Dijon mustard. Whisk it together and then apply the glaze with a silicone BBQ brush. Feel free to use your favorite style of BBQ sauce as your glaze.
This will give you that great sauced flavor from your favorite style of BBQ sauce. BUT don’t glaze early. Sugar in the glaze will burn. Then when your chicken reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the breast and at least that in the thigh, it’s ready to remove and rest. Glaze one last time and let rest to allow for carry over cooking 10 minutes. Our favorite instant read thermometer is the Thermoworks Thermapen One, America’s Test Kitchen winner year over year.
Cut and serve with your favorite sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
The average cooking time will vary based on the size of chicken or the temperature of the smoker, but plan on roughly 2 hours for the total cook. Always cook to the internal temperature of chicken and not time using a good instant-read thermometer versus a dial thermometer.
We prefer the skin on with a 24-hour dry brine so it gets into the skin and the meat and helps with crispy skin. If you have less time, then removing the skin speeds up the process.
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Wine Pairing for Dry Brined Chicken
So what you drink with this gorgeous chicken will depend on what style of BBQ sauce you used as your glaze. We used a Carolina sauce which is full of vinegar and mustard. If you go with a KC, or sweeter-style BBQ sauce that will create an even sweeter glaze.
We strive for a balance of savory/smoky/sweet, which we achieved. This allows for more options with wine. If your sauce is more on the sweet side you can opt for fruity reds like Zinfandel or Syrah. For the Carolina sauce, because of its vinegary pop, we stick to bold rosé’s, rosé sparkling (ah-yeah), or even beer. For beer I’m a fan of a pilsner or pale ale with this sauce.
Seriously, even the biggest pork and beef lover will swoon over this beautiful finish.
Side Ideas
We like to balance the vinegar flavor with richer sides. You can explore any of our side recipes or pick from some of our favorites.
- Duck Fat Potatoes
- Black Bean Salad (Cold Salad)
- No-Mayo Coleslaw
More Awesome Chicken Recipes for the Grill
Check out over 30 grilled chicken recipe ideas or explore some of the following.
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Dry Brine Smoked Chicken with a Carolina Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 roaster or fryer chicken, halved (about 4 – 5 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh cracked pepper
- 1 cup glaze (below)
For the Glaze:
- 2 cups Carolina style BBQ sauce, (see notes for our recipe)
- ⅔ cup agave nectar, (or honey)
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- (Mix ingredients together in a bowl)
Instructions
- Prep Chicken: Assuming you bought a chicken already halved, pat dry the pieces, then place them on a baking sheet that will fit in your fridge. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place into the fridge for up to 6 hours. This is important to get the full flavor and moisture.
- Preheat Smoker: Set the smoker to 225 degrees using your favorite cooking wood (we use apple). Remove the chicken from the fridge. You'll likely notice that the skin has pulled back some from the salting and dehydration in the fridge and the color may be darker. That is normal.
- Smoke Chicken: Place chicken on the smoker. Cook until the internal temperature (IT) is 150 to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. When it hits the IT of 150 – 155 take the glaze and brush all sides of the chicken with it. Then continue cooking.Pull the chicken from the smoker when it reaches between 160-165 degrees F, and then glaze once more. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then slice and serve with your favorite sides.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe today and it is amazing!!!! Thank u we will be making this repeatedly!
Awesome! And thank you for the feedback!
With a smoker you really don’t need a rub. I brush chicken w/ olive oil, salt, pepper, and sometimes cayenne. This seals in the juices and make a beautiful brown bird. It is normal for smoked poultry to be pinkish, so don’t freak out. If you smoke poultry too long, it will be rubbery.
as a bona fide carolina girl, i strongly and enthusiastically approve of this chicken!
Feeling BBQ inspired for this weekend. This chicken looks absolutely divine!!!
I’ve never had Caroline BBQ (I’m a Texas BBQ girl) but this looks delicious – vineger and msutard is interesting. The glaze looks beautiful 😀
What a perfect meal for Memorial Day – And yes please with the rosé sparking!!! Great idea to have your butcher cut the chicken in half – It looks so impressive that way too!
Thanks! Sparkling rosé is magical! It goes with everything.
BBQ season is definitely upon us! I bet you have quite the menu lined up for Memorial Day!
So far so good. The menu has been growing by 2-3 items daily. At the rate we’re going we’re going to need to invite a couple dozen people over to help us eat everything 😉
The instant we own a smoker, I intend to make this. Pinning it for now and hoping to make it sooner rather than later.
Ha! Get on that!!! 😉
Well you can always use a regular outdoor grill too. Same method for the dry brining. Just try to keep the temperature of the grill a bit low (or cook over indirect heat) so everything cooks thoroughly. Then you can always finish it on hot to crisp up that skin!
You don’t need a smoker just a charcoal kettle BBQ… weber is the best. Arrange 2 rows of briquettes domino effect around perimeter of inside BBQ unlit and add 1 row of briquettes on top, unlit. Take 5-6 briquettes and start and when ready lit (takes about 15 minutes to get ready) put adjacent to unlit charcoal. Add wood chunks on top of charcoal almost touching each other all the way around. It will be easy to attain 250F with this set up in summer temps. I think this is called the Minion method or snake method. Cheap cuts of beef come out awesome cooked at 250F Takes 5-7 hours for beef chicken about 3-4 hours but its fun way to get outside and cook. Enjoy
James we love this detail, and we agree. SOOO many of our readers lament that they don’t have an expensive smoker, but all of these can be done on a kettle grill. And the kettles relative to their cousins are very affordable. We love the snake method, with the wood chunks on top, and actually did a piece for Weber cooking tri tip this way. Thanks for sharing your technique!