Smoked Chicken Help!

Best simple brine for chicken (IMO) is 3/4 cup kosher salt and 1 cup brown sugar per gallon of water. Figure out how much water you'll need to cover the chickens completely and adjust accordingly. Brine overnight (10-16 hours) and you're good to go.
Temps and time for chickens is always a big debate, all depending on how you want your skin to come out. If you want a crispy skin, you aren't going to get it at 225-250. The meat will taste just fine, but skin will be a bit "rubbery" due to the low temps. One compromise is to start them low-n-slow" for an hour or so them bump your temps up to 300+ to crisp the skin up until done. Or, you could just go high heat all the way and run them 300+ for the entire smoke. If you don't give a flip about skin texture and want max smoke flavor, then just low-n-slow the whole smoke.
Personally, I'll start at 225-250 for an hour then ramp up to 300+ to finish.
This isn't competition chicken BTW, just home cooking.

I did these two last weekend at 300 for ~ 3 and 1/2 hours.

To me chicken is best hot and fast. 325 or so.

I go direct with a raised grid on bge @ 350* til desired internal. Comes out great every Tim

bggarric said:

Direct or indirect?

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