Spicy Smoked Chicken Thighs - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

What is the best time and temp to smoke chicken thighs? ›

How Long to Smoke Chicken Thighs. Chicken thighs take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes to fully cook on a smoker set to 275 degrees F. Keep an internal meat thermometer handy and continue to smoke until your chicken thighs reach an internal temperature of 170-175 degrees F.

Do You Flip Chicken Thighs When Smoking? No, do not flip them over. You can move them around the grill grate to expose all sides to the heat and smoke source better, but the skin should always remain on top. As its fat renders it will both flavor and protect the thigh meat from overdrying.

First and foremost, smoke your chicken at higher temperatures. The ideal temperature to cook your chicken should be around 275 °F – 320 °F (135 °C – 160 °C). As you start to decrease temperature beyond this threshold, the skin will become rubbery.

The other thing I would suggest is to turn the heat up on the chicken. Low heat + smoke = rubbery and tough skin. I do a lot of barbecue, and I never find any compelling reasons to do chicken low and slow, unless I want to make pulled chicken, at which point the skin is useless to me anyway.

Add the chicken thighs skin-side up and smoke until they reach 165°F on an instant-read thermometer inserted at the thickest part, 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes depending upon the size of your thighs, your smoker set up, and how much your smoker temperature is fluctuating.

Are chicken thighs done at 165? While chicken leg and thigh meat are still safe at 165 degrees F, it is recommended to cook it to an internal temperature of about 170-175 degrees F to improve the flavor and tenderness.

The advantage is that it's already all cut up and no carving is required. These pieces, as I figured, took about 4 hours and 10 minutes at the 220 degree temperature I cooked them at. The rub did NOT burn and they were perfectly tender and juicy at 165 degrees internal temperature.

Give both methods a try and let me know what you think. The method of using a hot cast iron flat surface is a must! Honestly, I know some say smoking chicken thighs at 225°F for 2 hours is best.

Should you foil chicken when smoking? ›

If you're a fan of braised-like smoked meat, foil is the way to go. Foil is not breathable and tends to trap in all the juices and fat from the meat. Once your meat is cooked and taken off the smoker to rest, those fats and juices are then reabsorbed, locking in all that goodness and flavor.

If using a dry rub, pat the chicken dry with paper towels before seasoning to ensure the dry rub properly sticks to the meat. Rubbing olive oil or butter onto the dry chicken first can also help seasonings stick.

Marinating not only adds flavor, but the combination of healthy fat and acid in most recipes also helps tenderize the meat. A good marinade is roughly three parts oil to one part acid, plus salt and other seasonings like spices, crushed garlic, or a little natural sugar.

Rub with Salt and Baking Powder

It prods some of the skin's proteins and fat to break down, which, combined with its alkalinity, accelerates the Maillard reaction, for skin that browns and crisps more quickly.

If you find the chicken thigh skin isn't as crispy as you would like, it could mean the skin may not have been dry before you added it to the oil.

Smoking at relatively low temperatures, like the 250°F (121°C) we recommend here, makes chicken skin rubbery, flabby and, well, gross.

A: On poultry the skin does seem to take the brunt of the smoke and heat and can turn out tough and not very appetizing when you cook it at low smoking temperatures. To create tasty smoked chicken with skin that has a good “bite-through”, it requires drying the skin before cooking it and then cooking it a higher heat.