Smoked Chicken

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Appears in Cook's Illustrated July/August 2011, America's Test Kitchen TV

Surprisingly, the trick to perfecting smoky flavor in this smoked chicken isn't getting the wood to smolder for as long as possible. It's just the opposite: knowing when to let it burn out.

SERVES 6 to 8

TIME 2½ hours, plus 30 minutes brining

has video

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Brining chicken pieces plumped the meat with extra moisture—a boon in a grill-smoked chicken recipe, in which the meat is prone to drying out. The key to our successful Smoked Chicken recipe was the charcoal grill setup. Mounding some lit c...

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