Easy Smoked Chicken Breasts

Learn my secrets for making Easy Smoked Chicken Breasts at home. They are tender and juicy, with such wonderful flavor.

Do I Need To Brine Before Smoking Chicken?

I think chicken really benefits from brining with an improvement in taste and texture. You can read some more about brining in my Crispy Brined Chicken Wings recipe. 

My standard brine recipe is essentially: 4 cups of cold water and 6 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt OR 4 1/2 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt OR 3 tablespoons fine or table salt.

I brine chicken breasts for 4 hours before smoking them. Because we are cooking the chicken for a long period of time, the extra moisture that the brining imparts means that you won’t end up with bone-dry chicken breasts. The salt in the brining solution also amps up the flavor.

How To Season Chicken Before Smoking

By now, I’m sure that you know how much I like to layer flavors. And this recipe is no exception. I think that the smokey flavor from the wood used can be complemented with a simple spice rub. I love to make my own seasoning blends so that I can control the ingredients and the amounts that go into the blend.

The spice blend in this recipe makes the perfect amount for four large chicken breasts, so you won’t have another bottle of spice blend sitting in your cupboard taking up space. It’s made with brown sugar, paprika, kosher salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. If you’re brining first, you won’t need the salt in the seasoning blend too.

If you prefer to use a pre-packaged spice blend, make sure that it doesn’t contain black pepper (and if you’re brining first, check the salt too). In my experience, black pepper turns bitter and unpleasant during the smoking process. If you want to use pepper, add it to your chicken after smoking.

What Kind Of Wood Should I Use?

The final layer of flavor in smoked chicken recipes comes from the wood chips. Just like with Smoked Chicken Thighs, my preference is apple wood for chicken breasts. It has nice subtle, sweet flavor that doesn’t overpower the chicken and works beautifully with the paprika and brown sugar in the spice blend. 

Other woods that work well with chicken are cherry, maple, and oak. If you like a really smoky flavor, you may like hickory wood chips but I think it can be a bit strong for chicken.

If you would like to learn more about the flavors of different type of woods available, here’s an article that outlines types of woods, flavors, uses, and even suggests woods that you shouldn’t use.

How To Smoke Chicken Breasts

My smoker has a firebox to one side, so when I’m placing the chicken on the smoker grill, I make sure to arrange the breasts so the thinnest part is away from the main heat source. This aids in even cooking. If you have the ability to arrange the charcoal or heat source in your smoker as an indirect heat source, I suggest that. The setup for yours may vary, so make sure to refer to your product guide. 

I like to check the temperature of the meat at around 60 minutes. Your instant read thermometer should read 165˚F. If it doesn’t, check the chicken every 15 minutes after that. Once the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches the appropriate internal temperature, remove the chicken to a platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil.

One of the most important steps in this process is to allow the meat to sit before slicing. If you don’t, you’ll lose all of those flavorful juices that we’ve worked so hard to develop. Five to seven minutes will give the fibers in the meat time to relax and the juices to redistribute. Really, what’s another 5 – 7 minutes after the care you’ve taken in preparing and smoking the chicken breasts?

At this point, you have some spectacular chicken breasts with a lovely sweet layer of smoke and spice on the exterior and a juicy, slightly smokey interior ready to eat. I like to serve BBQ sauce and coleslaw or potato salad with the smoked chicken breasts.

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