Smoked Chicken With Alabama White Sauce

Crispy and juicy smoked chicken is the best. There is nothing finer or simpler to create when done right.

I’ll teach you how to prepare, season, and smoke the greatest chicken you’ve ever had in this recipe.

Serve the smoked chicken with the Alabama white sauce. It’s simple to create and then sprinkle over the chicken to provide zing and even more fantastic taste in every mouthful!

Smoking a whole chicken 

I buy a full chicken for the week every time I go food shopping. There are several ways to prepare them, and chicken goes well with almost anything. Plus, when they’re on sale, you can get two!

Furthermore, if you are preparing a whole chicken for a large group of people, like I do with my family, you have various alternatives to pick from. My wife favors white meat, whereas I prefer dark. My kids try a little bit of everything and compete over the wings!

If we have leftovers, we heat them up with rice, create a chicken salad, or make chicken noodle soup using the entire chicken carcass as stock.

Alabama white sauce

If you haven’t tried Alabama white sauce, it’s a delicious, tangy sauce prepared with mayonnaise, pepper, vinegar, mustard, and horseradish.

While it goes well with pork, shellfish, and even potato chips, it is most popular with chicken.

You can get the entire Alabama White Sauce recipe here. If you don’t want to prepare your own sauce, most decent barbeque establishments sell it in a bottle.

Our favorite store-bought white sauce after tasting most of them is the Lillys Q Ivory sauce.

Preparing the chicken 

There are a few steps you may take ahead of time to ensure juicy chicken with crispy skin. To be honest, nothing beats dried out chicken with leathery skin.

If you have the time, brining your chicken for 24 hours is worthwhile.

If you’re not acquainted with brining, it’s the process of immersing a protein in a mixture of water, sugar, salt, and sometimes additional spices.

You may also dry brine the chicken by sprinkling salt on the exterior and refrigerating it for 4 to 24 hours. Brining your protein will aid to improve taste, maintain moisture, and tenderize it.

Brining is particularly beneficial for lean proteins like chicken or other meats that tend to dry up owing to a lack of fat.

To eliminate any extra salt, rinse the chicken with water after brining and before seasoning. If you only remember one item from this post, make it brining your chicken.

What kind of wood is best for smoking chicken? 

Chicken and fish are the two protein sources that go well with fruitwoods. Woods like hickory or mesquite may quickly overshadow the meat, providing you with an overpowering smoky flavor. I know this from personal experience.

I used cherry wood in this recipe. I like the sweet taste it adds to chicken, and it also helps with color.

If you feel that wood pieces produce too much smoke and dominate your meat, try using wood chips instead. You may still get some smoky flavor on the meat and add more if desired.

How to get crispy skin when smoking chicken 

There are two techniques to get crispy skin on your chicken.

1. Remove moisture from the skin’s surface by patting it dry and placing it in your fridge on a wire rack to allow excess moisture to escape. Crispy skin means dry skin.
2. Finish your cooking at a higher temperature. The high temperatures will help to tighten the skin and make it beautiful and crispy.

I prefer to use 400F for this procedure. I’ve even cooked chicken at temperatures ranging from 300 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for the duration of the cook.

How to make smoked chicken

1. Preparing your chicken

Take the chicken out of its packing and blot it dry using paper towels. Make careful to remove the giblets, which comprise the innards and the neck, from entire chickens before cooking.

If you haven’t previously brined the chicken, set it in the fridge for at least 2 hours on a wire rack with a pan beneath. This provides 80% of the benefits of an overnight brine and enables the skin of the chicken to dry out, resulting in crispy skin.

I suggest spatchcocking the chicken before seasoning it to guarantee consistent cooking. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “spatchcocking,” it’s the act of removing the spine of a chicken and flattening it out (find out how to spatchcock chicken here).

It ensures that everything cooks evenly and gives for a good appearance and finish. If resting in the fridge before seasoning, spatchcock it first.

Season both sides of the chicken with your favorite BBQ chicken rub. I used Kosmos Beer Can Chicken Rub in this recipe. It contains an excellent blend of herbs and spices that complement poultry.

The rub on the chicken is yellowish at first but will change to a brown tone as it smokes.

However, you can’t go wrong with your rub selection here, so feel free to explore. Even plain salt and pepper works great; however, if you have previously brined the chicken, avoid using salt or a salty rub.

2. Fire up the smoker to 300°F

I used the Char-Griller Akorn with Fogo Charcoal for this recipe.

Set your smoker to 300°F and load it with cherry wood.

When your smoker is ready, place the chicken directly on the grill grates and smoke at 300°F.

If you are short on time, you may increase the temperature; just keep an eye on the temperature in the breast to ensure it does not dry out.

Remove the chicken from the smoker once it has reached an internal temperature of 165F in the breast and let it to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Once the breast, wings, thighs, and legs have been split, sprinkle over some Alabama white sauce or offer some on the side for dipping.

The apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper in the white sauce provide a spark of flavor to the chicken without overpowering it. It’s one of my favorite sauces for chicken, but it also goes nicely with fish.

Poultry recipes that are big on flavor

• Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich
• Easy Smoked Chicken Breast
• Smoked Buffalo Wings
• Smoked Duck Breast with Cherry Orange Sauce
• Smoked Chicken Maryland