{"id":5628,"date":"2018-07-25T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=5628"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:42","slug":"barbecued-chicken-thighs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/25\/barbecued-chicken-thighs\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbecued Chicken Thighs"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 25, 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For someone who tries to eat lower on the food chain, I sure love using my smoker.<\/p>\n

Granted, I could smoke things like cheese and even some vegetables but meat is where the smoker really shines!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve smoked pork shoulders, ribs, and turkey breasts, and I continue to expand my repertory, but I really enjoy smoking chicken thighs.<\/p>\n

Smoking is often an all-day affair.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s an all-night affair if one is smoking large enough pieces of meat.\u00a0 So far, I\u2019ve limited myself to smoking things that can go into the smoker at a reasonable time of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019m not one of those guys who wants to sit beside his smoker through the night with a cooler of beer at his side!<\/p>\n

Join our mailing list<\/a> and you\u2019ll never miss a recipe again!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicken thighs cook in a relatively short period of time so they\u2019re great when you want to limit attending to the smoker to just a few hours before dinnertime.<\/p>\n

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My smoker has an adjustment for the heat output but not temperature, per se. If the wind or external temperature change, the internal smoker temperature changes, too. Some day I\u2019ll get a smoker with an actual thermostat but so far this one has served me well.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you get a smoker with an automatic thermostat there would be almost no need to attend to the chicken thighs.\u00a0 While I have a nice smoker, it doesn\u2019t have a thermostat.\u00a0 It has a control that puts out an adjustable but then constant amount of heat based on the setting similar to the way car heaters used to work before cars had real thermostats.\u00a0 If the outdoor temperature or wind changes, the temperature inside the smoker will change due to the constant heat output.<\/p>\n

Before I had a smoker, I used my gas grill to smoke.\u00a0 It has a separate burner just for creating smoke from wood chips.\u00a0 It has three other burners to actually cook the food plus a rotisserie burner.\u00a0 Under many circumstances, the burner for the wood chips puts out enough heat to keep the grill at the proper smoking temperature.\u00a0 When the weather turns cold, like the time I smoked a turkey on Thanksgiving, a little heat from one of the other burners is needed\u2026just not a burner that\u2019s actually under the food.<\/p>\n

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I sometimes use my gas grill to smoke things, including a whole turkey once.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This recipe makes use of two of my previously published recipes, my barbecue rub<\/a> and my barbecue sauce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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If you don\u2019t have a smoker (and I realize that most people don\u2019t) you really can do these on a grill with indirect heat, either gas or charcoal.<\/p>\n

Put on oven thermometer on the grate where you intend to put the chicken.\u00a0 There should not be any heat coming from under that grate.\u00a0 Heat up the opposite side of the grill using either gas or charcoal.\u00a0 With a little experimentation, you\u2019ll be able to keep the side of the grill, where the chicken will go, at the proper smoking temperature.\u00a0 If your grill doesn\u2019t have a separate place for wood chips, add some wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes, to the hot part of the grill from time to time.<\/p>\n

Happy smoking!!! (Oh, and don\u2019t forget the beer!)

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Barbecued Chicken Thighs<\/h2>\n
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These chicken thighs are moist and fall-apart tender. See the Notes section for links to my recipes for barbecue rub and barbecue sauce. Professional kitchens often weigh liquids, hence the 4000 grams of water. 4000 grams would essentially be the same as 4 liters. The advantage of weighing the water, though, is that you can add ice to cool the brine down while still being exact about the quantity of water. This recipe scales easily.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>40 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>4 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>6 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span> 40 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>6<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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