Is your grill ready for grilling season? Are you wondering how to make the best smoked chicken thighs on your grill? This blog post will show you how to make delicious, juicy, and flavorful grilled chicken thighs that are perfect for a weekend barbecue.
Follow these simple steps and enjoy some of the best BBQ in town!
Traeger Smoked Chicken Thighs Recipe:
Chicken thighs cooked in a grill are also easy to cook on the stove. Almost everything from bone-in meat to the crispy chicken flavor is amazing. Traeger Chicken Thighs deliver the same flavor and texture as our favorite wings, but there’s substantially more meat on them.
The crisp, crispy skin and the moist thigh of the chicken make me happy. Having the skin on these thighs maybe a bit more expensive but it was worth it for the crunchy goodness!
Recipe Found on Traeger
Equipment Needed For Smoked Chicken Thighs
There are many good-quality smokers on the marketplace for less than a few hundred dollars. A meat thermometer really is necessary for meat in an outdoor grill. Traeger wood chips can be bought from Amazon or wherever they sell Traeger grills.
Choose Your Chicken
Chicken thighs generally belong at the lower end of the price range without compromising on quality. Try to give the thighs a consistent size. Inconsistent sizes may cause lengthy cooking time since you should constantly check the thigh’s movement.
The fact they are rather inexpensive means that we have the luxury of chucking it in a couple of cases if they turn out poor. Try to research the best quality in the area but do not break the bank. Try getting some spare chicken in the freezer for the following few days.
How Do I Brine Chicken Thighs?
Brining is an often overlooked step but they serve a huge function of retaining moisture in the product. This is particularly important for smoking because the meat may remain exposed to hot temperatures for hours at a time.
Brine for chicken thighs is typically a salty solution used to season meats. A brining will both season and tenderize meat, especially chicken thighs. The salt both seasons the poultry and changes the structure of the protein fibers in the meat.
It will also alter other aspects of food chemistry such as texture, flavor, consistency, appearance, and freshness. Here is our favorite brine recipe for smoked chicken thighs:
- 5 quarts of cold water or enough to cover your chicken thighs by about 2-inches
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt for every quart of water
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar for every quart of water
- Optional spices like garlic cloves smashed with a side tablespoon of dried herbs like bay leaves tied into cheesecloth or spice bag
Why Smoke Chicken Thighs?
Chicken legs are much more economical than wings or legs but are much darker meat. This makes them more flavourful. They tend to cook very quickly and provide a somewhat substantial amount of meat when compared to other parts.
It’s no surprise then why people like them. Their high-fat content is good smoked and the food takes next to no time to cook compared to other meat types when compared to some fatty parts.
How Long Does It Take To Smoke Chicken Thighs?
Dark meat takes more time to cook than White meat on the breast. After 45 minutes you must pull the thighs out of the smoke again. To keep the thighs from dilating use vinegar.
This liquid absorbed both moisture and nutrition adding flavor to it. Make a mixture of apple cider vinegar, spice rub, and your favorite barbecue sauce. It means you can simply brush it all up after 45 minutes and every half hour after thigh cooking to complete the sauce.
It is called a mop because of the fact that big smokers use a mop. Put in a small hose with your hand and sprinkle over the proteins.
Be Careful With The Skin
That crispy layer will not give you any benefit if our oven temperatures are too low. The trick is to get an easily accessible soft layer. We can reduce this by scraping off fat hidden under it.
This can be achieved by pulling the skin back and extracting the fat from the underside till it becomes transparent. Do this before applying your rub before applying it on the hen. You can add another little rub to your skin before you apply it.
Best BBQ Sauce Rub For Chicken Thighs
This is best done by using a baking tray. Place your chicken thighs together on the plate, leaving a bit of room between each one. If you use a prepackaged or premade rub your feet generously.
Always rub both sides of the meat, covering the whole cut. Rub as gently as your fingers can help make them less irritable. Try different recipes to find the best BBQ sauce rubs for chicken and BBQ sauce chicken.
Use AppleWood For Smoking Chicken
Applewood is the most effective wood for smoked chicken thighs. It corresponds to the weight in chicken breasts flawlessly. It usually goes well with most chicken cuts and it makes everything taste perfect.
How Do I Reheat Leftovers?
When you are cooking leftover chicken thighs in a hot skillet the fat side down the leg is used for this purpose. This helps the skin-on chicken thighs become softer. In addition, you can cut chicken and use it in salads such as a chicken salad or mix a chicken casserole.
Try making Traeger grills chicken thighs smoked recipe for the best chicken thighs you have ever eaten. They’re wonderful and they’ll be the best steak you’ve ever eaten.
More Smoked Chicken Recipes:
You can’t have BBQ without the king of all meats, chicken. Smokey Grill BBQ has you covered with some delicious smoked recipes for your next get together:
Smoked Chicken Thighs FAQ:
What Side Goes Well With Smoked Chicken Thighs?
It’s also possible to eat it once or more times double or trip it. This recipe is great for anyone coming together to barbecue. Enjoy restaurant-quality smoked chicken thighs from your own backyard.
Smoked chicken thighs are best served with vegetables and starch.
What Temperature Should I Smoke Chicken Thighs?
The internal temperature of smoked chicken thighs depends on what type of smoker you plan to use. Indirect-heat smokers and water smokers should smoke the chicken thighs at a low temperature, between 250 and 300 degrees.
Conversely, if you’re using an electric or direct-heat smoker, and the intended finished internal temperature is 165F for whole chickens and 180F for bone-in parts, then smoking should be done within that range of temperatures.
Likewise, try not to smoke over 265 F because it will change the natural texture of canned baby food!
Is Preheating Important?
When smoking in a pellet grill or the other grill or smoker you have to turn it on and bring the internal temperature up before putting the thighs on the grill. Because they have a lower weight it will be a quicker smoke and if we are looking for this bbq chicken, smoked chicken flavor, we need to make sure that we have wood flavors on full throttle.
When selecting the wood pellet to smoke, select a product that interests you. We recommend a lighter flavor like cherry wood or applewood pellets for cooking chicken thighs.
Can I Use Boneless Chicken Thighs?
Boneless chicken is usually reserved for “poultry” dishes that are roasted, grilled, or baked. Smoked Chicken thighs, with the bone in them, are what you would look for in recipes that call for smoking or barbecuing. Typically recipes will specify which part of the chicken they want us to use when in doubt.
But in some cases, there isn’t anything specified and we have to make an educated decision on our own. Some people prefer buying packages of boneless skinless chicken breast because it gives them more control over what goes into the dish without experimenting too much.
If you’re wanting smoked sorts of flavors then boneless skinless is not going to get that job done reliably on its own.
Wrapping Up
This post has been a great guide to the basics of smoking chicken, as well as some tips and tricks for getting that perfect smoked flavor. We hope you’ve learned something new about this delicious dish! If you’re looking for more information on how to smoke meat, be sure to check out our other posts in the Smoking series where we cover everything from brisket to pork belly.
Happy grilling!
