Smoked chicken breast is not quite a low and slow dish as it is an incredibly lean piece of meat, which means when you smoke it, it doesn’t take nearly as long.
You still want a consistent heat maintained, but the lack of tissue to break down means that it will cook quickly, so you need to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t overcook and dry out.
You can use the snake method, but it’s probably overkill on this one as these don’t actually take long. I started this cook with a snake (mostly out of habit and honestly not really thinking), and then ended up shifting the briquettes to the baskets in the Weber as I only really needed half of them.
Ingredients
- Brine – You can either use a pre-packaged brine or make your own using water, salt and sugar
- Two chicken breast fillets (skinless)
- BBQ Rub (we used Moonshine BBQ Chicken Rub or Moonshine BBQ Spiced Heat)
- Apple wood
- BBQ sauce to glaze
- Butter
Smoked Chicken Breast Method
- Brine your chicken for a half hour in a mixture of 2L of water, half a cup of salt and half a cup of sugar. Brining will help it to not dry out during the cook.
- Fill one basket in your BBQ with coals so that the grill plate sits flat, then place 10-12 of them in a chimney starter and light them up
- Let ash over and then add to the top of the basket, place to one side (away from thermometer) and put the lid on. Leave for a half hour to allow other briquettes to light (this is basically the minion method). Place a foil tray of water under the area where you will cook the chicken.
- Meanwhile, rub chicken liberally with rub and let come to room temperature
- When the BBQ has reached 300F (150c), place piece of apple wood on coals, replace grill plate (make sure you use gloves) and add the chicken fillets to the plate and pop the lid back on.
- Warm your sauce in a saucepan and melt and stir butter through until it shines
- When the chicken is 160F, dredge in the sauce and return to the grill
- Remove from heat at 165F and when sauce is set
