Hickory Smoked Barbecue Chicken Recipe

How to make EASY Hickory Smoked Barbecue Chicken on a small charcoal grill!

Hey friends! A few post back I shared a recipe for Grilled Barbecue Rib Tips. As promised, I have another barbecue recipe! This time I am going to show you how to make a super easy hickory smoked barbecue chicken!

This recipe is super easy, and I will use minimum ingredients. I actually use my homemade barbecue rub to season the chicken, which I have a recipe for. If you’re not up to making a the rub, you can use a store bought rub, however- you will be missing out!

To keep this recipe really easy, I used my favorite store bought sauce, you can definitely make homemade sauce if you choose, as a matter of fact- I will be sharing some homemade barbecue sauce recipes pretty soon!

To prevent my chicken from burning, I used indirect heat.  It took about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes, but it was worth the time.  Keep in mind that I used a small charcoal grill for this recipe, and to add smokey flavor I added some hickory wood chips on top of the charcoal. It added enough ( not an excessive amount) of smoke to flavor the chicken.

Hickory Smoked Barbecue Chicken

Using homemade rub and store-bought sauce, this is a very easy recipe resulting in tender and tangy grilled chicken that is slow cooked to perfection.

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Course Main

Cuisine BBQ

Keyword Hickory Smoked Barbecue Chicken

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Marinate 4 hours hours

Total Time 5 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1  lb chicken legs and thighs
• 2 tbsp barbecue seasoning rub
• 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1  tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cup your favorite bbq sauce use less or more to your taste

For the Grill

• great quality charcoal I use Kingsford Original
• hickory wood chips make sure that you soak them for at least 1 hour prior to using them

Instructions

• Rinse and clean 1 pound of chicken legs and thighs.
• Season with homemade barbecue rub.
• Drizzle chicken with extra-virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar.
• Using your hands, make sure chicken is nicely coated.
• Marinate for 4 hours or overnight.
• Soak hickory woodchips for at least one hour before grilling.
• Heat charcoal. Once charcoal is nice and hot, place woodchips directly on top of charcoal.
• Cook chicken over indirect heat for approximately 25 minutes.
• Dab barbecue sauce on chicken.
• Every 20 to 25 minutes, turn and baste the chicken with the barbecue sauce until the chicken is cooked throughout and the sauce is sticky.
• Remove the chicken from the grill and serve while hot!

Video

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© 2025 I Heart Recipes

Recipe by: I Heart Recipes

Watch the video for instructions