Smoked Spatchcock Chicken on a Pellet Grill – Extraordinary BBQ

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I love cooking chickens on my various grills and smokers. One of my favorite ways of tackling a whole bird is to butterfly (spatchcock) it by cutting out the backbone and flattening the breast so it lays nicely flat on top of the cooking grate.

Today’s recipe features a smoked spatchcock chicken I cooked on a pellet grill and how to get great smoke flavor into the meat while also getting the skin cooked just right!

Spatchcock and Season the Chicken

Get the chicken ready for the grill by using a pair of shears to cut the backbone out of the chicken and then pressing down on the top of the breasts to flatten the bird out.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and then lightly spray with Pam non-stick cooking spray. The Pam is going to help the skin get browned and crisp while also helping the rub adhere.

I read this recipe for Traeger Spatchcock Chicken and loved the color the bird got from the Traeger Chicken Rub so I decided to use that for this chicken. If you want to make your own batch of seasoning instead of paying way too much for a Traeger product, then let me point you over to our Award Winning Dry Rub for Chicken Recipe.

Coat the skin side of the chicken with as much rub as you can.

If you wanted to load up the bird with even more flavors then you could use an injection like I showed in this post for a Weber Q Spatchcock Chicken .

Smoke the Chicken at 350F on Your Pellet Grill

One of the biggest challenges in the world of smoking chickens is to get both:

If you cook the chicken “low and slow” at 250F then you will get great smoke flavor and a chewy, almost inedible skin.

If you cook the chicken “hot and fast” at 350F then you get great skin but little smoke flavor.

I tackled this problem by cooking the chicken hot and fast at 350F while using a smoke tube filled with smoldering wood pellets. I was cooking on a Z Grills pellet grill but the recipe will work fine with your Traeger or Pit Boss.

I was using Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets in the smoke tube and the hopper and the smoke flavor was great. Apple is another great wood choice for chicken.

The chicken goes on the grill skin side up and is never turned over during the cook.

Let the chicken cook for one hour or until an internal temperature of 165F is reached in the breast meat.

Slice and Serve the Spatchcock Chicken

Once the breast meat reaches an internal temperature of 165F pull the chicken off the grill and place it on a baking sheet. Let the bird rest for about 10 minutes and collect any juices that collect in the baking sheet.

Cut the chicken into its various sections (wings, legs, thighs) and slice the breast meat into medallions.

Pour any collected juices over the meat and serve!