Easy Smoked Chicken Thighs

I am still messing around with my Louisiana Grills Pellet Smoker and learning how to use it. We like boneless skinless chicken thighs because they have a nice chicken flavour  but not much fat. The downside is they are hard to get perfect. If I cooked them over relatively high heat they seem to get rubbery. If I smoked them low and slow they were tender and had a good texture. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get a sauce to caramelize on the exterior. Sigh.

I wondered if I could use the fine temperature control of the pellet grill to get the best of both worlds. I decided to do some basic seasoned/sauced thighs to see.

I started by sprinkling some Louisiana Grills Poultry Seasoning on both sides of the thighs.

I preheated the smoker to 220 F and put them on the smoker. One of the things about a pellet smoker is that they generate more smoke at the lower temperatures.

I put the chicken on.

Thirty minutes later, I brushed both sides of the chicken with barbecue sauce. I used the Molasses Mustard Q Sauce I made in the prior post. I turned the pellet smoker up to 300 F.

I cooked the chicken for another 15 minutes and made sure the internal temperature was over 165 F.

I took it off and let it sit for a few minutes before serving.

We served it with pasta and broccoli salad.

The Verdict

I have a new way of doing boneless skinless chicken thighs. The chicken was moist and tender and the sauce was nicely cooked to the surface.

There was a kiss of smoke flavour. You won’t get a strong smoke flavour in this short a cook but it did add to the complexities of the flavour profile.

The Old Fat Guy