Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken
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Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken is tenderized and slow-cooked in a Dutch Oven. The meat becomes extra-tender and stays that way beneath a skin that is crisped and browned in the final step of the cooking process. Read on for the mouthwatering recipe.
Serve this with a heaping helping of Alabama White Barbecue Sauce and you might feel as if you’ve gone to Glory.
In order to make the smokehouse chicken I grew up with, you’d need a pit building that has been smoking chicken since the 1950’s and pit masters who work on it all day to get it just right. But on the off chance that you, like me, don’t have your own barbecue smokehouse, this is how I do it and it comes in as a very close kissin’ cousin — awfully good in it’s own right.
Recipe Ingredients:
- Cider Vinegar (more about that under the next photo)
- Kosher salt (or regular)
- Smoked Paprika (or regular)
- Hot sauce (the red kind)
- Crushed Red Pepper
- Brown Sugar (light or dark)
- Smoked or Regular Black Pepper
Helpful Kitchen Tools
- Dutch Oven
Oh yeah, you’re gonna need some chicken. Bone in, skin on. No exceptions if you want this to be just right.
Seriously, if you don’t have the exact ingredients I am using (other than the type of chicken), it will be ok — what you have on hand will do just fine. But the chicken must be bone in, skin on.
*If you really want to give it a smokehouse taste, add in a little bit of liquid smoke. I don’t use that on here because I get too many emails when I use it that are actually worse than the emails I get when I use food coloring — and that is sayin’ something — believe me!
How To Make Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken
Pour your vinegar into a dutch oven or deep baking dish.
A 9×13 would work for this as long as you are careful not to spill the liquid when putting it in and out of the oven.
Why Add Vinegar?
The chicken doesn’t taste like vinegar — don’t worry. The vinegar is a base that tenderizes it and infuses it with all of the other flavors. Once you add everything else to the vinegar in the next step, it becomes just a base. However, your kitchen will smell like cider vinegar and it WILL clean your sinuses out when you open the lid. If you can’t deal with that then you should have someone make this chicken for you :). However, if you like my slow cooked pulled pork, you’ll love this dutch oven smokehouse chicken. I used that recipe as a starting point to come up with this one.
Now add in all of your other stuff, everything except the chicken.
Stir that up good and well until the sugar is dissolved. The vinegar helps this happen pretty fast.
Now put your chicken in, skin side down.
Put a lid on your dutch oven or cover your baking dish with foil.
Bake this at 300 for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully remove lid (watch for the steam). Flip chicken over and put lid back on. Return to oven for another 45 minutes.
After that time, remove lid and keep pot in oven. Place oven on broil for 15-20 minutes to brown and crisp skin, watching carefully so chicken doesn’t burn.
This is what mine looked like after 20 minutes under the broiler. I removed some of the liquid to get more parts of the chicken browning (the parts under the liquid won’t brown).
And this is what you have on your plate.
Now go ahead…Dig in to this crispy moist meal of goodness. Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken might just be your new favorite way to eat chicken.
Ingredients
- Bone-in skin-on chicken however much will fit in a single layer of a baking dish or Dutch oven
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon smoked black pepper can use regular
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar dark or light
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce the red kind in the glass bottle
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 +1/2 cups cider vinegar
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except for chicken in enamel Dutch Oven, or other baking dish. Stir well until sugar is dissolved.
- Place chicken in pot, skin side down. Cover and place in 300 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove pot from oven and flip chicken. Cover again and return to oven for another 45 minutes.
- Remove lid and place oven on broil. Broil for 20 minutes, or until skin is nicely browned and somewhat crispy on top, watching carefully so that it does not burn (this may take significantly less time in your oven as they vary).
- Spoon additional pan juices over to serve.
Nutrition
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
~Albert Einstein
Holler at me in the comments. I love to hear from you 🙂
Hello, hello, hello, 🙂
I am new to your site; however, I am using your recipes already!
Being from the South and growing up with GREAT cooks, I am a pretty good cook and still enjoy trying new recipes/ideas still after 55 years of cooking!! I started cooking for a family of 7 at age of 13!!
Thanks for all the positive thoughts and recipe ideas!
Merlene
Christy, this recipe sounds soooo tasty! Plan to try it soon. Love your attitude toward life!
I have made your Boston Butt so many times that I can now make it without the recipe so you know a really Love it . Now this recipe looks like it just may take its place. I am guessing that just like the Boston Butt that it is not too spicy. I love the vinegar in it even tho you don’t really taste it .Looks like another winner !
Hey Jan! If you like that recipe, you’re right, you will love this one! Sounds like you and I have similar tastebuds. The spices in this one are about like the pulled pork, they give an underlying background flavor but don’t light a fire or anything. I’m not really a spicy hot type gal. I pretty much love vinegar in everything, too, lol!
Have a great day!
Yummy! I cant wait to try this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you April! Hope y’all like it as much as we do!
Wow am I going to try this one.
Hope you like it!
This looks wonderful and it’s a must try for sure. But I have another question. I was following links in this post and looking at your recipes for slow cooker pork and beef and comparing to what I’ve done before. My question is about the 2 in 1 Meal: Beef Burritos and BBQ Sandwiches recipe. In the pictures you show adding water and bouillon cubes, but the recipe has no amount for the water used. Maybe I should just know, but I don’t! I’m one of those non-creative cooks that needs a recipe! I love reading your blog – it always feels like having a chat with a friend. I grew up in Montgomery, after all. Thanks for all you do!
Hey! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I would add about 4 cups of water. You just need a starting point to get you some liquid in there. I hope this helps and please don’t ever hesitate to ask a question if I’m not as clear as I should be.
20 minutes under the broiler?? really??? would that not burn it to a crisp?? Just wondering… This does look fabulous though for real!!! I should have you cook for me when I have my surgery in December Christy.. 🙂 (Seeing as we are practically neighbors)
Denise, like Christy says, only broil it till it’s nice and brown and crispy, everyone’s broiler is different and you use your own judgement as to how long.
I have a gas oven so do not even have a broiler and will just transfer it to my toaster oven in a small pan and broil them. If I am camping, I will remove from my dutch oven or my camp dutch oven and place them on my grill over the coals till nice and brown and crispy.
We are going camping over Thanksgiving and I will be making this then or sooner for here at home, lol!
Hey! I mentioned in the post that it needs to be watched for this very reason. Also, pay attention to where you put your pot in proximity of the broiler. Mine is probably a little over a foot away. It’s all relative and we really have to rely on ourselves with that step. It’s a best judgement type thing 🙂