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 🙂
Just made this for dinner tonight and OH YEAH, its a keeper. I already knew about Alabama white sauce and have been using it for years on smoked chicken, pulled pork and brisket. I made chicken breat instead of thigh quarters and it was still great. Seems like next time, I’ll cut the cooking time down just a bit for white meat. I bet it’s perfect for dark meat. Thank you for your recipe
So glad to hear that you liked it Chad!!
I made this for dinner tonight (using 2 tsp. of Liquid Smoke), and it was wonderful!
SO glad you liked it Jess!!!
This sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks for another delicious sounding recipe!
Ok will give this a try, I too love my Dutch Ovens, and have several, but my favourties are both oval, one is a Le Cruset rather small, which was a wedding gift, and the other is a big one with daisies all over the out side, which was one my momma bought for herself and passed on to me. My Sil got one for Xmas that year, and I was most put out, but momma said she would give it to me when I got married, took her about 10 years past that to do it, but she did give it to me. I have a small black one that came with a whole set of cast pans and pots, which I do use on occasion, and I also have a “REAL” Dutch oven, with legs and a lid for putting coals on top. That one my brother bought for doing pit cooking, but never got around to building the fire pit to use it in! Typical of him, so I will have to see what we can do about that! LOL
I don’t like smoke in the liquid form, but that is because momma had a bottle of Smokeene which was a coaltar fake smoke and it was very difficult to get it in the right proportions so she quit using it, never saw good smoke product for many years.
Hi! I saw your mother’s meatball soup today, and I only have one question…when do you put the veggies in? I may have missed this, but didnt see it.
I love soup, always have it in the freezer, homemade, of course and any new soup/stew receipes will certainly catch my eye.
thank you and keep the good cookin ideas comin!!!!!!!!!!1
Opps, Mama is learning 🙂 Just add the vegetables when you add the meatballs and everything.
P.S. We also love your Greek Chicken & Potatoes recipe, and your recipe for Greek Potatoes (from your latest book).
Christy, this looks so good. I will be trying it very soon. Thanks so much for the instructions using a baking dish, as I don’t have a Dutch oven. I should probably get one soon, though.
I made your Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken And Rice for dinner tonight (having just tried it for the first time last month). I think it’s one of my new favorite meals. I’m already looking forward to the leftovers.
Besides that great meal, in the last week I’ve made the Pizza Casserole (for about the fourth time), and your Cornbread Pan Sandwiches (for the second time). I love all the recipes! Everything is so delicious, but also fairly easy to make. There are tons more I plan on trying.
I’ve shared your site with my mom (who has a new iPad, so she’s now online), and she’s tried the same recipes and loves them too. As does, my brother. It’s kind of funny when my mom and I start our first phone conversation of the day with, “Did you see what Christy posted today?” Ha, today I beat her to it and told her about today’s smokehouse chicken recipe and that she had to check it out. Later in the day, she called me back to tell me how great it looked and that she can’t wait to make it.
We appreciate you so much, Christy! Your recipes, your blogs, and your enthusiasm for everything! Of course, we have both your books too. Thanks so much!!