Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken

Smokehouse Chicken is slow cooked in a dutch oven in a tenderizing sauce that causes the meat to become fork tender beneath a skin that is crisped and browned in the final step of the cooking process.

Serve it 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 like I grew up with, you’d need a pit building that has been smoking chicken since 1950’s and the 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 kissing 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

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) but have one of the “or” options I listed, do not go make a special trip to get the one I use. What you have on hand will do just fine.

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 saying something, believe me.

How To Make 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?

This chicken doesn’t taste like vinegar. The vinegar is a base that tenderizes it and infuses it with all of the other flavors but 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 so 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 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 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.

Smokehouse Chicken in a Dutch Oven

Smoke House Chicken is slow cooked in a tenderizing sauce that causes the meat to become fork tender beneath a skin that is crisped and browned.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken

Servings: 4

Calories: 409kcal

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

Calories: 409kcal

Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

“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 🙂