Today I’m going to show you how to grill a whole chicken indirect. This is one of my favorite ways to grill a whole chicken. The nice thing about indirect grilling a chicken is that is gets such a great smoky, grilled flavor that roasting in your oven just won’t deliver. Plus if you wanted to, you can add some wood chips and give your chicken a more pronounced smokiness.
Indirect grilling a whole chicken is pretty simple. Basically just get yourself a whole chicken, and whatever spices or rubs you prefer. Sometimes I like to add some smoke to my chicken, but you don’t have to, you can let your spices be the forefront instead. However, if you want to add some smoke, get yourself some of your favorite wood chips or chunks and add them when the coals are ready. I like to use apple and hickory a lot when smoking chicken. If you are using a gas grill, no worries, you can smoke with that too; just get yourself one of these.
So, get yourself a whole chicken, and rinse it under cold water and dry it with a paper towel. Make sure to check to see if there are any giblet packets inside and remove that. Remove any lumps of fat in the neck area and body cavity. At this point season how you see fit. Sometimes a simple is better. Just plain salt and pepper are always good, or you can use some sort of chicken rub.
I’m going to go with a lemon garlic flavor today using fresh lemon, garlic, and rosemary. I season the inside of the chicken cavity with salt, pepper, and some fresh chopped rosemary; be pretty generous. I then take a whole lemon and head of garlic and cut both in half. Rub the outside of the chicken with half the lemon and garlic. Once that is done, I place half of the lemon and garlic head in to the cavity of the chicken. I finally season the outside with salt, pepper, and fresh chopped rosemary.
Set up your gas or charcoal grill for indirect grilling with medium heat. If you are using a charcoal grill, you are going to need a drip pan in the center of the grill. Most gas grills have drip pans built in. With the charcoal grill you are going to place the coals on both sides of the drip pan. Once heated you can add your wood chips if you desire. Since I’m doing a lemon garlic chicken, I want that flavor to stand out, so I’m skipping the smoke.
If you want you can truss your chicken, which will help with more even cooking, otherwise you can just place it on the grill at this point breast side up over the drip pan away from the heat. Grill the chicken until the skin is a deep golden brown; this will take about a 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. Use an instant read thermometer like this one to check for doneness. The internal temperature should be 180F when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh.
Once it is done transfer the chicken to a platter and let it rest for about 5 minutes before carving. That is how to grill a whole chicken indirect that will turn out amazing.
image courtesy of izik/flickr