Campfire Smoked Chicken Thighs
Bone-in thighs cooked slow beside the coals, not over them, with a handful of soaked wood for smoke.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 105 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs | 8 thighs | about 3 lb, kept cold in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Kosher salt | 2 tbsp | |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | helps the skin color |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | 2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 2 tsp | |
| Neutral oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Hardwood chunks or chips | 2 large handfuls | apple, hickory, or oak, soaked 30 minutes |
Method
- Mix the salt, sugar, paprika, pepper, and garlic powder. Rub the thighs all over and let them sit while the fire burns down. An hour in the cooler is better if you have it.
- Burn a fire down to coals, then rake the coals to one side of the ring. The chicken never sits over them.
- Set the grate so the meat is on the empty side. Oil the bars.
- Drop a handful of soaked wood directly on the coals. It should smolder, not flare. If it flames up, you are burning wood instead of smoking meat.
- Lay the thighs skin up on the cool side and cover with a pot lid, foil pan, or dutch oven lid to hold smoke around them.
- Hold it low and steady, somewhere in the 225 to 275 F range. Feed one or two small splits to the coal side as they die back, and add the second handful of wood at the halfway mark.
- Cook 75 to 90 minutes. The thighs are done at 175 F at the bone, or when the juices run clear and the meat pulls back from the joint.
- Slide them over the coals for the last two minutes if you want the skin crisp. Watch them the whole time; the sugar in the rub burns fast.
Smoking is just cooking with the meat parked away from the heat. The coals make hot air and smoke, the smoke does the flavoring, and the meat cooks slowly enough that the fat and collagen have time to break down. That is why thighs work here and breasts do not: dark meat forgives a fire you cannot dial in.
The two things that go wrong are heat and flame. Coals directly under the meat turn this into grilling, and dry wood chunks catch fire instead of smoldering, which coats everything in bitter soot. Soak the wood, keep the coals to one side, and cover the meat so the smoke has somewhere to sit.
Packing
Mix the rub at home into one small jar. Wood chunks go in a zip bag and get soaked in a pot of water when you arrive. Chicken travels frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws to cooking temperature on day one or two.
Variations
- Same method works on pork country ribs; give them another 45 minutes.
- No lid to cover with? Tent the whole grate area in heavy foil.
- A tin of water set near the coals keeps the fire's edge from drying the skin.
https://morningchores.com/smoking-meat