Easy Smoked Chicken Breast – Our Meal Prep Secret!

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Smoked chicken breasts are fantastic for meal prepping any recipe that calls for shredded chicken! With very few ingredients and the smoky flavor of your pellet grill, you can have the best smoked chicken to add to your soups, casserole, tacos, and more!

We’ve bought our fair share of rotisserie chickens to shred and use for other dishes like chicken salad or enchiladas. And we’ve even paid a premium to buy the chicken pre-shredded from Costco to save some time.

But then we started making our own smoked chicken breasts on the pellet grill to use for all of our recipes that called for shredded or diced cooked chicken, and we haven’t looked back!

Smoking chicken breasts on the grill or smoker is pretty much foolproof, as long as you have a good meat thermometer, and you can even throw some breasts on the grill to smoke while you’re preparing other types of smoked meats.

This is a convenient way to ensure that you always have healthy, lean protein with an extra kick of smoky flavor to use for quick salads, soups, casseroles, and more!

These Smoked Chicken Breasts are Great for Meal Prep

This smoked chicken breast recipe includes a very simple seasoning of kosher salt only. We like to keep the flavors very neutral so that the leftover smoked chicken can be used for a wide variety of recipes without the seasonings competing with other ingredients.

We’ve used these pellet grill chicken breasts to make everything from smoked chicken enchiladas to smoked chicken salad to smoked buffalo chicken dip.

Or for a quick and healthy lunch, my wife likes to cut up the chicken breasts and microwave with a bit of buffalo sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese for an easy buffalo chicken bowl. Or add the buffalo chicken to a large tortilla with some shredded lettuce and blue cheese dressing for an easy lunch wrap.

Once you have the moist and flavorful chicken prepped, the possibilities really are endless!

Why We Use Split Chicken Breasts for Smoking

Full transparency, I actually don’t enjoy smoked boneless skinless chicken breasts. We’ve made them in the past, and even when cooked to the proper internal temperature, I found the outside of the breasts developed a tough and rubbery “skin” that wasn’t pleasant to eat.

When you smoke different cuts of meat at a low temperature for a long period of time, the outside of the meat tends to dry out a bit. And that’s what you want for that perfect barbecue bark for things like pork butt and whole brisket. But not so much for your chicken breast.

So instead of using boneless skinless breasts on the smoker, we started making our smoked chicken breasts with split breasts. Not only are they cheaper, but the skin protects the chicken from developing that tough exterior, and the bone keeps the meat moist and tender as it smokes.

How to Smoke Chicken Breasts on the Grill or Smoker

Just two ingredients and about 90 minutes of your time, and you’ll have juicy and tender chicken to use for a variety of recipes. Heat your grill or smoker to about 275°F, and then follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Season the chicken breasts with salt. If needed, reposition the skin of the chicken breasts so that it is covering the meat before seasoning. Then sprinkle the breasts with kosher salt. Since we discard the skin after smoking, we don’t overload the chicken with salt or seasonings. Most of the flavor comes from the smoke and whatever you add to the chicken in later recipes.

Step 2: Smoke the breasts on the pellet grill or smoker. Place the salted chicken breasts directly on the grill grates of the heated pellet grill or smoker, arranging them so that there is space between each for even cooking. If some of the chicken breasts are smaller, keep an eye on them; they’ll finish first.

Step 3: Cook the chicken to the proper internal temperature. You’re aiming for an internal temperature of 160-162°F. This allows for carryover cooking and ensures that your chicken won’t be dry. Keep in mind that some of the chicken breasts may finish quicker depending on size (we had one finish in about 1 hour and 10 minutes).

Once the smoked chicken reaches the proper temp, pull the breasts off the smoker and transfer to a plate or baking sheet.

Step 4: Rest and plastic wrap the chicken. Next plastic wrap the smoked chicken breasts, a method often used for smoked cheese, where you wrap up the smoked product and refrigerate overnight. This helps to trap the smoke flavors in to penetrate the meat further.

Step 5: Shred or dice the chicken to use for meal prep or other dishes. The next day, remove the skin and bones. You should be left with incredibly juicy smoked chicken that you can shred or dice to use for all sorts of recipes that call for cooked chicken.

Perfectly Cooking the Smoked Chicken Breast

No matter how high-end your smoker, what flavor pellets you choose to use, or how well seasoned your breasts are, you can’t fix overcooked chicken. So my number one tip for making the best smoked chicken is to use a digital meat thermometer.

Whether you use a wireless thermometer with an app that allows you to continuously monitor the internal temperature of the chicken, or you open the grill periodically to check for doneness with an instant read probe thermometer, knowing the internal temperature of your breasts is key for the best juicy smoked chicken.

What temperature to cook chicken breasts to?

We smoked our chicken breasts until they reached an internal temperature of 160-162°F as read by our wireless meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. This allows for a few degrees of carryover cooking. However, note that the USDA recommends cooking chicken breasts to an internal temperature of 165°F.

How long does it take to smoke chicken breasts at 275°F?

The time needed to fully smoke your chicken breasts depends on a variety of factors including the size of your breasts, whether you’re using bone-in or boneless chicken, the heating capabilities of your grill, etc.

But for reference, our chicken took about 90 minutes to cook at 275°F with some of the smaller breasts finishing in about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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