Smoked Chicken Breast

Name: Smoked Chicken Breast
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 135 min
Total time: 150 min
Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on); 2 tsp lemon juice; 2 tsp olive oil; 1 tsp rosemary (dried); 1 tsp sage (dried); 1 tsp thyme (dried); 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp Kosher salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper

For a smoked chicken breast that tastes like it was slow roasted over a wood fire, season it with rosemary, thyme, and sage.

By Mark Hinds | Updated February 23, 2026

Pinterest Facebook Email Reddit

Jump to Recipe Save

There’s a lot to love about a smoked chicken breast. Seasoning the chicken with rosemary, thyme, and sage makes the chicken taste like it was roasted over a wood fire.

Smoking a chicken breast is a simple way to make a delicious dish that works for weeknight dinners, backyard barbecues, and dinner parties. Using a bone-in chicken breast deepens its flavor and helps keep the meat tender and juicy.

This recipe leans into wood fire flavors with a slightly smoky chicken that stays juicy on the inside and has lightly browned crispy skin on the outside. It’s also an excellent example of how versatile smokers can be and how they can create a range of dishes and flavors.

Highlights

Smoking bone in chicken breasts with rosemary, thyme, and sage creates juicy chicken meat with crispy skin that tastes like it was slow roasted over a wood fire.

Content

Pin for Later

How to Smoke a Chicken Breast

Smoking a chicken breast is a simple way to keep the chicken juicy while developing a slightly smoky flavor profile with lots of depth. This recipe works with gas, electric, or charcoal smokers.

Bone-in vs. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

This recipe focuses on chicken breasts that still have the bone in them and the skin on the outside. Keeping the chicken on the bone helps retain moisture while adding fat to an already lean cut. The skin protects the meat from drying out and adds tons of flavor and texture when it finishes crisping up.

Bone In Chicken Breasts — Keeping the skin helps keep the chicken breasts moist.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are more suited for grilling or other cooking methods where they’re cooked quickly over high heat. We smoked several batches of boneless skinless breasts while developing this recipe, and while they turned out fine, they were always on the edge of drying out and were never as interesting as the bone-in batches.

How Long to Smoke a Chicken Breast

The key to smoking a chicken breast is to smoke it until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast reaches 165℉ (74℃). Smoking the chicken usually takes a couple of hours in a smoker set at 250℉ (121℃).

Smoking the chicken until it reaches 165℉ (74℃) ensures it’s cooked all the way through and stays juicy.

The reason internal temperature is more important than time is that the amount of time it takes to smoke the chicken varies based on the size of the breasts, the type of smoker, the smoking temperature, and the temperature outside.

Chicken With Probe — The best way to keep the chicken juicy is to use a thermometer and internal temperature to determine doneness.

We usually set aside two to two and a half hours for smoking chicken breasts and use a smoking temp of 250℉ (121℃). We recommend 250℉ (121℃) because it’s a nice Goldilocks temperature. During testing, we found that 275℉ (135℃) tended to dry the chicken out a bit, and at 225℉ (107℃), the chicken took longer to cook and was no more juicy or better tasting the chicken smoked at 250℉ (121℃).

If you’d like a mix of white and dark meat try smoking a whole chicken.

Tips for Smoking Chicken Breasts

Here are a few tips for smoking delicious chicken breasts. The chicken will be more flavorful if the seasoning is spread under and on top of the chicken skin, ensuring the meat and the skin taste delicious.

Seasoned Chicken Breasts — Loosening the skin around the edges creates pockets for the seasoning to get under the chicken’s skin.

To do this, use your finger or a sharp knife to slide under the edge of the skin and pull it back slightly so there’s enough room to spread some seasoning underneath.

Many smoked chicken recipes recommend brining the chicken before smoking. In our experience, the chicken does not need to be brined. When the chicken is cooked to 165℉ (74℃) and allowed to rest, the chicken breast will be tender and moist.

There will be a slight amount of carryover cooking while the chicken rests, but not enough to dry it out. Resting the chicken allows it to reabsorb its juices. If it’s carved right away, the juices will run out, resulting in much drier chicken.

Always use a meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the chicken. One of our favorites is this instant read digital cooking thermometer. Keeping your smoker clean helps ensure the chicken doesn’t pick up any off any off flavors.

Smoked chicken will last for about a week in the fridge. To keep the chicken juicy during reheating, use indirect heat on the grill or in a covered baking dish for 15 to 20 minutes in a 350℉ (177℃) oven.

Read The Best Meats to Smoke and How to Make Them Taste Delicious to learn more about smoking meat and lots of delicious recipes for your smoker.

Seasoning Smoked Chicken Breasts

One of the things we love about seasoning the chicken with herbs is it gives the chicken a mild smoke flavor with this wonderful aroma that feels like a warm fall day. The herbs add a complexity that compliments the flavors from the smoke.

This chicken breast recipe highlights how versatile smokers can be and how they can be used to produce flavors other than barbecue. When craving delicious smoky barbecue chicken, make Smoked Chicken Quarters or Simple Smoked Chicken Legs. Chicken quarters, thighs, and drumsticks are much better cuts of meat for sweet and sassy barbecue flavors.

Favorite Chicken Recipes

Helpful Tips for Smoking Chicken

Smoking chicken quarters with crispy skin

Smoked Chicken Quarters with Crispy Skin

Rosemary and Thyme Roasted Chicken Breasts

The combination of sage, rosemary, and thyme are classic flavors that combine herbaceous, woodsy, and citrus elements to give the chicken a complex set of flavors. This seasoning combination also works for smoking a delicious whole chicken.

We use fresh herbs for this recipe when they’re available and dried herbs when fresh aren’t available. Both fresh and dried herbs work well with the chicken. Fresh herbs should be minced. The amounts do not need to be adjusted when switching between fresh and dried herbs.

Adding lemon juice and olive oil to the herbs creates a paste that adheres better to the chicken than the herbs by themselves. The lemon juice also adds bright citrus notes, while the olive oil adds depth and helps the skin brown.

Our Southwestern Seasoning is another great choice for smoking chicken with more heat and a deeper, smokier flavor. We also have A Dynamite Smoked Chicken Rub that is all about those big barbecue flavors.

What to Serve with Smoked Chicken

When we’re serving smoked chicken breast, we like to serve side dishes with flavors that complement the herbs and the smokiness in the chicken. The chicken can be served as a single piece or taken off the bone and carved.

Juicy Chicken Breast — These juicy chicken breasts are delicious with fall dishes.

With its deep corn flavor and luxurious texture this classic Creamed Corn recipe is lovely with smoked chicken. Other favorites include Creamy Mac and Cheese and Mushroom, Onion, and Sage Stuffing, which is a real treat when paired with Homemade Gravy.

Adding freshly baked Buttermilk Biscuits or a Cranberry Apple Crisp for dessert never hurts.

Pin it for Later!

Mark Hinds

Mark is an experienced food writer, recipe developer, and photographer who is also Umami’s publisher and CEO. A passionate cook who loves to cook for friends, he can often be found in the kitchen or by the grill testing new recipes.

More Info About Mark Hinds

Learn More

Find more recipes, tips, and ideas about these techniques, ingredients, and cuisines.

Techniques:

Ingredients:

Cuisines: