Best Wood for Smoking Chicken — Delicate, Flavorful, Not Overpowering

The best woods for smoking chicken are hickory, maple, apple, cherry, peach, and pecan. I personally use cherry wood the most, and occasionally apple. From my experiments, the fruit woods have definitely given me the best results.

Selecting the right wood for smoking chicken is crucial if you’re aiming to impress with your barbecue prowess. Chicken’s natural flavor can be either highlighted or overshadowed by the smoke you choose, so getting it right is crucial.

Over the next 5 minute read, you’ll learn which woods are best for smoking chicken and why. We’ve got a rundown of our top 6 types, plus we check in with the experts and stars of barbecue to see what they use in their smokers and why.

So, if you’ve got your chickens ready for the smoker but are unsure which wood to choose? We will help you make it with this rundown of the best lumber for the job.

Quick Reference Table: Best Woods for Smoking Chicken, With Notes on Flavor

This table shows at a glance, the top recommended woods for smoking chicken. Alongside each wood variety is a brief description of its distinct flavor profile and what it adds to chicken when smoking.

Which Woods do I Use to Smoke Chicken?

Cherry wood smoke is my go to choice for chicken. The red hue cherry smoke gives to chicken skin is a feast for the eyes, and the flavor is also divine.

To mix things up I do also sometimes use apple. This is because I have a good local and reasonably cheap supplier. But it’s a case of ‘I have some, and it’s good, so why not?’ more than anything.

I have experimented with various other woods over time. From experience I’ve decided to stay away from all woods except for fruit woods for chicken. It’s not that I don’t like chicken smoked with hickory, maple, or pecan they are still very nice, it’s just I much prefer the milder results you get with fruit woods that allow the chicken taste to still punch through.

Preferred Smoking Woods for Chicken Giving a Mild, Complementary Flavor

Here’s your go-to list for mild smoking woods that go great with the mild flavor of chicken.

Hickory

Hickory is a classic smoking wood that gives chicken a wonderfully rustic, old-fashioned taste that’s medium smokiness with a hint of bacon-like sweetness.

Go easy on the amount of wood used because it’s possible to overdo it. Nail it, though, and you’ll forever be known as a grill god(ess).

Maple

Not surprisingly, maple, the source of your waffles’ best friend, adds sweet notes to chicken and mild smokiness.

Maple provides a subtle but delicious wood smoke that’s a crowd-pleaser — and it’s forgiving for first-time smokers afraid of overpowering their poultry.

Apple

The fruitiness of apple is more reserved than some fruit woods, so it’s ideal when you have other flavors to add or to enhance an apple juice or cider spritz.

Give it time to sink in, and you’ll be well rewarded.

Cherry

Cherry wood smoke has it all — Great taste and great looks.

It’s a rich smoke with beautiful fruity notes, and it’ll leave your chicken skin a gorgeous mahogany. You may want to take a selfie with it.

Peach

Peach leaves your chicken lightly sweet and fruity and with a pale golden color.

Anyone care for some Southern BBQ flavor? Umm, yeah — everyone does!

Pecan

Another favorite from the South, pecan packs more smoky punch than fruit woods but still has distinct sweetness.

No one will mistake it for oak, but it’s a great choice for anyone who prefers the smoke dialed up a bit.

You Can Mix Woods!

Part of the fun of smoking is experimenting with different woods. As you gain confidence with your technique, why not try blending woods for custom flavor profiles?

Many smokers enjoy adding more robust woods, like oak, to their fruit woods for some extra smoke to pair with the sweetness.

Chicken is fun to play around with since it isn’t expensive and doesn’t take as long to smoke as some meats. Mix it up with your favorite flavors until you find your signature style.

What the Experts Use

We know a lot about smoking and grilling around here. But, we still love to see what the big-time stars of barbecue are up to.

Let’s learn what some top names have burning in their smokers.

Malcom Reed

Everyone loves a good beer can chicken, and Malcom is no exception. His wood of choice for this sudsy recipe is cherry for that knock-out color and taste. He also likes apple and blends of fruit woods and other, stronger woods.

Steven Raichlen

The star of the Smoke Project chose pecan for his Smoke-Roasted Chicken with Horseradish Dip. He used just a few chunks to enhance the taste and Southern vibes of this flavor-laden recipe. In another version, he went with hickory — a bold wood for a bold recipe.

Susie Bulloch

What does the woman behind hey Grill hey put in her smoker? She tells her readers that any fruit wood is a good choice and that apple, in particular, works really well. Logical picks, since she uses her brown sugar-based sweet rub for a whole smoked chicken.

Ted Reader

Canada’s barbecue wizard picked whiskey oak for his Whiskey Barrel Smoked Chicken Thighs, I think for pretty obvious reasons. It’s a great example of pairing the flavoring ingredients (in this case, a long soak in Bourbon) with your smoke.

Aaron Franklin

One of the kings of BBQ, Aaron recommends pecan for chicken. He correctly points out that the strong, sweet taste would be too intense for any smoke session longer than a few hours, putting it right in the — ahem — sweet spot for smoking chicken.

Why Add Smoke to Chicken At All?

Why smoke your chicken? Why add whipped cream to hot cocoa? Why add barbecue sauce to ribs, for that matter? Because it’s freaking delicious, that’s why! Smoked chicken is in a league of its own.

Not only that, but it looks tasty, too. Smoking chicken can change the color of the skin — how much and to what hue depends on the wood. But, done right, it’s incredibly appetizing.

Regardless of if you’re smoking a spatchcocked chicken, or an upright beer can chicken recipe, if you care about awesome flavor and presentation, you owe it to yourself and your guests to smoke that bird.

Important! Chicken Flavor is Delicate — Don’t Overpower It

Have you ever eaten a plain chicken breast? To say its flavor is mild is, well, putting it mildly.

Tasty? Sure. Sensational? No. So, we enhance our chicken meals with sauces, seasonings, dry spice rubs for chicken, dips, and more.

But, we don’t want to overwhelm the natural flavor of our chicken completely. (Save that for chicken wings, which are nothing more than a vehicle for sauces and dry rubs, in my opinion.) We want to complement the chicken taste with a mild smokiness and perhaps notes of fruit or nuts, and avoid masking it completely.

So avoid intensely smoky hardwoods that you might use on beef, like mesquite, oak, and walnut.

In the next section, we list and discuss some ideal woods for smoking chicken.

Logs, Chunks, Chips, Pellets, or Dust?

So many wood types — which should you choose for your chicken? It’s easy; just pick the style that’s right for your smoker.

Logs — The big wood goes in the big smokers. Logs are just right for full-size offset smokers, with their large fireboxes set well away from the food. They’re great for cooking over a fire pit, too.

Chunks — Use these “baby logs” (my term, but help yourself) in your compact offset smoker, kamado, or other ceramic cookers, or your drum, barrel, or bullet smoker. Just rest the chunks right on top of the charcoal.

If you have an older gas grill, and you aren’t afraid to mess it up, you might try putting a few chunks on the flavorizer bars or heat deflectors to do some smoking on your grill. I’ve never tried it (and I won’t until my new grill is much older), but I’ve seen others try it.

Chips — Real wood, whittled and hacked into thin pieces, chips ignite easily and will smolder decently for a long time. You see wood chips used mostly in electric and gas smokers, but they also work on top of charcoal.

People with gas grills can try them in a foil packet on the grate to add some smoke, too.

Pellets — Tiny bits of left-over wood and binding agents are compressed into smoking wood pellets — they look a lot like rabbit food — for use in pellet smokers, as made famous by Traeger.

Gas grillers can also use them in metal smoker boxes to get some smoke on their propane or natural gas grill.

Sawdust — At the bottom of the flavor wood size scale is this powdery stuff. It catches fire very easily, so it’s suitable for electric smokers where there’s no open flame. It’s also used in handheld smokers (aka smoke guns) for giving food a blast of smoke.

Final Thoughts

You’ll find that many of the best woods for smoking chicken are the same woods used for other foods, too. So, don’t be afraid to buy a few that sound appealing — you don’t have to use it all on just chicken.

Smoking food is a bit like being a mad scientist, really. You can mix it all up and create custom combos to suit your personal preferences.

And of course, there are no hard and fast rules; if you want to smoke your chicken with a bit of mesquite or oak, go for it! Just follow a key guideline for cooking: start small and build up. You can add more flavor if you need it, but it’s really hard to take it away when you go too far.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to share with your family and friends. Have fun smoking your chicken!