The Best Smoked Chicken Leg Quarters

For a simple yet crave-worthy dinner, put these very best smoked chicken leg quarters on the menu and watch everyone fall in love with every delicious, succulent bite! Coated in a flavorful, aromatic dry rub, these tender, juicy chicken quarters are infused with the perfect kiss of smoky flavor and then are finished under a blast of high heat to ensure you get that perfect crispy skin. Your next backyard BBQ will be one to remember when you serve these smoked chicken quarters.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• Storing, Freezing and Reheating Leftovers
• Serving Ideas on the Side
• Recipe FAQs
• Expert Tips
• Perfect Pairing
• Enjoy More Smoker Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Made for dark meat lovers: A perfectly cooked chicken breast is always tasty, but you can’t beat the richness and deeper flavor of dark meat. With chicken quarters, everyone gets a thigh and leg serving to keep dark meat lovers satisfied. And if you have any white meat lovers among your ranks, you can always cook these quarters with this smoked chicken breast as well.  

Impress your friends and family with your BBQ skills: Get ready for the compliments to pour your way after everyone tastes this chicken. You will look like a pitmaster, but it can be our little secret that this smoked chicken leg quarter recipe is incredibly simple.  

Requires very little hands-on work: With its quick and easy preparation, these fuss-free smoked chicken quarters are perfect for entertaining. You’ll want to make this chicken a staple at your summer cookouts.

Related: For more smoked chicken recipes, check out these smoked chicken wings and smoked spatchcock chicken.

Ingredients

Chicken leg quarters: Pick chicken quarters with a light pink color and no discoloration. The skin should be smooth with no tears, and it should have a neutral smell. If possible, I also recommend opting for an organic or free-range chicken. 

Dry rub: We use the same spice blend from my smoked whole chicken. This includes chili powder, brown sugar, garlic powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and mustard powder. If you have your own spice rub, you can use that instead.

Salt: The salt is for dry brining to give us even better chicken leg quarters. 

Olive oil: Before finishing the chicken, we brush the skin with olive oil to enhance that crispy texture.

BBQ sauce: If you'd like to sauce your chicken quarters, my coffee-bourbon BBQ sauce, jerk BBQ sauce and honey-sriracha BBQ sauce are great on this chicken. You're also welcome to use your favorite BBQ sauce if you'd like.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Dry Brine the Chicken

Step 1: The day before smoking, we pat the chicken quarters dry with paper towels, generously sprinkle the skin with salt and place the chicken in the refrigerator uncovered to dry brine (photo 1). Ideally, we want to dry brine the chicken for 24 hours, but if you’re in a time pinch, even four to eight hours of dry brining helps. 

Season the Chicken

Step 2: When you’re ready to smoke, stir together the spices in a small bowl and rub the seasoning mix all over the chicken pieces (photo 2). Along with seasoning the outside, gently lift the chicken skin to coat the meat with the dry rub as well.

Smoke the Chicken

Step 3: Now we place the seasoned chicken quarters skin-side up in a 225-degree F smoker with a water pan and insert a leave-in meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh meat (photo 3). We close the lid and allow the chicken to smoke at that lower temperature until it reaches an internal temperature of 130-140 degrees F. 

Pro tip: You can place the chicken directly on the grill grates or a wire rack inside a baking sheet. Since I use a vertical smoker, I didn’t have space to fit all the chicken quarters in one layer. The drippings would have fallen on the chicken in the bottom row, which would’ve made it difficult to get that crispy skin.

Step 4: From here, we remove the chicken from the smoker and crank up the heat to 400-425 degrees F. As the smoker heats, we brush the chicken with olive oil, reinsert the meat thermometer and finish smoking at that higher temperature (photo 4). If you’d like to sauce up your chicken, you can brush BBQ sauce on the skin in the last few minutes of smoking, though this is optional.

The chicken quarters are safe to eat at 165 degrees F, but that’s not the recommended final internal temperature. At minimum, the chicken quarters should reach 175 degrees F, but it’s even better if you can let them get to 190 degrees F. With thighs and legs, the connective tissues and collagen need time to break down for the juiciest, most flavorful meat, and that happens at a higher internal temperature.

After smoking, we let the chicken leg quarters rest for about five minutes. This allows the juices time to redistribute to the meat. 

We’re now ready to devour the most delicious smoked chicken quarters. How good is that meat?

Recipe testing note: While I tested this recipe on a vertical pellet smoker, you can use any type of smoker, such as a charcoal grill, gas grill, electric smoker or offset smoker. If you don't have a dedicated smoking unit, here's a guide on how to turn your grill into a smoker.

Storing, Freezing and Reheating Leftovers

These smoked chicken quarters make amazing leftovers. You can enjoy the leftovers either as a whole chicken quarter or pull the meat to make smoked chicken tacos, nachos, enchiladas, Buffalo chicken dip — you name it. Here’s how to properly store your leftover chicken.

• Allow the chicken to fully cool.
• Store the chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
• The chicken will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to three or four days, or you can freeze the meat for up to six months.
• To thaw frozen chicken, place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. If you need it sooner, you can place it in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator or at room temperature as long as you replace the cold water every 30 minutes until thawed. Do not use warm water — this encourages bacteria growth.

When you’re ready to reheat the chicken whether thawed from frozen or directly from the refrigerator, here’s your handy guide. 

• Let the chicken sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to allow the meat to reheat more evenly.
• Place the chicken in a baking dish with 1 cup water or chicken stock. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
• Bake in a 350-degree F oven until heated through completely, about 15 minutes. 

Serving Ideas on the Side

What’s a backyard cookout without plenty of appetizers and side dishes? Since our smoker is already fired up, we might as well enjoy some smoked appetizers. Try some of these favorite snacks.

• Smoked salsa: Smoking our vegetables makes a world of difference. You’ll never make salsa another way.
• Smoked bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers: This is for the bacon lovers in your life.
• Smoked cream cheese: You’ll love how this takes about five minutes of prep time, and then the smoker takes care of the rest.

And then we need those beloved side dishes.

• Smoked mac and cheese: I can’t recommend this enough. It’s my absolute favorite. 
• Smoked bourbon baked beans: Featuring bourbon and bacon, this is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
• Pesto tortellini pasta salad: That herby pesto adds a fresh touch to the meal.
• Hawaiian potato salad: This salad features both potatoes and macaroni to make a carb lover’s dream side dish. 

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

Let the chicken sit at room temperature before smoking: This takes off the chill to promote more even cooking. 

Try to pick chicken quarters relatively close in size: Like any cut of meat, the size of chicken quarters can vary, so picking evenly sized pieces ensures everything cooks at approximately the same rate.

Use a water pan: A water pan helps maintain a consistent smoking temperature, and it even helps the smoky flavor better adhere to the meat. Some people are worried that a water pan can make for gummy, rubbery skin, but I’ve never found that to be the case with dry brining, and I’ve smoked a lot of chicken in my days.

Don’t let the meat thermometer touch the bone: The bone holds a different temperature than the meat, which skews the reading.

Perfect Pairing

You’ll love sipping on an amber ale with these smoked chicken quarters. The sweet, caramel-like malt of the amber nicely complements the brown sugar and rich dark meat while adding contrast to the spices. An IPA is also a tasty option if you want to play up the spice notes.

If you’d like a glass of wine on the side, a pinot noir is a lovely option. A pinot noir is known for its earthy undertones that meld with the smoked meat, and its medium body stands up to the bolder dark meat.

Or maybe you’d like a cocktail. I just love this top-shelf Cadillac margarita with smoked chicken. This margarita features reposado tequila, which is aged in oak barrels, and that oak char is perfect with that smoked flavor while the zesty lime beautifully brightens those spices.

You'll also love sipping on this orange crush cocktail. Orange juice and warm spices pair together beautifully.

One bite of these smoked chicken leg quarters, and you’ll never want to make chicken any other way.  

Cheers!

Enjoy More Smoker Recipes

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