Smoked Garlic Butter Chicken: Juicy Grilled Chicken With Smoked Garlic Butter
Sometimes the best recipes are the simplest ones. This Smoked garlic butter chicken proves it. With just a handful of ingredients, Tommy the Butcher turns basic chicken into a rich, juicy, flavor-packed meal by combining smoky roasted garlic, European-style butter, fresh parsley, and a hot grill.
The beauty of this recipe is how approachable it is. You do not need a complicated marinade, a long brine, or a giant list of seasonings. The smoked garlic brings mellow sweetness, the butter adds richness, and the grill gives the chicken that golden color and backyard flavor everyone loves. In the video, Tommy keeps it simple on purpose: chicken, garlic, butter, parsley, salt, pepper, and a little cooking fat to help the skin crisp and keep things from sticking.
This recipe is also flexible. You can use skin-on boneless chicken breast and thighs like Tommy does, or substitute skinless boneless chicken if that is what you can find. You can smoke the garlic, roast it in the oven, or even cook it on the grill. Serve the finished chicken on its own, slice it over salad, pile it onto pasta or rice, or turn it into a killer sandwich.
Watch the Video Instructions
Before you start cooking, watch the full video tutorial below. Tommy walks through smoking the garlic, breaking down a whole chicken into skin-on boneless pieces, making the garlic butter, and grilling the chicken using a direct-to-indirect heat method.
Why You’ll Love This Smoked Garlic Butter Chicken
This recipe is built around big flavor without overcomplicating the process. The garlic is smoked until it becomes golden, soft, sweet, and nutty. That smoked garlic then gets mashed into room-temperature butter with fresh parsley to create a rich garlic butter that bastes the chicken while it finishes cooking.
Tommy also uses a smart grilling method. The chicken starts over direct high heat, skin-side down, to build color. Then it moves to the cooler side of the grill, where it cooks more gently while getting basted with garlic butter several times. That helps keep the chicken moist while letting the butter tack up on the surface instead of burning.
The recipe is designed to feed about 4 people and uses both chicken breasts and thighs, giving you a mix of white meat and dark meat. The written recipe calls for 4 skin-on boneless chicken breasts, 4 skin-on boneless chicken thighs, salted European butter, smoked garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper, and spray duck fat, with skinless chicken and regular butter listed as acceptable substitutions.
Ingredients
For the Smoked Garlic
- Whole bulbs of garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Cracked black pepper, to taste
For the Garlic Butter
- Room-temperature salted European butter
Smoked garlic from the cooked garlic bulbs - Chopped fresh parsley
For the Chicken
- Skin-on boneless chicken breasts
- Skin-on boneless chicken thighs
- Spray duck fat, or another spray cooking oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Cracked black pepper, to taste
View recipe card below for exact measurements and printable instructions.
How to Make Smoked Garlic Butter Chicken
Step 1: Prep the Garlic
Preheat your smoker. The written recipe calls for 350°F, while Tommy starts the video cook around 300°F and adjusts upward as needed. The big lesson here is to cook by appearance, not just time.
Slice off the top portion of each garlic bulb so the cloves are exposed. Place the garlic bulbs on a plate, drizzle them generously with olive oil, and make sure the oil gets down into the cracks and crevices. Season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.
Step 2: Smoke the Garlic
Place the garlic directly on the smoker grate and smoke until the cloves are golden brown, soft, and caramelized. This should take about 1 hour, but Tommy’s cook took closer to 1 hour and 15 minutes because he adjusted the smoker temperature during the process. The garlic should look deeply roasted and smell sweet, mellow, and nutty.
Let the garlic cool for about 10 to 15 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze the cloves out into a bowl and remove any loose skins. Mash the garlic with a fork until it becomes soft and spreadable.
Step 3: Make the Smoked Garlic Butter
Place the room-temperature butter in a mixing bowl. Add the mashed smoked garlic and chopped parsley.
Mix everything together until the garlic and parsley are evenly incorporated into the butter. Because the garlic has been smoked and roasted, it loses much of the sharp bite of raw garlic and becomes sweeter, richer, and more mellow.
This smoked garlic butter is the heart of the recipe. It is what turns simple grilled chicken into Smoked garlic butter chicken with deep flavor and a rich finish.
Step 4: Prepare the Chicken
Tommy uses skin-on boneless chicken breasts and skin-on boneless thighs. In the video, he explains that these cuts can be hard to find in stores, so he demonstrates how to break them down from a whole chicken.
He removes the breast meat while keeping the skin attached, then separates the legs, splits the drumsticks from the thighs, and debones the thighs while keeping the skin on. He also saves the carcass, drumsticks, wings, and extra pieces for soup stock, which is a great way to get more value from a whole chicken.
You can absolutely use store-bought boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs if that is easier. The skin-on version gives you better browning and richer texture, but the garlic butter still brings plenty of flavor either way.
Place the chicken pieces on a rack set inside a baking sheet. Spray both sides with duck fat or another spray cooking oil. Season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.
Step 5: Start the Chicken Over Direct Heat
Preheat your grill to high heat. Tommy starts with both sides of the grill fired up so he can get color on the chicken.
Place the chicken skin-side down first. This is the presentation side, so starting there helps create the best color and texture. Let the chicken grill until it develops a golden brown surface.
Move quickly during this stage. High heat gives great color, but it can also get away from you if you are not paying attention.
Step 6: Move to Indirect Heat and Baste
Once the chicken has good color, shut down one side of the grill to create an indirect cooking zone. Move the chicken to the cool side of the grill.
Tommy places the thicker side of the chicken breast closer to the heat source and the thinner side farther away. That helps the chicken cook more evenly.
Begin spooning the smoked garlic butter over each piece of chicken. Let it melt, coat the meat, and tack up on the surface. Repeat this basting process several times throughout the indirect cooking stage.
The written recipe recommends basting 3 or 4 times and cooking until the chicken reaches 165°F internal temperature.
Step 7: Check the Internal Temperature
Use a reliable instant-read thermometer to check the chicken. For thin pieces like chicken breast, Tommy recommends temping from the side instead of straight down from the top. Keep the probe parallel to the cooking surface so you get a more accurate reading in the center of the meat.
Chicken is fully cooked at 165°F. In the video, Tommy pulls the breasts when they are in the mid-150s and the thighs around 161°F to 165°F, then lets everything rest. Carryover heat can continue raising the temperature as the chicken rests, but for food safety, make sure the chicken reaches a safe final temperature.
Step 8: Rest and Serve
Remove the chicken from the grill and let it rest for about 10 minutes. This gives the juices time to settle and keeps the chicken moist when sliced.
Serve the chicken as-is, or slice it for salads, rice bowls, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, or meal prep.
Substitutions and Variations
Use Oven-Roasted Garlic Instead of Smoked Garlic
No smoker? No problem. Tommy mentions that you can roast the garlic in the oven or even cook it on the grill. You will miss some of the smoke flavor, but you will still get that sweet, mellow roasted garlic flavor.
Use Skinless Chicken
The recipe works with skinless boneless breasts and thighs. Skin-on chicken gives better color and texture, but skinless chicken is easier to find and still tastes great with the garlic butter.
Use Regular Butter
European-style butter has a richer flavor, which matters in a simple recipe like this. But any good-quality butter will work.
Swap the Duck Fat Spray
Duck fat helps with browning and adds flavor, but you can substitute avocado oil spray, olive oil spray, canola oil spray, or another neutral cooking oil.
Add Lemon
For a spicy version, add crushed red pepper flakes, cayenne, Calabrian chili paste, or a little hot honey to the garlic butter.
Pairing Ideas With Other Wise Guys BBQ Recipes
This Smoked garlic butter chicken would fit right into a backyard cookout, weeknight dinner, or meal prep spread. Pair it with other Wise Guys BBQ recipes like:
Gorgonzola Cheese Dip with Grilled Wings if you want a bigger appetizer spread
Twice Baked Potatoes for a hearty dinner plate
Bloody Mary if you are building a holiday or party menu
Smoked Garlic Butter Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 skin-on boneless chicken breasts (skinless may be substituted)
- 4 skin-on boneless chicken thighs (skinless may be substituted)
- 1 lb room temperature salted European butter. (any butter may be substituted)
- 4 whole bulb smoked garlic (oven roasted garlic may be substituted)
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and Pepper To taste
- Spray duck fat (any spray oil may be substituted)
Instructions
STEP 1: (smoked garlic)
- Pre-heat smoker to 350 degrees F
- Remove the top ¼ of the bulbs of garlic exposing the cloves within. Transfer to a large plate. Drizzle olive oil over the open garlic bulbs, making sure it gets down deep into the cracks and crevices. Season with salt and pepper
- Place garlic into the smoker directly onto the grate. Smoke for approximately 1 hour until garlic becomes golden brown and well caramelized.
- Remove from smoker and set aside to cool. Approximately 10-15 minutes
- Squeeze cloves from garlic bulbs into a bowl. Remove any skin from the bowl. Crush garlic with a fork or other utensil to mash the garlic. Set aside.
STEP 2: (preparing the garlic butter)
- Place room temperature butter in a medium bowl. Add the smoked garlic and chopped fresh parsley and mix to combine well. Set aside.
STEP 3: (preparing the chicken)
- Pre-heat grill to high heat
- Place chicken pieces on a rack set inside a baking sheet. Liberally apply spray duck fat to both sides of chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- When your grill is hot, place the chicken skin side down first, and grill until golden brown. Once you have achieved good color, and are ready to flip, shut down one half of your grill to create an indirect grilling zone. Transfer and turn all the chicken to the “cool zone” to continue grilling,
- Begin basting with the garlic butter 3 or 4 times until the chicken is fully cooked. 165 degrees F internal temperature. About 15 minutes.
- Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Ready to serve.