The Best Whole Grilled Chicken Recipe With Easy Chipotle Rub

Whole hog? How about whole grilled chicken? We went whole grilled chicken with this baby, taking the humble bird and piling on layers of smokey, slightly sweet and slightly spicy flavors. This recipe is a stunner on the table and surprisingly low maintenance. Get the recipe!

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Sep 10, 2024
image: whole grilled chicken on a black enamel plate with a halved lime and sea salt in a small bowl and sprinkled around a bottle of Tabasco for whole grilled chicken recipe with chipotle rub via organic authority.
Credit: Image from "The Summer Table" cookbook.

Whole grilled chicken is incredibly rewarding. By setting aside just a little more grill time, you will get astonishingly juicy and tasty results. Here, I tie the chicken legs together and grill the whole bird on an ordinary grill over indirect heat in this whole-grilled chipotle chicken recipe. This recipe comes from the cookbook, “The Summer Table.”

How to Serve This Grilled Whole Chicken Recipe

Planning a get-together or even a special weeknight meal on the deck? Consider this your one-stop menu planning shop. Serve this chipotle-rubbed whole-grilled chicken with this easy succotash recipe, a light, updated version of the Southern classic. 

Next up, how about a summery watermelon smorgasbord? After all, it is one of these 9 ultra-hydrating foods. Try our no-cook recipe for watermelon feta salad with arugula and mint, and for dessert, set the table with our watermelon sorbet recipe (no special equipment required!). And last but not least, you *have* to try chocolate-dipped watermelon (you read that right, try them!). Then for the adults, serve up vodka-infused watermelon. 

image: whole grilled chicken on a black enamel plate with a halved lime and sea salt in a small bowl and sprinkled around a bottle of Tabasco for whole grilled chicken recipe with chipotle rub via organic authority.
A grilled whole chicken bumps a weekday meal on the deck into the special category. 

Here’s How to Grill the Whole Chicken

3 hr Prep
1 hr 20 min. Cook
4 hr 20 min. Total
4 Servings

Ingredients

Spice Paste:

Chicken

Preparation

  1. For the spice paste, mince the garlic and combine with the rest of the ingredients, except the Tabasco. Flavor the mixture with Tabasco to taste. Rub the spice mixture around the whole chicken, and try to get as much as possible under the skin. Tie the legs together with cooking twine and let the chicken rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
  2. Prepare a grill with a cover for indirect grilling—that is, a charcoal grill with coals only on the sides of the grill, or light only one side of a gas grill. Place the chicken on the indirect heat side of the glowing coals and close the lid. Grill the bird, turning occasionally and taking off the cover if the chicken gets too brown, for 70–80 minutes, or until it is completely cooked through.
  3. Rip the grilled chicken into small pieces and let people make their own tortillas or tacos.
  4. Note: If you have a real kettle barbeque, you can give beer-can chicken a try. You simply stick a half-filled beer can inside the cavity of the chicken and set it upright on the grill so that it looks as if the chicken is sitting on the beer can. Keep the grill covered on indirect heat for 70–80 minutes. Open the lid occasionally to make sure that the chicken doesn’t burn.
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