When I am barbecuing, it’s almost a magical experience. Just to see the transformation of whatever you are cooking from beginning to end is a wondrous sight to behold.
I don’t even own a gas grill anymore as I recently brought the old one that I owned to my local recycling center. It doesn’t mean that I won’t get another one in the future because they have their merits.
But, for the time being, cooking with charcoal brings me so much joy and there are so many different ways of cooking with charcoal. If you are interested in how to barbecue a whole chicken this article will give you the steps to do so.
Just the other day, my wife and I barbecued a whole chicken using indirect heating in my Weber One Touch Silver 18 ½” grill (you can read more about this grill in this article). The chicken was about 4.2 pounds so it wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either.
How to Barbecue a Whole Chicken on a Weber Grill
I think next time we’ll get at least a 6 pounder so that we will be ensured a lot of leftovers for sandwiches. In this article I’d like to detail the steps and techniques that we utilized to produce the most succulent and best looking barbecued chicken we have ever eaten.
We simply added salt and pepper onto the chicken as a rub and let it sit for a few hours. At the same time, we made not only a mop sauce that you will see added to the chicken in the images that follow but also a barbecue sauce which is added at the very end of the cooking process.
Ingredients for Mop Sauce and Barbecue Sauce
Equal parts oil, apple cider vinegar,
apple juice, and Worcestershire sauce
Your favorite bourbon (to your liking)
Juice of 1 Lemon
Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce (to your liking)
Salt and Pepper
3 cloves of garlic
2 tsp butter
1 cup ketchup
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup Texas Pete’s hot sauce
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs mustard
½ tsp salt
You will see where the above ingredients come into play by following the steps seen in the images below.
Detailed Steps on Barbecuing a Whole Chicken on a Weber Grill
(Click on any of the images below for a larger view)
Note charcoal on one side of grill for indirect grilling
This prevents any sticking of bird on grill grate
A mop sauce adds flavor and keeps bird moist
Please remember that even that you didn’t see the Weber grill covered in any of the images, the cover is ALWAYS on while the whole chicken is cooking. This indirect method of barbecuing a whole chicken worked perfectly for us.
One thing that I forgot to add was a drip pan which should’ve been placed directly below the chicken just to catch any drippings from the bird and the mop sauce. My Weber grill does have an ash pan so the drippings just went into the pan so that worked well for me. I hope you will use this article to learn how to barbecue a whole chicken for yourself!
If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comments or use my Contact Me page.
Bob started this passion site, Life with Grilling, in 2012. He has been charcoal grilling for most of his adult life and smoking meats using a stick-burner Brinkmann smoker since 2012.
His passion for charcoal grilling was instilled into him by his father who used charcoal on a basic grill to cook for his family on warm summer nights. Charcoal grilling and tending to his smoker has been a happy pastime of Bob’s, especially as he enters his retirement years.
His love of all things grilling and smoking has allowed him to review the best charcoal grills and grilling accessories available in the martketplace and to develop many recipes, grilling tips, and techniques over the years. He is eager to share his lifelong grilling experiences and expertise through Life with Grilling!
8 Comments
Do you leave the vents on the top and bottom of the grill opened or closed?
Hi Daniel,
I leave the vents on top and on the bottom open about 1/2 way. Halfway is a good way to go for chicken as you want them to cook steadily. Since I wrote this article I have adjusted my method slightly. Every 20 minutes or so I move the bird clockwise 90 degrees so after 1 hour and 20 minutes it is usually pretty much done. It certainly depends on the size of your chicken though. Just test the legs after the 1 hour and 20 minutes for done-ness by breaking them slightly to see the meat inside. Enjoy your chicken!
Thanks,
Bob
great,l Love this, please can you still use your oven grill, the rotisserie grill for this recipe?
If you are talking about the rotisserie attachment, at that point it wouldn’t be indirect as the charcoal would be directly below the chicken. I guess you could still cook it in an indirect technique but since I don’t have the attachment for the Weber I have never done it. You should experiment!
What is the internal temperture of the grill
Hi Howard,
Ya know, I never measured the internal temperature of the Weber Grill but I can the next time I cook one of these chickens. It is my guess it is around 300 – 350. I just keep the top on the Weber Grill and make sure the chicken is on the other side of where the coals are located so the grill acts like an oven. What I’ve started to do recently is spin the bird 90 degrees, 4 times for the full cook. I just spin it clockwise 90 degrees every 20 minutes and just check the doneness by pulling back one of the legs at the very end. If I have to leave it on an additional 5-10 minutes I do. But 1 hour 20 minutes for a 5-6 lb chicken is pretty much perfect every time. 🙂
Thanks for your question and I hope you sign up for my mailing list and subscribe to my youTube channel.
Best,
Bob
Thanks
Great write-up, my chicken came out great. I wish I could post a picture of it!
Hi Chip,
I’m glad it helped out! I have made some modifications since this article was published and hope to create a youTube video with them in the near future. You are welcome to send me a photo to bob@lifewithgrilling.com. I’d love to see it. Maybe I can incorporate it into the article at the end showing how it helped a reader. 🙂
Best,
Bob