A good smoked chicken thigh brine is the difference between juicy meat and the blackened, dry chicken I used to give up on. Mine does it without the cup of brown sugar nearly every other recipe calls for, so it stays sugar-free and Low Carb at about 0 grams of net carbs. Wine and salt do the work. Who says you need sugar to keep chicken moist on the smoker?
Still having a barbecue fest at our home, my husband and I decided to try making smoked chicken thighs. I have never been a fan of barbecued chicken because it always turns out blackened and dry. No matter how much I lather them in sauce they still would turn out dry and end up being used for chicken salad smothered in mayonnaise.
After the purchase of our new fancy smoking barbecue my husband got a few tips from a friend to try making brined smoked chicken thighs. This was like a lightbulb went off in my mind. Why had I never thought of brining chicken before barbecuing it?
I brine my roasted turkey to keep it moist. Why not my chicken? I decided to use a similar technique that Martha Stewart uses on her big bird by brining the chicken thighs in a bottle of white wine and kosher salt.
Instead of adding a bunch of herbs to the brine I chose to use a simple pre-made poultry rub to the chicken after the brining process was done. I have to tell you this is the best chicken I have ever had. The chicken thighs were moist, fall off the bone, and so flavorful. Once you try this you may never cook chicken another way.
A sugar-free smoked chicken thigh brine, no brown sugar
The brown sugar in a standard brine is there to help the skin brown and add a little sweetness. The salt is what pulls moisture into the meat and keeps it juicy, so I keep the salt and skip the sugar, leaning on dry white wine for flavor instead. You get a brine that is sugar-free and Low Carb, around 0 grams of net carbs once the liquid is discarded, and the chicken still comes out moist and fall off the bone. For the rub, reach for a sugar-free poultry blend, since a lot of jarred rubs slip sugar in as the first or second ingredient.
Get the salt right so it isn't too salty
The one thing that wrecks a brined chicken is salt, and it is almost always the type of salt, not the amount. One cup of Diamond Crystal kosher salt is far less salt than one cup of Morton kosher salt or table salt, because the crystals are bigger and pack looser. My cup measure is based on Diamond Crystal. If all you have is Morton, drop to about three quarters of a cup. For fine table salt, use closer to half a cup. A couple of guardrails I have found keep it in the safe zone:
- Brine for 5 hours and no longer. This is a strong, fast brine, and past 6 hours the thighs turn salty.
- If you are worried, give the thighs a quick rinse under cool water after the brine, then pat them dry.
Smoke low and slow, then go hotter than you think
I run the smoker at 275°F, a little hotter than the 225°F most recipes call for, and it does two things for me: it renders the fat under the skin, and it browns that skin without any sugar to caramelize. Flip the thighs every 50 minutes so they color evenly. For 5.5 pounds of bone-in thighs this takes us about 4 hours.
Here is where I part ways with most charts. They tell you to pull chicken at 165°F, which is the safe minimum and is perfect for a breast. Thighs are dark meat, full of connective tissue, and they are at their best closer to 175°F to 185°F. That extra stretch is what gives you the fall off the bone texture instead of meat that is only safe to eat.
Crispy skin without the sugar
Sugar in a brine is mostly there for the skin, so without it you lean on two things. Dry chicken skin crisps while wet skin steams, so pat the thighs as dry as you can, and if you have the time, let them sit uncovered in the fridge for an hour before they hit the smoker. The 275°F heat then browns the skin where sugar normally would, and a good sugar-free rub with paprika and a little garlic gives you color too. The skin turns deep golden and crisp with no sweetener required.
Make it ahead, and what to do with leftovers
These thighs keep in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed container, and they reheat far better than most barbecued chicken because the brine kept them moist in the first place. Warm them in a 300°F oven or the air fryer so the skin crisps back up. And remember that dry, sad chicken salad I used to make? Smoked thighs turn it into something worth eating, so shred the leftovers into a cobb salad or pile them into chicken lettuce wraps. If you have the smoker going anyway, the smoked pork butt is worth the grate space, and there are more Low Carb dinner recipes to round out the spread.
Sources:
USDA FoodData Central, nutrient reference for cooked bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh
Sugarfreechic test kitchen, sugar-free wine and salt brine
Atkins, net carbs guidance for low-carb diets
