How to Make Rotisserie Chicken on a Charcoal Grill

This is a fool proof way of creating mouth-watering rotisserie chicken.

As the chicken slowly rotates it bastes in all of the juices. The smell that comes off a rotisserie bird is pretty hard to beat but if you don’t have a rotisserie you can still make this recipe on a regular grill and it will taste almost as good.

You can’t serve roast chicken without homemade gravy so I’ll also share my simple method for making tasty gravy.

Cooking a whole rotisserie chicken over charcoal

It seems lately the trend is to spatchcock chicken every time you cook them.

There is a time and place for doing that (especially if you are running late), it really doesn’t take that much longer to cook a chicken whole over charcoal.

That’s where my favorite add-on for the Weber Kettle comes in to play.

For every 2.2lbs of chicken, it will take around 45 minutes to cook over medium heat charcoal. The good thing about rotisserie cooking, if you want to cook two birds at once, it doesn’t affect the cooking time. The 45 minutes per every 2.2 pounds is per bird, not in total.

The other added benefit is as the bird spins, it is basting itself in all of the juices. The smell that comes off a rotisserie bird is pretty hard to beat.

Season, smoke and spin, you really cannot make it any easier than that.

We have a full video of this recipe if you prefer to watch how everything is done.

Rotisserie Charcoal Chicken on a Weber Kettle (Plus an Easy Gravy)

What you need to cook a rotisserie chicken

Most good grills have rotisserie attachments you can purchase as optional addons.

You could also consider a dedicated rotisserie but that will be overkill for most people.

Items you’ll need:

• A BBQ (I’m using a 22” Weber)
• A rotisserie (I’m using a 22” Weber rotisserie)
• Lump charcoal 
• Wire rack and tray
• An instant-read thermometer (I’m using a Thermapen ONE)
• A carving knife
• A chopping board
• Butchers twine

Try and buy the best quality chicken you can afford.

Tying the bird up, why and how?

Let’s start with the why. 

A chicken is not a fat piece of meat and therefore will not cook evenly. This is another reason a lot of people will only cook a chicken if it has been spatchcocked.

That is removing the spine and opening up the chicken so that it lays flatter while cooking.

By tying the bird up, we can bring the smaller parts of the bird closer to the main body, like the wings and legs.

This creates one large piece of meat that will cook a lot more evenly and as the wings and legs are not hanging outwards on their own, they will not burn up.

Now onto the how.

I like to anchor my butcher’s twine around the breast meat, it is the largest piece of meat on the bird and by bringing the twine around the top and down to the bottom and tying it off.

From there you can secure the wings by holding them close to the breast meat and tying the legs together and bringing them closer to the breast meat.

With all of the chicken secured and nice and snug, it will now cook a lot more evenly and it tends to take the stress out of what part will be cooked first.

Be sure to use a thick twine.

I know a lot of supermarkets sell what they call cooking twine but rest assured it is nothing like what your butcher uses.

I’d be inclined to go ask your local butcher where to source some, you may just be surprised and they will give you some, I know this as my local butcher did exactly that.

Setting up your grill for rotisserie cooking

While we are cooking with charcoal, chicken still lends best to a medium heat.

Although when I’m cooking a rotisserie chicken and people ask about my setup, I do loosely state I’m cooking “over” charcoal. When in fact I am not cooking directly over the charcoal at all.

Chicken has a lot of fat under its skin, as this renders down throughout any cook it is only going to fall one way, down.

So by placing charcoal directly under the chicken, we would be constantly fighting fat flare-ups, and although a little fat smoke is nice for flavor, full on fat fires that create soot are not a good flavor profile.

Well not unless you like chewing on charcoal. If that is the case, knock yourself out and go burn your chicken.

By sticking with a medium heat and having the fuel source off to the side, the bird gets more than enough heat to cook it and more than enough of a smoky hit to help give it an extra boost in flavor.

Then by placing a pan directly under the chicken, we can catch all of the fat to help aid in clean up, or in our case, to make some of the most delicious gravy you will ever sample.

By cooking at this medium heat set up, we not only end up with a juicier chicken, we can also use the rough calculation of every 2.2 lbs is going to take 45 minutes to cook through.

Although I’ll always stress to use an instant-read thermometer to check the final temp before consumption of any poultry. You should be aiming for a minimum of 165°F internal temperature for chicken.

There is no such thing as medium cooked in chicken, so always check the temperatures. 

When chicken is cooked to temp and you need to hold it for a while, the old foil over it and a couple of towels to lock in the heat always works quite well.

The foil itself adds no heat holding ability, it is purely there to stop the chicken making a mess of your towels. If you don’t believe me, when removing hot foil off any tray that has been cooking, yes it is hot to touch but take it off the heat source and it effectively has lost all heat within seconds.

Selecting the best smoking wood to pair with chicken

You’ll find most fruit and nut varieties of smoking wood will complement poultry across the board.

The heavy smoking woods like Hickory and Mesquite I’d steer clear of as they do tend to overpower the taste of chicken. So much so, that you are left with a strong aftertaste.

Smoke should be another element to your flavor profile, not the only thing you can taste.

The right seasoning for chicken

So many herbs and spices work so well with chicken.

Rosemary, lemon and garlic would be my absolute favorites, paired with salt and pepper. I feel this combination brings out so much flavor that not a lot more is really needed.

In saying that, you can start adding spice into the mix and go to a more Mediterranean style of cook, or ramp up the heat and go to Jamaican Jerk style cooking.

Then the curry based flavors of India and Sri Lanka.

It really is a protein that can be flavored so many ways, so my best advice is to start experimenting.

Gravy is the best side dish

There is one thing gravy can do, it can rescue you. Yes it’s true, it can literally help you out of a tight jam.

Imagine you spend all day cooking a big turkey, or some lovely roast pork or beef. Maybe you overcooked your vegetables, the roast potatoes were a little too crunchy. Or maybe you didn’t follow this chicken recipe and you overcooked the bird and dried it out a little.

Smother them all in some homemade gravy and all will be forgotten. As every mouthful is scooped up and then drenched in this caramel-colored goodness. No one will be worried about anything else apart from trying to get the recipe out of you.

The fact is that it is simple, pan juices with water and chopped onions. Then add some stock and wine and reduce. Combine melted butter and flour to thicken it up, taste and season accordingly. Strain and serve.

It is one of the simplest things to make and you can literally change the flavor profile by adding some extra herbs while simmering.

Just remember to quietly thank me in your head every time you use it.

Serving suggestions

Rotisserie chicken is so versatile, steamed or roasted vegetables are the perfect pairing.

Cut the chicken into pieces, add a salad and bottle of bubbly for the perfect champagne breakfast for two.

Or, grab a soft bread roll, put some sliced chicken in it and slather it in gravy and you’ll be in heaven.