Smoked a chicken and the skin came out like boot leather
Take cheesecloth and soak it in melted butter and drape it over the bird before you put it in the smoker. This will protect the skin during the long slow smoking process. You may want to pull the cheesecloth off about 30 minutes before you are done. This will give you a nice golden brown skin that is not leathery.

I first read of doing this with a smoked turkey, but tried it with a chicken and it comes out great.