Competition Chicken - Now I'm confused!

[Chiles]

Fresh out of this past weekends Que and Cruz, I can tell you exactly what i did wrong with my chicken turn-in. Time management killed me. The 12 nicest little theighs that I lovingly trimmed, tucked and seasoned never got to temp before turn in time. I had to put 6 big and not pretty pieces in that fortunately were done. How the larger pieces got done before the smaller ones is a mystery to me.

I smoked mine in the smoker an the skin came out a little rubbery (again)! That's not what was important. One of the top finishing teams cooked theirs over a nice hot bed of Royal Oak coals and their chicken never did see the inside of their smoker.

I'm thinking that I should be grilling my chicken too, instead of letting it sit inside my smoker. I think that grilling is really the only way to get that crispy skin we all want. Save the smoker for the larger, whole bird or bigger cuts of meat.

For competitions, what do y'all do?

-Chiles

 

[bigwheel]

We cook half chickens in this part of the world and I've always had the best fortune in grilling them on an ECB with just a slight amount of water in the pan. Now some of the big boys/girls cook them in smokers in pans covered up and basted with margarine. I tried that a few times but it always tasted like it was boiled for some reason. Guess I wasn't doing it right.

bigwheel

 

[Nick Prochilo]

I did chicken on the WSM yesterday, cooking temp around 325*. Skin came out crispy. You can smoke them on your kettle also.

 

[Tri Tip]

Fresh out of this past weekends Que and Cruz, I can tell you exactly what i did wrong with my chicken turn-in. Time management killed me. The 12 nicest little theighs that I lovingly trimmed, tucked and seasoned never got to temp before turn in time. I had to put 6 big and not pretty pieces in that fortunately were done. How the larger pieces got done before the smaller ones is a mystery to me.

I smoked mine in the smoker an the skin came out a little rubbery (again)! That's not what was important. One of the top finishing teams cooked theirs over a nice hot bed of Royal Oak coals and their chicken never did see the inside of their smoker.

I'm thinking that I should be grilling my chicken too, instead of letting it sit inside my smoker. I think that grilling is really the only way to get that crispy skin we all want. Save the smoker for the larger, whole bird or bigger cuts of meat.

For competitions, what do y'all do?

-Chiles

You'll never get crispy skin. It might pull off crispy but your sauce and or it steaming in the box till judging, will turn it soft again. The key is bite through skin.
Since your not competing in my neck of the woods, msg me and I'll give ya my secrete. we got 12 out of 57 teams a couple of weeks back. see link for picts

P.S. Chicken is meant to be fried in my opinion.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20394

 

[bigwheel]

Sounds reasonable to me. I take the secret trick too if you get around to it. Thanks.

bigwheel

 

[ronbeaux50]

I've had plenty of practice on chicken lately with the wife healing from her 4th surgery :!:

You have to baste it often! And not with butter or oil. I thin my bbq sauce with seasoned rice wine vinegar and splash it on every 15 minutes.

Works every time. It tears like rice paper. Now if the Judges will like the taste........

 

[bigwheel]

Ahh ok thanks. Sounds like a good plan. Putting Mama's health issues on my prayer list as we speak.

bigwheel

 

[ronbeaux50]

Thanks BW.

You'll have to trust me on this. Indirect at 285 to 300 and baste every 15 to 20 minutes. Back off the temp if it trys to get too dark on you but leave it in there and baste baste baste. The vinegar goes away and the seasoned vinegar has a sweet after taste that you can hop up a little with some heat. There are a lot of different flavor profiles with the seasoned rice wine vinegars available.

Final glaze should be sticky honey with more heat.

Regardless, I'm entering this method at my next comp.

And it ain't no secret.

 

[bigwheel]

Sounds like a good plan. Havent experimented much with rice vinegars. Guess I best plan to do that soonish. Thanks.

bigwheel

 

[TimBear]

That looks really good and sounds like a good plan with the rice vinegar too.