Lately there has been some discussion on the Forum, and privately, about chicken tecniques mostly concerning the skin texture when smoking. So I thought I’d share how I do it.
Now to be fair here is a disclaimer, I have never cooked in competition Bbq. I only cook for hungry people. I always just try to produce a quality meal that’s good to eat, and that’s how I approach all of my processes.
That said, I most always boil my chicken first. This renders the fat which likes to catch fire pretty easy, so boiling solves that. Next the boil puffs The skin up and changes the texture to something softer and more plyable. Also pre cooking the chicken means when I go to the smoker all I’m looking for is the color I want, and to set the sauce. It lets me control the time instead of the IT controlling time. To me that is helpful. I boil the chicken to at least 165 IT, but try not to get it up to high.
Now, this by no means makes perfect chicken skin, but it’s not shoe leather either. The meat dose take on nice smoke flavor. Obviously if you are grilling and not low smoking, this extra step really isn’t needed, but in the smoker I find the boiling step very helpful.
Here is one recent smoke with chicken and ribs. I ended up with company coming buy and was distracted and went way long on the cook, but it was still very delicious.
Boiling and then out of the water, top pics.
Sauced with Blue Hog original and setting that sauce.
The plate shot, but I didnt think to get a bite shot. (Those are homemade fries, btw)
Here is another recent smoke of just drum sticks. These I dry brined with kosher salt for about two hours then boiled to IT of about 170F. Then sauced with a Carolina red sauce (knock off of Rodney Scott) then on to the smoker at 275F
So there you have it. I hope some will try this method and hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks for looking.
Now to be fair here is a disclaimer, I have never cooked in competition Bbq. I only cook for hungry people. I always just try to produce a quality meal that’s good to eat, and that’s how I approach all of my processes.
That said, I most always boil my chicken first. This renders the fat which likes to catch fire pretty easy, so boiling solves that. Next the boil puffs The skin up and changes the texture to something softer and more plyable. Also pre cooking the chicken means when I go to the smoker all I’m looking for is the color I want, and to set the sauce. It lets me control the time instead of the IT controlling time. To me that is helpful. I boil the chicken to at least 165 IT, but try not to get it up to high.
Now, this by no means makes perfect chicken skin, but it’s not shoe leather either. The meat dose take on nice smoke flavor. Obviously if you are grilling and not low smoking, this extra step really isn’t needed, but in the smoker I find the boiling step very helpful.
Here is one recent smoke with chicken and ribs. I ended up with company coming buy and was distracted and went way long on the cook, but it was still very delicious.
Boiling and then out of the water, top pics.
Sauced with Blue Hog original and setting that sauce.
The plate shot, but I didnt think to get a bite shot. (Those are homemade fries, btw)
Here is another recent smoke of just drum sticks. These I dry brined with kosher salt for about two hours then boiled to IT of about 170F. Then sauced with a Carolina red sauce (knock off of Rodney Scott) then on to the smoker at 275F
So there you have it. I hope some will try this method and hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks for looking.