# Chicken Lollipops in Competition?



## ej73 (Mar 22, 2016)

Hey guys,

I'm on the verge of entering my first competition where I'll be doing chicken. I've never been a big fan of thighs, so I wanted to try my hand at legs.

What's your take on doing lollipop style legs for a competition? Was going to do the shallow butter pan, homemade bbq rub, Apple and Hickory smoke, sweet-ish glaze at the end. Is this a good strategy or recipe for disappointment?

Appreciate your insight!


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## isucyclone (Mar 22, 2016)

I can't comment on the competition as I have never participated in one but I can say that every time I have made chicken lollipops they have gotten great reviews! Good luck with the competition, your recipe sounds like something I would eat.


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## SmokinAl (Mar 23, 2016)

Can't comment on the comp either, but as said above they definitely are a favorite every time I make them. Your recipe looks very good!

Al


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## ej73 (Mar 25, 2016)

So I did a run today on my first lollipops, shown below.

The prep was a little tedious, snapping that last bone was annoying, but they did turn out looking decent.

Everything was there, tasty, right ... except the crispy skin. It was still too soft.

What tricks do you guys have for getting that skin?

On this cook, I went 2 hours at 300, sitting in a pan of butter, then 30 min after glazing on the grate.













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__ ej73
__ Mar 25, 2016


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## jp61 (Mar 25, 2016)

How much butter?

Maybe use very little butter or skip it altogether?

Maybe 50F° higher smoker temp? or 400-450F° to finish?

BTW, they look great!

I've never been a big fan of thighs either.


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## ej73 (Mar 25, 2016)

JP61 said:


> How much butter?
> 
> Maybe use very little butter or skip it altogether?
> 
> Maybe 50F° higher smoker temp? or 400-450F° to finish?


I used about 3/4 of a stick. Hmm... not a bad idea on the finish to crank it up.


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## gary s (Mar 25, 2016)

This is a lot of work, But you'r their to win. I have seen quite a few remover the skin, lat it flat and carefully scrap all the fat off the backside then re-wrap.  Too low a temp causes skin to be flabby 

Gary


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## smokefever (Mar 26, 2016)

Practice run looks great!  I love making chicken lollipops and people rave about them every time. I've found that taking them out of the pan for the last 35-40 mins helps the skin crisp up.  Good luck! !


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## SmokinAl (Mar 26, 2016)

Man, they sure look good from here!

Al


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## Bearcarver (Mar 26, 2016)

EJ,

Those Lollipops are Beautiful !!
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






I've never seen nicer looking ones!!
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Good Luck!!

Bear


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## tropics (Mar 26, 2016)

They look great hope you are able to crisp the skin,Good Luck

Richie


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## ej73 (Mar 26, 2016)

Thanks for the feedback guys - going to try upping my temp a bit and rubbing some butter all over the skin pre-cook.

I'll post back here next time I run'em!


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 11, 2016)

Did you already have the comp? I have done lollipops a few times in competition and never had that great of scores. One thing you definitely want to do is wrap foil around the bones. That way they dont burn and stay a nice color. Finish the legs on the rack instead of the pan to help with the skin.


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## ej73 (Apr 12, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> Did you already have the comp? I have done lollipops a few times in competition and never had that great of scores. One thing you definitely want to do is wrap foil around the bones. That way they dont burn and stay a nice color. Finish the legs on the rack instead of the pan to help with the skin.


Hey there - comp is in 2 weeks. I'll definitely be wrapping the bones and finishing on the rack. Applied a large amount of butter and brushed it on last practice run, and had much better success!

This is a "Backyard" comp - so my strategy is that the lollipops will stand out from what I assume will be 14 boxes of Thighs. We shall see...


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## smokin monkey (Apr 12, 2016)

Just a thought on the skin, have you tried a Plumbers Torch.

I did a Yard Bird yesterday and helped the skin along with a torch.













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__ Apr 12, 2016


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## unclebubbas bbq (Apr 12, 2016)

One trick is to wrap the bare bones with foil so they don't burn while cooking. The judges eat with their eyes as well, presentation counts for I think 30% of the total score.

Good luck!


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 14, 2016)

Smoking Money has it in a torch help with skin at last minute. How it was explained to me at Myron's School is dont put it in the box if the taste and tenderness is not there even if it looks great. If you are mixing lollipops with thighs make sure appearance and taste of both are spot on. If your thighs are amazing but your lollipops aren't but look good you are actually hurting yourself in the score category so make sure they are both great. This actually happened to me in an FBA comp where I did Thighs and lollipops. Both looked great but tenderness in lollipops was off a little. Finished in the 20's in Chicken. two weeks later I did same thing but only did thighs in box and took 2nd. Now another option which I have done is doing Thighs and sliced breast meat. I did 3 thighs across the top and bottom of box and 1 on each side in middle leaving a perfect square in center. I sliced 8 pieces from the thickest part of the breast and put in that space looked really good and took 2nd on this as well. If you want to do multiple cuts cook plenty and design the box in your head based on all scenarios. You and your team taste everything and decide which is/are the best. If there are two that stand out put both in. If only one is amazing only use one. Where is the competition?


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## ej73 (Apr 18, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> Smoking Money has it in a torch help with skin at last minute. How it was explained to me at Myron's School is dont put it in the box if the taste and tenderness is not there even if it looks great. If you are mixing lollipops with thighs make sure appearance and taste of both are spot on. If your thighs are amazing but your lollipops aren't but look good you are actually hurting yourself in the score category so make sure they are both great. This actually happened to me in an FBA comp where I did Thighs and lollipops. Both looked great but tenderness in lollipops was off a little. Finished in the 20's in Chicken. two weeks later I did same thing but only did thighs in box and took 2nd. Now another option which I have done is doing Thighs and sliced breast meat. I did 3 thighs across the top and bottom of box and 1 on each side in middle leaving a perfect square in center. I sliced 8 pieces from the thickest part of the breast and put in that space looked really good and took 2nd on this as well. If you want to do multiple cuts cook plenty and design the box in your head based on all scenarios. You and your team taste everything and decide which is/are the best. If there are two that stand out put both in. If only one is amazing only use one. Where is the competition?


Hey Golfpro and guys above - thanks for the great insight. I'm pretty determined to go 100% pops in the box. 6 for sure, maybe 7 if I have enough good looking ones for the table runner.

I did another test run this past weekend, and things really turned out better. I had medium-crispy skin, great texture and flavor. You can see a pic below.

Method was to up my temp to 300-320, Hickory and Apple woods, full stick of butter in the pan. After about 2 hours, I glazed and finished them on the grate.

At the comp, I'll be more careful with the glaze getting on that bone, which was the extra layer of glaze done too sloppily because we were done and hungry. It also brushed off a little rub.

Best part was, my friends who had my last batch genuinely loved these.

The comp is in the middle of Illinois, in Mt. Carmel. There's a KCBS sanctioned comp going on, but I'm just doing the Backyard - which is this Saturday!













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__ ej73
__ Apr 18, 2016


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 19, 2016)

Those look good. How do you sauce them? Best is to heat up pot of sauce and dip them then let sauce set so you don't have brush strokes. Also, one of the best tip I found last year was to keep q tips with me to clean up sauce on the container and you can use those to clean the sauce that gets on the bone. I have a contest this weekend as well. Best of luck. Make sure you take pictures of your turn in boxes.


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## ej73 (Apr 19, 2016)

Thanks Gpro!

I sauced them by dipping in warm sauce with about 30-45 minutes to go. Then we re-sauced when we plated. That's funny - my buddy mentioned when we plated those that we'll need some Q-tips next go round for clean-up!

Will definitely take some pics - tho in our comp, they said NO GARNISHMENT in the box - just meat.


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 19, 2016)

Yeah. The only events that I have competed in that does garnishment is KCBS. One thing I learned at Myron's school is use meat on the bottom. I will put a good layer of pulled pork on bottom and then build my box on top. This does two things. you wont have puddle of sauce on the bottom as the meat will absorb it. Also, your meat is no higher in the box giving you more area. I do this on ribs as well. I put 8 bones on the their side in the bottom and then shingle 8 ribs on top. This makes the ribs sit level with the top of the box and allows me to cover the whole area without seeing bottom. On chicken I do thighs mostly but I will add a lot of pulled chicken on the bottom so the thighs sit high in the box giving me more room for 9 thighs in FBA comps. One thing I have started doing is building a box every time I fire up the smoker. Doesnt matter what meat. i will do it with tri tip, fatty, burgers. etc. You will start to get creative and know how much you can fit in each box. I buy clamb shells from a grocery wholesale here in Jacksonville


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## dannylang (Apr 19, 2016)

EJ thats some good looking legs there, how did you keep the end bones looking so good? and good luck with the competition.

Danny Lang


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## ej73 (Apr 19, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> Yeah. The only events that I have competed in that does garnishment is KCBS. One thing I learned at Myron's school is use meat on the bottom. I will put a good layer of pulled pork on bottom and then build my box on top. This does two things. you wont have puddle of sauce on the bottom as the meat will absorb it. Also, your meat is no higher in the box giving you more area. I do this on ribs as well. I put 8 bones on the their side in the bottom and then shingle 8 ribs on top. This makes the ribs sit level with the top of the box and allows me to cover the whole area without seeing bottom. On chicken I do thighs mostly but I will add a lot of pulled chicken on the bottom so the thighs sit high in the box giving me more room for 9 thighs in FBA comps. One thing I have started doing is building a box every time I fire up the smoker. Doesnt matter what meat. i will do it with tri tip, fatty, burgers. etc. You will start to get creative and know how much you can fit in each box. I buy clamb shells from a grocery wholesale here in Jacksonville


Damn - some good advice there. Never thought of doing that. I would think the extra meat on the bottom would also help stabilize the box, so it wouldn't tip.

Speaking of Myron - what was your favorite takeaway from that experience? I spent some time down there last year with him, doing ribs and chicken, but we didn't talk box building.


dannylang said:


> EJ thats some good looking legs there, how did you keep the end bones looking so good? and good luck with the competition.
> 
> Danny Lang


Thanks Danny! I wrapped the end bones in foil - only unwrapping once they were done cooking. Next time, I'll q-tip around the base there to keep the whole bone clean.


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## dannylang (Apr 20, 2016)

thanks EJ thats some good looking legs there, and good luck.

Danny Lang


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 24, 2016)

EJ how did you do? Show us your turn in boxes.


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## ej73 (Apr 24, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> EJ how did you do? Show us your turn in boxes.


Ha - just thought of doing this tonight and saw your post!

Welp, we didn't finish in the top 3, out of 14 teams. What sucks is that due to what they called a "computer glitch" they couldn't give any of us a score or placement past 1, 2 or 3. Hmm... the organizer apparently quit during the judging period and has officially "retired." So some drama went on. A guy we never saw before, after nearly 2 hours after last turn-in, made the winners' announcement. All the people we'd dealt w/ all day had vanished. This guy said we'd receive our scores "in the mail" soon. Ha! We'll see.

My chicken had great flavor, but looks, .... just OK. You can see below. We were not allowed to garnish, which hurt. And eventually we laid them down to close the box. Next time, I think I'll chop the knuckle off to get rid of some imperfections.

My ribs - I nailed them and was bummed they didn't place. We were rushed on the box, so we didn't get a shot. Down below is the setting of the glaze moment. But who knows if I finished 4th or last. Only snail mail will tell me! I will say this - everyone else used butter and brown sugar galore in their wraps - i just used apple juice. So I may have not fit the market w/ my savory ribs, that have a sweet front, meaty middle, heat on the end. The area may just be into the sweet and rich.

Pics here:













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## golfpro2301 (Apr 25, 2016)

Those look good. Ribs may be a touch dark but look nice. Yeah for some reason comps are all about this candy flavor. I fubar my chicken this weekend and removed toothpicks on thighs too soon. Skin shriveled up. Ribs were good but not great. Pork I killed it. Took top 10 chicken. Top 5 ribs. 1st place pork. Tied for 1st overall but lost toe breaker which was rib score so I took home reserve grand. Here are a few photos of boxes












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## ej73 (Apr 25, 2016)

Looks great - especially that pork. Congrats on the placings! How was your competition? Run well? Good crowd? What'd you cook on?

How'd you end up saving your chicken?

We're still waiting for results from our comp...haha.


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 25, 2016)

Comp was well run. I have been at a few that are crappy and it sucks. This comp gets about 1500ppl each year. 47 teams this year competing. I cook on a pitmaker vault and a gmg jim bowie.i stretched the skins best I could and tucked under thighs. Wrapped tight in foil and put in the firebox of my pitmaker vault for 15 min. This helped with skin. Then uncovered and put straight on grill grate at 275 with sauce to finish.


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## ej73 (Apr 29, 2016)

Nice fix there on getting the chicken in the firebox!

We still don't have scores from our competition. Has anyone ever experienced a delay this bad? Other competitors are asking daily on their facebook page, so I'm patiently watching that interaction without getting into it.

If this keeps going on, I want my $50 back! The whole point of a Backyard competition is to learn, man.


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 29, 2016)

I have waited until Thurs after in a pro comp. They initiated a new scoring system and couldnt figure it out. Good time to do it in a comp where winner gets 12k. If you dont have them by Sun I would be on phone with someone.


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## ej73 (Apr 29, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> I have waited until Thurs after in a pro comp. They initiated a new scoring system and couldnt figure it out. Good time to do it in a comp where winner gets 12k. If you dont have them by Sun I would be on phone with someone.


5 minutes after I posted, they finally posted the results! haha - I had a feeling that would happen.

I finished smack dab in the middle in both chicken and ribs, finishing 8th out of 15 in each.

Overall, 7th out of 15.

My scores are very close to the 2-3 teams ahead of me, so I'm pretty happy, as this was my 2nd competition ever, first road trip for one and first time doing chicken. Plus, there were some pretty experienced guys competing. Definitely learned a lot!


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## golfpro2301 (Apr 30, 2016)

Thats good. Some things I have learned that can help you a lot as you progress is keep it simple as far as setup goes. Take only what you need. Pre make all homemade rubs, sauces, injections. Take as little as possible to get you thru the comp. This helps you stay organized and easier to clean up. I used to take a boat load of stuff and ended up being waste of money. I am not much more organized and it allows me to be more stress free (if that is possible at a comp). Finally and this has helped a lot is keep a bbq journal for practice and comps. for practice I keep detailed notes on cook temp, time, rub, sauce, etc. I keep blind boxes to practice with and I will take pictures of different designs I come up with. I then keep a comp journal on timelines for each category, sauce, rub, and pictures of turn in box. I will also write down place in each category. This will allow you to go back if you are struggling with a category to find something that worked and bring it back to life again.


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## ej73 (May 1, 2016)

GolfPro2301 said:


> Thats good. Some things I have learned that can help you a lot as you progress is keep it simple as far as setup goes. Take only what you need. Pre make all homemade rubs, sauces, injections. Take as little as possible to get you thru the comp. This helps you stay organized and easier to clean up. I used to take a boat load of stuff and ended up being waste of money. I am not much more organized and it allows me to be more stress free (if that is possible at a comp). Finally and this has helped a lot is keep a bbq journal for practice and comps. for practice I keep detailed notes on cook temp, time, rub, sauce, etc. I keep blind boxes to practice with and I will take pictures of different designs I come up with. I then keep a comp journal on timelines for each category, sauce, rub, and pictures of turn in box. I will also write down place in each category. This will allow you to go back if you are struggling with a category to find something that worked and bring it back to life again.


I think over the next couple weeks I'm going to take your advice and start that journal. Right now it's all based on memory, since I've really only focused on Ribs and now Chicken.

To motivate me, I'll eventually post in a thread on here and get feedback on my recipes/process. And I need to steal some practice boxes from my grocery store's salad bar!


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## travisty (Apr 14, 2017)

@EJ73  I know this is a bit old, but do you regret doing the legs, or would/have you done them again?

Currently I am entered into my first backyard comp, and for literally the same sort of reasons as you I really want to do legs, but after 3 weeks of practice I still haven't gotten a really amazing leg at least as far as skin and tenderness goes, but on the other hand, I did my first ever trimmed/sculpted thighs last weekend, and they were better than any of the legs. That being said, I haven't toyed with some newer techniques like using the butter as you have, and only did the legs on a rack each time.

Anyway, after reading the advise from GolfPro, im thinking maybe ill just do thighs, but throw in some breast in there as well as I do a pretty mean chicken breast. I think that may help the thighs stand out against, like you said, almost entirely thigh boxes. I KCBS judge as well, so really I suppose chosing to make something stand out by using a more rare meat doesn't really make a difference on the way we judge, as each box is individual, but I still cant make my mind get over the thought of wanting to do legs... So that's why I am looking for your opinion having done them for the same reasons I want to.


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## ej73 (Apr 14, 2017)

Hey man,

Yeah, it's been a while and I have a little more experience under my belt now!

Having worked with a real pro, too - he convinced me to ditch the legs and go with the thighs. He said the Lollipops can be polarizing, and one or two judges who don't like them being "outside the norm" can screw up your score, even if you nail it.

Personally, I like the lolli's more - but it ain't about me :-0

Another good tip was pouring on some squeeze butter on those thigh skins, which helped them go bite-through w/ out turning black.


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## travisty (Apr 15, 2017)

EJ73 said:


> Hey man,
> Yeah, it's been a while and I have a little more experience under my belt now!
> Having worked with a real pro, too - he convinced me to ditch the legs and go with the thighs. He said the Lollipops can be polarizing, and one or two judges who don't like them being "outside the norm" can screw up your score, even if you nail it.
> Personally, I like the lolli's more - but it ain't about me :-0
> ...



At what point in the cook do you squeeze the parkay on?


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## ej73 (Apr 15, 2017)

Put it on before it goes on the smoker. So that it cooks/bakes into it, making it bite-thru. Give it a good squirt all over, lol


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