Competition Chicken: Any Advice?

  Hi Doug. I would start with trimming the extra skin and fat, brine, use your favorite rub.  Finishing sauce of cajun butter? Hmm, sounds good!  If you need to crisp up the skin you can finish on a hot grill.  Good Luck!

Mike

Most cook over high heat 300-350+, this will aloow the skin to either crisp up or at the very least be bite through.  I live in Texas and most of our comps require you to turn in a chicken half.  The judges don't actually handle your food, they take samples with plastic knives and forks so I slow smoke my chicken halves and don't worry about the skin, but if your having to do chicken pieces (thighs are most common, or legs or even sliced breast), then you'll want to try and get that bite through skin.  Best way is to cook the pieces meat side down, skin up in a alum pan with butter in the bottom (a butter bath).  As you near the end of the cook, a light glazing of some thinned down Q sauce (whatever is the preference in your part of the country), just to give the skin a good color and BBQ sauce flavor to the outside.  Prepping chicken sucks...it really does.  I can prep brisket and ribs in way less time than it takes to do my chicken.  Scraping the excess fat off the underside of the chicken skin is a must to be able to get that bite through skin as well.  Trimming the pieces to look nice and uniform is helpful for your appearance scores.  Some even debone the thighs and squeeze them into muffin pans to get a uniform look for all their pieces.  A good brine resipe is a must as well.  There are several on this site.  I have one that produces moist, flavorful chicken everytime.  Best of luck in your comp and lots of pics, please!