Competition style chicken practice

[SmokinLogs]

I had some yardbird thighs to smoke for dinner last night, so I figured it would be cool to try cooking them similar to how they do at the competitions. I’d love to compete someday. Nothing wrong with a little practice.

I went ahead and deboned them all, trimmed a bunch of fat off, and got them squared up pretty good. I kept the seasoning simple with a little Italian seasoning, paprika, and black pepper. I know in a competition they inject and marinade and all that stuff. I would have if I’d planned ahead. I just kind of cooked these on a whim. I had the smoker fired up with some lump, and a little pecan and apple, but it was a little on the cold side. I kept it around 215-225. It took a good 2 hours to finish. I probably should have kept it around 275. Once they were about done i brushed them with some sweet baby rays sweet n spicy and let it set up for 5-10 minutes.

The end result tasted great. It was super juicy. The skin had a great taste but wasn’t bite through. Next time I need to spend a little more time removing the extra fat under the skin to get the right bite through texture. All in all it was a great dinner for me and the wife. I can’t wait to try again soon.

 

[chilerelleno]

Looking pretty darned good/tasty.
I've done the same thing just for shiz-n-gigglz.
Like!

 

[sauced]

They look real good to me!!

 

[Smoke23]

They sure do look good!

 

[Jeff Wright]

Looks like a very tasty dinner...lots of chicken for the two of you. Like!

 

[zwiller]

Look great! I need to try and debone some once. Never have. Say hi to Cheap Trick for me.

 

[kruizer]

Good lookin chicken.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Looking good.

 

[SmokinLogs]

Thanks for all the comments. It’s always cool getting some feedback from other people with bbq experience!

 

[SmokinAl]

That chicken looks fantastic!
Looks like first place to me!
Congrats on making the carousel!!
Al

 

[bbqbrett]

Looks pretty good from here. I have never deboned the thighs when I did them. Did you think it made them easier to work with?

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Those are some great looking chicken thighs. Excellent job and thumbs up.

George

 

[forktender]

Those look outstanding.
Really like that you took the time to debone them yourself.
When I was about 8 yrs old my Grandfather taught me how to debone a whole chicken. He said if you can debone a chicken you can pretty much butcher anything that ever needs to be cut up. Gramp's was an amazing butcher. And he was right once again. I sure miss that old man.

Great job on that chicken.

 

[SmokinLogs]

Looks pretty good from here. I have never deboned the thighs when I did them. Did you think it made them easier to work with?

Thanks for the compliments. Yes they were easier to work with IMO. You can trim them however you want, then once it’s time to put them on the smoker it’s easier to position and shape the meat however you want it to set up, as well as wrap the skin around so you get good coverage. Deboning was worth the extra time it took while prepping.

 

[SmokinLogs]

Those look outstanding.
Really like that you took the time to debone them yourself.
When I was about 8 yrs old my Grandfather taught me how to debone a whole chicken. He said if you can debone a chicken you can pretty much butcher anything that ever needs to be cut up. Gramp's was an amazing butcher. And he was right once again. I sure miss that old man.

Great job on that chicken.

I definitely don’t have much butchering experience, but I did work at a Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken restaurant for a couple years in high school. ( BEST fried chicken I’ve ever had ) Prepping those thighs really took me back to my first job. I actually enjoyed the trip down memory lane. I’m sure back then I would have never thought the things I learned at Lee’s would become useful again to me someday. Thanks for the comments.

 

[SmokinLogs]

That chicken looks fantastic!
Looks like first place to me!
Congrats on making the carousel!!
Al

Al, thanks for the feature. I was shocked. I wasn’t on SMF at all yesterday (long day at work). I opened up the site today and was scrolling down and just barely got a glimpse of my chicken on the carousel lol. I had to back up and see if my eyes were mistaken. That really made my day. Thanks again.

 

[Berettaclayshooter]

Looking good. When I make thighs and drumsticks on the smoker, I always use the gas grill to finish them. It crisps the skin and then I sauce them. I prefer the gas grill over the kettle for easy heat control.

 

[ab canuck]

They are Great looking thighs, My favorite part of the bird. Great job on those and love the deboning part as well. Good job, LIKE....
Congrats on your carousel ride.

 

[djsmokesupreme]

Very nice looking yardbird! Two tips I've used:
1. Don't completely debone. This can lead to dried-out meat. Some folks take poultry shears and just cut the bone in the middle, then free it up a little from the surrounding tissue with a paring knife. I just free up one end of the bone and the surrounding tissue and let it "float". Either way, the goal is to be able to form the thigh around the bone to get a uniform appearance, which helps ensure even cooking.
2. Peel the skin back, leaving it attached on one side. Then scrape the fat off the underside of the skin with the blade of a sharp knife. The pros can scrape a skin w/o tearing it 'til you can read a newspaper through it. I'm not that good, but the more fat you get off, the better "bite-through" you'll get.

Keep smokin'

 

[SmokinLogs]

Very nice looking yardbird! Two tips I've used:
1. Don't completely debone. This can lead to dried-out meat. Some folks take poultry shears and just cut the bone in the middle, then free it up a little from the surrounding tissue with a paring knife. I just free up one end of the bone and the surrounding tissue and let it "float". Either way, the goal is to be able to form the thigh around the bone to get a uniform appearance, which helps ensure even cooking.
2. Peel the skin back, leaving it attached on one side. Then scrape the fat off the underside of the skin with the blade of a sharp knife. The pros can scrape a skin w/o tearing it 'til you can read a newspaper through it. I'm not that good, but the more fat you get off, the better "bite-through" you'll get.

Keep smokin'

Yeah DJsmoke I found out on my next thigh attempt last night how effective it is to scrape the fat off the skin. I did everything almost the same way but this time I removed the skin altogether. I laid it out flat and took a sharp flexible knife and layed it flat on its side and put pressure down on the skin and worked the knife back and forth; cutting off and squeezing out layers of fat. It is time consuming, but worth it for that great bite through skin! I was happy with the outcome.