crisp chicken skins for competition $7.00

[stiffyman]

OK I saw elswhere online if you want to pay $7.00 to learn how to get crisp chicken skin you can, does anyone know what the secret is? thanks

 

[bman62526]

Don't bother! All it takes is research and experimentation to get crisp skin for smoked chicken.

There are a couple ways I'VE found, and I haven't done a comp yet. Since you are interested in comps, I'll assume you mean chicken thigs.

#1 - apply some salt to the skin, as it draws out the moisture and will
help crispen the skin.

#2 - chicken needs to hit 165° to be considered safe and done, right?
Once the temp hits around 150 - crank the heat and flip your
chicken over skin side down for about 5 min. then turn the
pieces 90 degrees and give it another two minutes, and it should
get crisp for you. (turning it 90° will give even grill marks and also
increases the surface area that gets charred by the grill grates.)

The point is, just ask around - don't pay for someone to give you their "secret" as I guarantee you could get that same info for free on this, or other BBQ websties or forums.

Have fun experimenting!

 

[smokefever]

Not sure what the "competition secret" is, but I have a large rotisserie that I used for chicken prior to buying the smoker. What I have found to work is to rinse off the chicken, spray it down with apple cider vinegar and sprinkle sea salt on it. Let the chicken sit overnight and when you are ready to put it on the smoker hit it again with vinegar. As Bman said, the salt draws the moisture out and crispens the skin but you also want to assure that its moist inside. I always inject chicken and the results speak for themself. Good luck with it though, have you tried experimenting with different things?

 

[fourthwind]

Like these guys said.. I saw that add too, but with this forum and the book "peace love and BBQ", I have gotten good results with running higher smoke temps, salt, and spritzing with apple juice and apple cider vinager. Combination of these three things will give you great skin.

 

[stiffyman]

Thank you I have tried a few things, got the flavor down, so do I salt the inside and out, also doesnt the salt add to much salt, hope that makes sense, thanks again all

 

[scarbelly]

Are you talking about a whole chicken or thighs like was mentioned in the responses? On a whole chicken I also salt then finish for a couple of minutes on my BBQ to crisp the skin

 

[richoso1]

I smoke chicken at high temps of 350°-375°, and I do spray the skin with some PAM or coat it with a cooking oil. Low & slow won't do a thing for crispy skin.

 

[scubadoo97]

For some of with electric smokers that have a ceiling of 275*F getting that crispy skin just isn't going to happen unless you toss those thighs on the grill to crisp up a little.

Along the same lines and hope this isn't a highjack but how do you get the "bite through" they talk about in comps?

 

[timtimmay]

That's some wisdom right there. If you can't get the information you need from the users of the forum, the info doesn't exist.

 

[bman62526]

What they mean by "bite through", is exactly what we're talking about here: crispiness!

In other words, we've all had rubber-skin chicken....when you try and 'bite through' it, the whole damn piece of rubbery skin just pulls right off the whole breast or thigh.

Where as "bite through" chicken skin means that when you take a bite, your teeth will easily go "through" the skin, coming off with the bite you took - but leaving the rest of the skin on the chicken, for subsequent bites. Dammit - now I'm hungry for chicken....

 

[travcoman45]

This an higher cookin temps will hep that skin out:

Slaughterhouse Spritz (Good fer everthin!)
8 oz Apple Cider
6 oz Water
4 oz Whiskey
2 oz Cider Vinegar