Naked Chicken

[1chaos52]

Was having friends over the other night that I had not seen in a while and decided to cook a chicken for them.

Due to some recent health concerns for my girl and myself, I decided to go the route that I have been doing successfully with drumsticks for several months now. This chicken was going skinless.

I picked up a minimally processed chicken and proceeded to skin it as much as possible. The only part I could not get off was a small part on the wings. I then brined the chicken in a gallon of water, sugar, molasses, rosemary, thyme, and white wine. I brined the chicken for about 24 hours.
Due to my concerns with the chicken drying out since it had no skin, I also injected some of the brine.

I was missing an ingredient to make Jeff's Rub, so I used a store bought rub that I had handy and have used several times on chicken with great success. It was Roasted Garlic Peppercorn Char-Crust. Before applying the rub, I painted the chicken with a mayo/horseradish sauce.

Still concerned with moisture, I also stuck a beer can up the chickens butt. Figured it couldn't hurt.

Smoked the chicken at around 250. Chicken has usually only taken about 3.5 hours when I have done it before, but this one seemed to plateau at about 160 for quite a while. It took about 5.5 hours to reach 170 which is when I took it off the smoker. I smoked it using hickory and cherry.

Let me tell you that this was the most juicy and delicious chicken either myself, my girl, or my friends had ever had. It retianed a lot of the white wine flavor from the brine, and since there was no skin to begin with, the meat had a good layer of rub as well. The chicken looked charred, but with this rub it is normal and still tasted excellent. When cutting, it was so soft and moist that the thing almost just fell apart. I will definitely be making this again.

Sorry, once again no q-view. Was very busy with this and other things and did not get a chance to find the camera.

 

[cowgirl]

Well it certainly sounds good... Like your brine ingredients. :)

 

[flash]

No qview

I just leave the skin on for protection. Helps keep the chicken from drying out, then just remove it.

 

[1chaos52]

I have tried to do it that way before and it still did not come out as good as without the skin. I did the same prep both ways with brine and beer can, and without skin was still better.

I am not sure if the chicken was able to take on more moisture from the brine because there was no skin or if maybe because the cooking temp was lower since I did not have to try and crisp the skin, but this chicken was far juicier than ones I have made with skin and much tastier. I also like the fact that I am not removing the rub when I remove the skin, which is what would happen if I removed the skin after cooking.

Anyway, just trying to experiment and provide my findings. I definitely suggest trying it, especially if you are trying to reduce the fat intake and stuff by avoiding the skin. Now when I make drumsticks in the smoker, I always do them skinless as the way I make them now is much more tasty.

 

[geek with fire]

hehe, I've got a dozen responses to this, but I think I'll just leave it to your imagination!

Sounds like you got a winner there. I agree with above that the skin can be removed later without imparting too much unhealthyness to the bird. However, I am sold on the mayo method, so I think it's a wash in the end; just might be more work than needed. I will add that when I do boneless skinless breasts, I put the rub on before the mayo slather. The rub actually penatrates the meat, which you won't get with the skin on. Very good flavor and stays moist.

I'll have to give that a shot the next time I do a whole yard bird. Nicely done.