poultry mentor needed

[ldrus]

so i have been smoking meat now for a few years  i am very satisfied with the results i get from  pork and beef however

 i am not happy with the chicken /turkey   the skin always comes out like tough leather and the flavor is just so so ........ with that said  i would like to know if any one would be willing to take me under there wing (pun intended haha) and help me to get satisfactory results

 

[chef willie]

Well, IMO, most will do birds a little hotter so the skin crisps up....around 300 or so. There is also the option of tossing the birds on a hot grill to crisp up the skin but I'm usually not down with the two step process...basically lazy or in a hurry.

 

[venture]

If you are pulling your chix for later use, you don't need to worry about the skin.  If you are serving the bird for dinner, you need to crisp up the skin.  This can be done by smoking at higher temps or by throwing on the grill to crisp up.  Chix has enough fat that low and slow isn't really required.  Getting the smoke into it is the main thing.

Now lets wait for other members here to confuse this even more.  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[jjwdiver]

One thing that I had started doing, especially with Turkey...is wrapping it with a butter-soaked piece of cheese cloth, turning up the temp to 300 or better and letting them go just a bit longer than necessary.  It did 2 things that I liked...it made the meat fall off the bones and was cooked thoroughly, and it crisped the skin as well as turned it a beautiful golden brown (plus an interesting pattern to it).   

The cheese cloth was cut into a square and was enough to go around the bird (which also held in the legs and wings close to the body). Still works if you want to do the "beer can" method too, just leave an opening in the cloth.

Good luck!  pm with any questions on this method

John

 

[ldrus]

thanks for the info  guys, i can see one problem now  is though it has been awhile since i have done chicken it seems i did it low and slow  so first thing is to turn up the heat!!!

 

[SmokinAl]

Here's one more option:

Pulled chicken & bacon

My all time favorite is smoke the chicken at 225. While it's smoking fry up some bacon until crispy. Take the bacon & put on a paper towel, but leave the grease in the pan. When the chicken is done, take the skin off chop it into little pieces & put it in the fry pan in the bacon grease, fry it until it's crispy. Pull the chicken just like you would pull PP & put in a large mixing bowl. Chop the bacon up & combine the bacon & skin with the pulled chicken. Toss them together & serve.

 

[jjwdiver]

sounds yummy Al!

 

[meateater]

You can also rub some butter on the skin and crank up the heat towards the end. That will crisp it up. 

 

[jirodriguez]

Another easy way to crisp the skin at the end is the oven broiler. Only takes a couple minutes to crisp it up.

As for the flavor try using Tips Slaughter House brine - there is a wiky on it. I really makes a great tasting chicken!

 

[nubyte]

Brining for a day or two would help with the actual taste of the meat, as far as the skin goes i think its been well established in the prior posts to crank it up instead of going low and slow, the brining really improves the entire taste, and keeps everything nice and juicy