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Saturday, February 23, 2013

KCBS Competition Practice. Chicken, Part 1 of 4

Well everyone, I looked at the calendar this morning and guess what?  It is getting close to our first competition of the year, the Roc City Rib Fest in Rochester, NY.  Only 90 days to go, so it is time to start practicing and perfecting our recipes for the year.

For those who are new to competition BBQ, there are four categories for turn in: Chicken (regular or cornish game hen), Ribs (Pork only, baby backs or spares), Pulled Pork (Must be from whole shoulder five pounds or more in weight), Beef Brisket (point, flat, or both.  Cannot be corned beef).  Today we will focus on our first turn in, chicken.

Chicken is the first turn in of the day at high Noon.  You can turn your box in during a 10 minute window starting at 11:55 am.  Concentration on cooking chicken helps keep your mind off of the impending turn ins.  Your boxes are built with garnish and you are ready to roll.  Once you pull the cooked thighs off of the smoker, you pick our your best six (we cook 12), put them in the box, and run off to the judges tent to turn in your box.

Some say that chicken is the hardest category to cook.  We have done well with chicken at Three Dogs BBQ, scoring no less than 17th in the category, except for one aberration at Roc City last year when we tried a failed experiment with chicken legs...

I hate preparing for chicken.  You bone the thighs, trim to size, and scrape the back of the skin to remove the fat.  All in the search for the perfect moist piece of chicken with bite through skin that doesn't pull off in one big flap when you take a bite.  Here is a like to our prior efforts and the work that goes into preparing for this cut of meat: Competition Style Chicken

This year, we are looking to get a nice, uniform piece of chicken with a little less work.  So, here it goes...

First, we bought some leg quarters from our butcher and separated the thigh from the leg with a pair of poultry shears...



A side comment here.  If you have not ever used poultry shears, you don't know what you are missing. Cutting through bone was a snap.  Splurge and get yourself a pair.  But, I digress...

We removed the knuckle on each side of the thigh bone with the shears and trimmed the long, stringy pieces of skin off of the thigh so that we get a nice, uniform thigh.  



Next, we marinaded the chicken in a bottle of Italian salad dressing for about 6 hours.  After the marinade, we pulled out, drained away the marinade, and sprinkled a liberal coat of Butchers Honey Rub on all sides of the thigh.  I arranged nicely and place outside to keep cool until the smoker was ready.  We also snuck some wings into the mix for some variety...


This time around, we used a temperature of 275 F in the smoker with 50:50 hickory/peach in the ash pan.  Our hopes are that the higher heat will allow us to obtain perfect, bite through skin.

We placed the chicken on the smoker for 1 1/2 hours:  30 minutes skin side up, 30 minutes skin side down, 30 minutes skin side up after dunking in sauce.  For sauce, just use 1 cup of your favorite sauce mixed with 1/4 cup of honey.

Here is the final product:

Wings...


Thighs...


Before you say something, yes, they look ugly.  But, it was midnight and I wanted to go to bed.  My main objective was to test the flavor profile.  We passed the test for sure.  I like how the Italian dressing adds a layer of flavor to the overall profile.  A winner for sure.  Everyone at work scarfed them down in no time.

But, the skin was not bite through.  We will have a few more practices before May to perfect our method.  But, we were not successful in our first attempt with this new method.  If all else fails, we can go back to our old cooking method that we know works.

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

2 comments:

  1. Chicken is the first category judged. I have seen many different styles, flavors and presentations. My only advice as a judge is timing. Believe it or not a warm piece of chicken will usually score better than a cold piece. The flavors when warm are more vibrant increasing scores.

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    1. All good points Chilebrown. The best way to see how your entry is for the judges when practicing is to put it in a box and taste after 15 minutes. We try and pull our thighs right off the cooker and into the box. Warmer is better for sure...

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