Hey folks.. Love my PBC ..as does my wife, her only complaint is that the chicken skin is not crispy. has anyone tried to pull the chicken out a little early (say at 150-155) and finish it on the grill ?
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How hot are you cooking the in the PBC?
Welcome to the Pit!! -
What temp do you run the PBC at for chicken and are you talking whole chickens or pieces? When I do any type of chicken in the PBC I shoot for a barrel temp over 375°. As for the chicken itself, I will pat the skin dry and let it sit in the fridge uncovered overnight. I have crisped up the skin on pieces of chicken with the grill before but never with a whole bird. If you pull it off the PBC a little early as you stated you should be fine.Comment
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Spatchcocking might be a good idea if you want to crisp the skin on the grill. That way you would have all the skin over the coals at the same time.Comment
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Hi eabgjm , welcome to The Pit! I've had several folks ask me about how to do chicken on the PBC, and here's my writeup. Hope it helps:
Chicken on the PBC: How to get juicy chicken with crispy skin
First, about salt: if my rub contains salt then I don't add any extra salt. Ever. I use the salt-containing rub as a dry brine.
Even though it contains a lot of salt, I love PBC's AP rub with chicken and use it as a dry brine. I never add more salt. I smoke chickens once every two weeks, on average, and they're always done in an hour or so and the skin is crispy.
Chicken prep:- Slice the chicken in half the way Noah shows on his chicken video on the PBC website.
- Separate the skin from the muscle underneath on the breast, thigh, and leg.
- Sprinkle AP rub all over that exposed muscle and rub/pat to get it to stick.
- Smooth the skin back into place and sprinkle the skin with a mixture of one Tablespoon of rub and a teaspoon of baking powder.The baking powder helps to dry the skin.
- Set the chicken, uncovered, positioned with the maximum amount of skin exposed, in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This helps to dry the skin.
- When it comes time to smoke the chicken, sprinkle it lightly with sweet paprika. This helps give it a pretty color
- Hook and hang the chicken in the PBC once it has gone through the 15-10-10 lighting procedure (or whatever works for you) outlined in the first post of this topic. I let the PBC temp get over 400 before hanging the chicken. The PBC temp drops quickly when this cold meat mass is introduced, then climbs back up.
- Keep the PBC temperature up between 325 and 360. Usually I keep it around 350 or so. I do this by judiciously cracking the lid for short periods of time and by pulling a rebar if I'm only doing one chicken.
- Check the chicken temp and pull it when the breast reads 160. The carryover cooking will bring it to the safe 165. At this temperature, the legs and thighs are done as well.
- Let the chicken rest for a little bit before slicing. Otherwise, because the meat is so juicy and tender, the bone sometimes pulls right out of the leg when you try to eat it!
I like slicing the chicken in half in the prep phase because I can get 3 chickens in the PBC that way, or 2 chickens and 2 hanging sausage holders filled with sausages. (Those sausages add a flavor bomb to the chicken, at least to my taste buds.)
The chicken easier to carve if I remove the breast bone after slicing the bird in two in the prep stage. Then during carving, breast section easily pulls away from the rib cage so I can slice it crosswise.
I don't use any oil on or under the skin for two reasons: first, Meathead now says that it doesn't do much, flavorwise, for oil-soluble spices, and second, for me at least, it prevents the chicken skin from crisping. I get crisper skin without it. Lots of folks use oil, though, so try for yourself and see what works best.
If you're smoking only one chicken, use only one rebar and run it diagonally. This gives you more room for the meat, and the open holes help keep the PBC temperaure in the desired 325°-375° range. The chicken should be done in an hour or so.
For high temp poultry cooks where I need both rebars for hanging the meat, I have switched out the rebars for thin stainless steel rods. This leaves a lot more air space in the rebar holes and helps keep the temps up. Here's my post on that method:
https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...emp#post340677
Hope this helps.
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; September 5, 2020, 06:30 AM.Comment
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fzxdoc, this sounds like a perfect first cook for my shiny new PBC. Couple questions for you and the board...
1. Any concerns with it being a brand new unseasoned barrel? Chicken seems to make sense as the first cook if over-temp became an issue (I don't mind extra crispy skin!)
2. Any recommendations on style/brand of sausage hanger? -
BourBonQ , the PBC does not have to be seasoned. You can just pull it out of the box, light the coals, hang the chicken, and you're good to go!
For info about the sausage hanger, take a look at this topic: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...350#post121350 . -
...continued, BourBonQ ,
The hanger I bought is Charcoal Companion Sausage basket. You can get it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...4NZAJERI&psc=1
Kathryn
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Thanks for the greetings and info.. I have been wet brining overnight and then drying in fridge for 6-8 hours before dry rubbing. I usually cook at 290 - 300 L.ooks like my methods need a little tweeking If I continue to wet brine should I reduce the amount of extra salt on outside ? iI use my own rub and have reduced thel amount of salt in order to compensate for the brine ?Comment
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Follow up I split the chicken backbone removedComment
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eabgjm, it sounds as though you're on the right track. I know that Huskee here is a big fan of wet brining chicken. For sure, with a combo of wet brining and dry rubbing, you shouldn't put more salt on that bird than you would if it was sitting in front of you on the plate, unsalted. You're the best judge of that.Originally posted by eabgjm View Post
Sounds as though your method just needs a few tweaks to ensure a drier skin before the bird is introduced to the PBC. Letting it sit longer, uncovered, in the fridge is a good first step. Adding baking powder to the rub for the skin would be a second step to think about. And finally, that chicken needs to be smoked at a much higher temp. If you try 350 degF, you'll never look back, IMO.
Happy smoking,
KathrynComment
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Thanks perhaps longer in the fridge on a rack to dry out . I am a big fan of wet brining poultry. The higher temp will surely help. Next question ... What if I'm doing rib at the same time ?
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My favorite brine for chicken is 1 gal water, 1 C table salt, 1 C sugar. I usually let a whole chicken go ~2-3hrs, pieces only ~1hr. This leaves it salty enough that I just add a no-salt spice blend afterward. I have never tried wet bring plus using a salted rub, could lead to oversalting. -
I love Guest 's wet brine. I converted it to weight for scaling or use of any kind of salt:
200 g Salt
200 g granulated white sugar
3,785 g (1 gallon) warm water/ice
Heat salt, sugar in 2/3 of the water on the stove until dissolved, add the remaining third by weight in ice cubes to chill
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If you do ribs at the same time, eabgjm , you will have to let the PBC find its sweet spot in the 250-280 range, or lower. You can't cook the ribs at the high temp required for optimal chicken results (350 or so) because they will be too dry. The chicken will still be tender and juicy when cooked at the normal PBC temps alongside the ribs, but the skin will be rubbery and it will take around 2 hours for it to get done.
You could always take the chicken off at about 145 internal and sear the skin on another grill, taking it up to 160, as Meathead recommends.
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; June 28, 2016, 06:56 AM.Comment
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eabgjm, good morning. I find the PBC will sear that skin just fine. If you follow all the previous great advice and the skin is still not quite up to "crispy" snuff for your taste, pull it from the PBC at about 150 (give or take a little) and put the grate in the barrel. Leave the lid off and the bird out about 8-10 min to allow oxygen to feed the fire and temps to rise rapidly. Then lay the bird on the grate skin side down and watch closely with the lid remaining off. You'd be amazed how hot that sucker gets and how well you can sear something. A bonus is the fire that erupts from fat drippings is just too far away to burn the skin. The flavor is awesome. This is also a good technique for other foods that could use high temps. Often employ this method with wings, salmon, flank steak, etc. I don't ever fire up another grill to crisp or sear.
Best of luck.Comment
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Thanks to all.. Have a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July.. Just curious what's the under/over on the number of PBC's fired-up this weekend ?Comment
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As others have said....rip that sucker at 425 F and that skin will crisp right up.Comment
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Well today I tried several recommendations. First since o installed the PBC fix, there was only leakage around the rebar as it should be. Thanks PBC! Which means most of the smoke stayed inside as it should. Second I used the prep instructions from fzxdoc regarding chicken. I followed each step judiciously and the skin was crisp without removing. As Voodoo suggested, the searing aspect will work if you wanted more crispy skin. In fact I was prepping for just that when I touched the skin and it was perfect! I didn't know however that the flames was like a furnace. Good to know. As you can see the cook turned out ok. Still a work in progress. I couldn't stage the shot of the spareribs like the baby backs, 'cause I had a hord chomping at the bit. Maybe next time I'll lock them out of the property until time to grub do that I can properly stage the fixin's. Oh and BTW fzxdoc I also used your lighting instructions - perfecto!Comment
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