We kicked off our KCBS competition season this weekend and our team got 1st Place in Chicken. The thighs are bite through skin, but are not crispy.
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Here's what I do -- get your chicken pieces done, dip in sauce (not hot) and seal up in a foil pan. Put in a hot cambro for at least 20-30 minutes. The skin softens. I don't like the butter bath thing because of uneven sauce stickage.Comment
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Just curious, do you have to leave the skin on in competitions? Why not just use boneless/skinless thighs? It seems the skin is just a barrier to getting flavor into the meat.Comment
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I'm a KCBS judge, and I routinely get bite-thru chicken at my table. Sometimes not, but even the Backyard cooks have been producing some good bite-thru skin lately.
I'm gonna say something that may get me kicked out of KCBS: I don't see why a predominately grilled meat (i.e. chicken) is included in BBQ competitions. I could see turkey, but I can't see chicken. Chicken can be smoked low and slow, but so can ribeye steaks.
Just my opinion. Maybe it has something to do with my inability to consistently produce bite-thru skin.Comment
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Boneless skinless wont consistently win $$
Just gotta learn to cook da yardbirdComment
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Originally posted by Thom Emery View PostBoneless skinless wont consistently win $$
Just gotta learn to cook da yardbird
From what little I have seen, skinless doesn’t score well.
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I like to smoke, then deep fry. Crispy skin all the time. I realize this probably is not allowed in comps, but it is in my backyard!Comment
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Disclaimer: I have never cooked for competition. I may not know what the judges are looking for here.
For chicken thighs, here's what I do and it creates crispy, bite through skin. The skin is very crispy, but still bite through .... so much so that I can slice the thighs, skin and all, very easily with a knife
1. Buy quality chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
2. debone the thighs, trim the veins, excess fat, excess skin.
3. Sprinkle skin lightly with kosher salt, rub a bit of kosher salt on the bottom of the thigh - don't oversalt ... learned this the hard way with inedible chicken one night and a quick run for pizza
4. arrange your thighs on a rack in a cookie sheet with a 1/2" space around them for air to circulate and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably 24
5. set up your grill for 2 zones ... indirect at 275
6. cook the chicken, meat side down, on the indirect zone until they probe at 170
7. crank up the direct zone to medium hot (not steak searing hot) and put the thighs on the direct heat skin side down
8. keep moving, turning, etc the thighs until you a deep golden brown maillard reaction on the skin.
9. pull the thighs .... now serve, or slice for teriyaki .... which is how I figured out this technique
side note, if I'm planning on slicing for terikyaki chicken, I put little slices in the skin .... seems to help, but probably not absolutely necessary.
Some pics cooking for teriyaki one night .... wasn't the best example of skin. You can see some of the thighs got too much direct heat and started to char. But you can also see how I was able to slice the thighs, skin and all, with a knife. If you can pull a knife across the skin and cut through it easy and quick, I've got to think it meets the "bite through" test. The impressive thing is that it ends up like potato chip crispy, thin, bite through :-)
Last edited by ecowper; May 7, 2018, 04:00 PM.Comment
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