Doing a local competition this year that is using chicken hindquarters. I've cooked these a lot over the years- cheap and good- but never for any sort of a competition. I'm leaning toward following APL's competition thigh recipe with extended times and seeing how it goes. Thoughts?
Thanks
Greatplainsbrewer dry brine them uncovered as long as possible. Add a LIGHT coat of Mayo as a binder and sprinkle with MMD. Smoke over pecan until about 160, then a light coat of BBQ sauce. Take to about 165-170, and hit with a little Spicy honey, and let the carryover cooking even out the brush marks. Garnish with a bed of parsley in your box.
This is the time to do some testing at home. The thigh is the thickest part of the leg quarter. You need to test how the meat will handle on your grill. You also need to plan your presenting. Have you been to this contest and seen how they do it. Contestant presentation is 25-33 percent of the grading.
Kind of what I was thinking- the most difficult thing is the different cooking rates of legs and thighs. At least on the practice side this won't break the bank.
I usually cook chicken parts in the 325-350 range, butter braised in foiled pans. We have a motley crew of cookers- kettles, gas smokers, pellets, WSM, and a KBQ. I usually experiment on the pellet cooker because of the temperature control.
To me, the complication is that being connected, you can't debone the thigh, remove the skin and scrape of the fat from it (bite through skin is easier to get that way), and brine the skinless thigh. Being skin on, I would probably dry brine, add a layer or rub, and then take to about 160° then add a thin layer of sauce, and back in to tack it up at about 170° I would hit it with some honey. All cooking would be done at 325° with pecan. Cook a whole flock of them so you can pick the best looking ones. Present your box with a bed of parsley, then chicken in the middle, surrounded by more parsley. I like to use a hot honey as the finisher. Full disclaimer: every event I have ever entered, my bird has scored lower than my brisket, ribs, and pork box. Not my strongest category.
I was thinking like wrapping the thicker parts similar to avoiding stalls for pulled pork. Or putting some down on the grates to act as a heat shield for the thinner parts, just to help balance things out.
Nothing I would ever do on a normal cook, but for a competition I might experiment with it at home to see if it works.
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