Chicken skin always shrinking on me

[GreaseShirt]

Is this normal? Whenever I reverse sear chicken the skin pulls wayyyyy back. Tastes great but could look sexier on the plate.

[grantgallagher]

Totally normal imo. the skin is by nature a highly hydrated (fat and water) piece so by cooking you are removing "liquid" and "lubricants" which will naturally cause the insoluble (insoluble in fat or water, wrong order but respectively) fibers to contract and shrink

[Jerod Broussard]

Try toothpicks.

Man that looks good!

[mrteddyprincess]

+1 on "Man that looks good."

[DavidNorcross]

Looks great! Assuming you dry that chicken and then season in the fridge for a while before cooking? Regardless, looks really good.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Try to do some dry brining for at least 24 hours in the fridge and also remove as much of the fat as you can prior to cooking....that will help but wont stop if from happening. Good looking bird parts ya got there too!!!

[GreaseShirt]

How high is high for indirect? Do you get crispy skin?

[Steve B]

GreaseShirt I just did some quarters on my kettle with the SnS. Left the bottom vent wide open and the top 3/4 or so open. I didn’t have a grate probe in for this cook. But did stick my Thermopen in the vent opening and it read 370ish. And yes the skin was pretty crispy.

[Dadof3Illinois]

GreaseShirt I'll get upwards of 600F+ (at the dome of my kettle) using the vortex or the baskets and a full chimney. Coat the chicken with the "Chicken Fry" get the kettle up on temp set the chicken on away from the direct heat. 15 mins in i'll flip/rotate the chicken, another 15 i'll flip and spray with a light coating of pam. Chicken will be juicy and skin crispy.

[tstalafuse]

You can try stapling them down, use meat glue, or I use tooth picks to hold them in place.

[TripleB]

As mentioned a few times above, use long toothpicks to hold the skin in place.

I have a friend who cut and formed the skin around a whole chicken once. Roasted it standing up. When done, the chicken looked like it was wearing a bikini. Pretty clever.

[Redwng]

I do mine on the Weber Kettle and don't have that problem. I cook them at 275-325 and get them to about 140 internal before I start getting them over the charcoal. I also poke holes in the skin in multiple spots to help the fat render, this according to my chef brother.

[GreaseShirt]

Skin holes seems pretty genius