Need some advice on smoked, pulled chicken thighs

[jjdbike]

I'm so glad I found this thread!

It's clutch as I am planning on doing some chicken for pulled BBQ chicken for my work BBQ in a few weeks. Was going to smoke them this weekend, pull, vacuum pack and freeze till the event. Did prom bells last week and next week I'll some some chuck for pulling.

Do you dry brine and use rub w/ salt? I use commercial rubs w/ salt.

Would doing whole birds (spatched), dry brined, rubbed, smoked hot over peach, then rested sealed inuslated container w/ some stock and duck fat sound like a good idea? Really hoping for some good specific advice here as I'll be doing 4 whole chickens and don't want to mess them up, i.e. I want them to be really good.

Thanks in advance!!!!
JD

[DaveD]

I hadn't visited this thread since the final outcome was posted, so I'm glad to hear it worked out well.

One thing about dry-brining poultry: You can put it right on the skin, no need to peel it back. So long as it is just salt and not part of a rub, that NaCl will zip right through the skin and chicken meat. If it's mixed up with other stuff, it'll participate in reactions as the moisture from the meat combines with the rub ingredients, and won't be just NaCl anymore. Thus it gets stuck at the surface along with everything else. Another great reason to do your salting separately. Good luck JD!

[Richard Chrz]

I would get a bit of smoke on them, then vacu seal and SV them, SV allows for a lower number for pastured, because of the longer time, I believe 145, which makes incredible moist chicken, especially the chicken breast.

[fzxdoc]

I agree with Richard Chrz that sous vide chicken takes the guesswork out of whether or not the bird is safe to eat for a small batch or for a crowd, and his idea for QSV sounds great. I'm going to try it. Thanks, Richard.

As Richard says, you can pasteurize chicken using lower temperatures with SV, so the bird is nice and juicy. You have to do white meat and dark meat at different temps for good results. I have two Joules, so it's no problem but there are other workarounds as well.

For good pasteurization/cook times and temperatures, I like Kenji Lopez-Alt's Serious Eats article on SV Chicken Breasts

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast

Here are his SV chicken breast recommendations in a nutshell:
Sous Vide Chicken Breast Temperature and Timing Chart

Texture	Temperature	Timing Range
Very soft and juicy when served hot	140°F (60°C)	1 1/2 to 4 hours
Tender and juicy: Ideal for chicken salad when served cold, slightly stringy when served hot.	150°F (66°C)	1 to 4 hours
Traditional, juicy, firm, and slightly stringy, served hot	160°F (71°C)	1 to 4 hours

In his discussion, Kenji recommends 140-145° for no longer than 2 hours (although he says you can go 4 hours) but I like 149° because for me, the meat was still too pink at 145°, although the texture was great. He says you shouldn't see pink meat above 140° but I sure did at 145° so inched the temp up to 149° on subsequent cooks for the size of chicken breast I like to use.

A trial run would probably be wise.

For thighs, these are Kenji's pasteurization/cook recommendations

https://www.seriouseats.com/crispy-sous-vide-chicken-thigh-recipe

Here are his SV chicken thigh recommendations in a nutshell:
Sous-Vide Chicken Thigh Temperature and Timing Chart

Texture	Temperature	Timing Range
Very juicy but quite firm, with a few tougher spots	150°F (66°C)	1 to 4 hours
Very juicy and completely tender	165°F (74°C)	1 to 4 hours
Moderately juicy, pull-off-the-bone tender	165°F (74°C)	4 to 8 hours

Kenji distilled his articles on SV for white and for dark meat down to these two charts, but there's a ton of additional info in both of the links that may help you dial in a SV temp that gives exactly the results you're looking for.


Kathryn

[Skip]

I agree with Richard Chrz post above. As I looked at my cooking notes... I wrote down that the SV T&T was 165* for 2.5 Hours with partially frozen Chicken Legs and Thighs and then seared at 400* for a few minutes for some color. The result was fall off the bone chicken.

[Skip]

After I hit the post button I see fzxdoc beat me to it with a much more detailed description. Good luck jjdbike.

[jjdbike]

Thanks much everyone!
I'm doing 4 whole spatched chicken so won't have the room to SV. I'll pre-dry brine (I need to know how much salt per bird)?, overnight, (Should I rinse in the morning to remove any excess salt?), salt free rub (No Shit Rub), smoke at 225 for an hour then crank heat up to 325 to get to temp. Then pull skin, add duckfat, chicken Demi glaze and a little BBQ sauce and cover tightly to rest and braise a bit. Then pull, vacuum seal and freeze. Sound right?
To reiterate my two questions about dry brining:

1. How much salt per whole bird, is it by weight?

2. Should I rinse after overnight dry brine?

Thanks in advance!!!!
JD

[jjdbike]

Also,
Is overnight too long to dry brine whole spatched chickens?
JD

[JLR]

On chicken, I go a little lighter on the salt. The recommendation is to use the salt you would use at the table or 1.25 tsps per lb. I use a little less than 1 tsp per lb of Kosher salt, which is less than regular table salt.
There is no need to rinse after the overnight dry brine.
Hope this helps.

[jjdbike]

Thank you JLR!

[shify]

No issues dry brining overnight, in fact I would say you need at least 24 hrs. I tend to do 1-2 days uncovered for chicken to really dry out the skin and it helps to get it crispy. But if you are tossing the skin, you can cover it. I generally don’t weight the salt just pretty much use what I would normally generously season chicken with. I do my best to spread under the skin, in addition to on the skin.

Definitely don’t rinse the chicken. Just add your rub, might need some oil on the skin to help adhere, and cook.

[jjdbike]

No issues dry brining overnight, in fact I would say you need at least 24 hrs. I tend to do 1-2 days uncovered for chicken to really dry out the skin and it helps to get it crispy. But if you are tossing the skin, you can cover it. I generally don’t weight the salt just pretty much use what I would normally generously season chicken with. I do my best to spread under the skin, in addition to on the skin.

Definitely don’t rinse the chicken. Just add your rub, might need some oil on the skin to help adhere, and cook.

Thanks much!
Yes I generally use a slather / binder of some type. I'll be pre dry brining and using a salt free rub and pulling and tossing w/ duck fat and sauce. I don't need to worry about how much rub I'm using and will go pretty heavy.
Thanks!!!!
JD

[jjdbike]

I'm really looking forward to this cook and will post the results.
JD

[DaveD]

We're looking forward to seeing how you do! Bound to learn something.

[Clawbear57]

Waiting..........!

[jjdbike]

Thanks everyone,

It was a fun cook. I dry brined over night 4 whole swatched chickens and two split breasts. I used a tad over 1 teaspoon per pound, and it was quite salty. I rubbed w/ "No Shit" chicken rub. It's salt free and herb heavy. I am very pleased with that rub and highly recommend it. I used peach splits in the KBQ. I started the birds at 225 for the first hour, then kicked it up to 275 for the next. The breasts were done early. Then I kicked it up to 300 for about 30 mins. Overall cook time for the whole birds was 2 1/2 hours.

I pulled the skin, took them apart and pulled. I added some chicken Demi-Glace and duck fat. It was a bit salt heavy so I added more duck fat, butter, a splash or water and more rub. I was pleased with the flavor and moistness. Vacuum packed and froze.

Thanks again,
JD

[Clawbear57]

Glad that all went good.the birds are good too.