Smoked Shredded Chicken Thighs

[ssandy_561]

Today I smoked some chicken thighs and then shredded it for later use.

Started off last evening dry brining 16 bone-in skin on chicken thighs with some Kosher salt.

This morning I loaded these onto my Grilla OG that was running at 220° with a blend of cherry, oak and hickory pellets.



After 45 minutes on at 220° they looked like this.



They were probing around 130°. I then bumped up the Grilla OG to 350° and left them on for another hour.




At this point they were probing between 170° and 180°. I removed my Weber kettle grate they were setting on and put it back onto my Weber kettle and removed all the skins.



Next I diced up all the skins and set them aside and hand shredded the chicken thighs and then mixed the diced skin back into the shredded chicken.

I divided the meat up into 3 - 8 oz. portions and 1 - 10 oz. portion.



I then vacuum sealed these up and froze 2 bags, kept one in the fridge for dinner and gave one away to my neighbor.

The chicken is tender and juicy and has a beautiful amount of smoke to it.

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions on how to cook this up.

[Andrrr]

Wow, reincorporating the skins back into the mix sounds delicious! What are you going to use it in?

[ssandy_561]

I figure BBQ chicken sliders, tacos and I might make Buffalo Chicken Dip with the third package.

[ssandy_561]

MBMorgan gave me the idea for the chicken skin

[bbqLuv]

I call dibs on the 10oz baggie

[ssandy_561]

This was given to my neighbor that has a snow blower. 👍

[jfmorris]

Looks great, and this is an idea I'll have to steal!

[bbqLuv]

Ditto

[fzxdoc]

What a smart cook that was, removing the skins and letting them crisp up as the thighs finished up, then chopping them into the pulled chicken. I bet the addition of the diced crispy skins took the flavor of the pulled chicken up several notches. Congrats on your thoughtful cook.

Kathryn

[ssandy_561]

The skins were on the chicken thighs the whole time in the smoker. The picture with the skins off were just when I had the grate sitting on my unlit Weber kettle. I pulled the skins off as soon as I took them off the smoker so they stayed crispy. I find the longer chicken skins sit on the actual chicken the softer they get.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the additional information, ssandy_561 . I thought you were using the kettle to crisp up the skins even more. Sounds like they were plenty crispy when you pulled them off the thighs. I bet your neighbor was thrilled to get some of that pulled chicken haul.

K.

[rlozinak]

Congrats on your cook. I will need to try this.

[Michael_in_TX]

This is my kind of meal prep.