All I can add to the above great advice is doing the same thing I do with turkey - dry brine the meat under the skin AND the outside of the skin too. That’s helped me with crispier poultry skin.
The other thing that’s important is good airflow. In a kettle that typically isn’t a problem, as the shape creates natural convection.
As for rub, my standard chicken rub if I’m grilling or smoking is equal parts black pepper, garlic, paprika, and parsley.
I'm going to add another way I do chicken hat results in crispy skin. Use a set of Grillgrates and DIRECT GRILL. This is one of the times I use the rail side of the Grillgrate panels, and I feel that the panel design blocks any flareups and enough of the direct heat to where you don't burn the chicken up, but the skin crisps up nicely if you don't mind actual grill marks on them. On the charcoal grill they do a good job of spreading the heat and evening things out too.
I have Grillgrates for my Weber Genesis, and also a set for the Weber kettle. On the kettle, if I am doing a lot of chicken, I like to use them as I can do a full grill 1-zone setup and not worry about flareups.
I kinda go back and forth between direct grilled and indirect using the Vortex...
When I do wings (not thighs) I dry brine with salt, baking powder, and corn starch overnight. I have them on a drying rack in the refrigerator to help dry out the skin for it to be nice and crispy. I’ve copied this technique from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and have used on different chicken pieces.
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Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
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Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
If you want really crispy chicken thighs, just cook on medium heat and walk away for a few seconds….when you come back you will have flames coming out of the grill and some crispy licken good chicken dinner
don’t ask me why I know this….especially after cooking tonight’s winner winner crispy chicken dinner haha 😂😂
Small update. I sadly did not get any pictures (little bit of a dust up with the wife and my kids were out of control....oof)
That said, the skin did not come out the way I hoped, but there was improvement.
However, the chicken itself came out the best I have done so far with thighs.
Really juicy. I was surprised how juicy they were.
They had the best flavor yet from my thigh cooks. I was very happy with the results of the cook.
I did change a few things:
- dry brined for 24 hours with salt. Before that, It was about 10 hours of dry brining.
- i put on some garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper about 45mins before I put the chicken on
- i used a new briquette. Cowboy hardwood briquettes. Ooo boy....they get HOT!
Those briquettes had my builtin temp gauge over 500. That is with the vortex. When the kettle was coming up to temp, I opened up the kettle, to take a look, make sure all was good. I did not have the kettle lid off for that long, but i swear, i could see the flames just take off and get hotter with the lid off......it was cool!
Family loved the thighs.
I thought I would share and say thank you for all the help and recommendations!
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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Have you tried to dry brine with the chicken thighs on a wire rack? I always do that with the chicken uncovered in the fridge. Add salt and baking powder and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Part of the issue is that chicken thighs are so high in fat that is makes it tough to get that great skin with out deep frying. (Pan frying can be the best alternative to deep frying, BTW) You have to evaporate the moisture from the skin in order for it to crisp up. So you are doing battle with the moisture in the chicken and the skin.
The way I do it on the grill is, pull the skin off, then scrape the fat off under the skin. Then add salt and baking powder, then place the skin back on the chicken. The refrigerator is a dry environment and it will dry that skin out. Plus adding a layer of salt and baking powder between the skin and the meat makes a big difference.
I tested a little bit more recently, but I like your idea of pulling the skin back then adding salt and covering backup. I just bought some thighs for Friday so going to give it a go. TY
I thought I would share another cook.
In my quest to make crispy skin on chicken thigs (I am determined) i did another cook on Sunday.
I did a few things differently (dry brine for 24 hours and made sure I patted down the thighs for extra moisture) I read all the comments on my thread and applied them to my cook. (super helpful people here)
I am determined.
I loaded up a full chimney with briquettes. I got that baby nice and hot. The flames were looking nice when I poured the chimney into the vortex.
I closed the lid, let it sit for a bit. Man, it was HOT when opened the lid! Dome temp said 500-550 and a quick look inside looked nice.
I put my thighs, both vents wide open and let it rip!
To my astonishment, they were done in 35 minutes....and the skin was crispy!!!! Crispier than anything I had done in the past...i mean, not even close.
I was giddy taking the thighs off. They were good. Super moist and juicy. I think I missed a tad on the flavor profile, but either way, they were nice. IT was at 185 when I took them off.
Cooking thighs has taught me a lot. Damper control, chimeny setup, charcoal setup etc....such a huge difference between my cooks and my first cook.
Thighs are turning into one of my goto cooks now. I was kinda "meh" when I started to BBQ them. Now I look forward to it. I want to tweak my brine and my seasoning a bit to get more flavor packed in.
I bought some more today and already thinking about my next cook.
It has been a blast to cook and learn.
Now experimenting with the seasoning is going to be fun.
)
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