Boneless, Skinless (Breasts or Thighs)

[mrmikemgm]

For the longest time, I've been defaulting to cooking my boneless/skinless chicken in a vacuum sealed pouch at exactly 140℉ to get ultra moist, super tender chicken, then charbroiling it to get that Maillard reaction and resulting taste. Prior to that, I was a huge fan of BGE chicken. I'm migrating to a preference for developing techniques in the FEC-100 (or other pellet smokers). What I found is that it's more art and less science (at least from my limited experience). My first efforts yielded very tasty results, but many would call them more jerky and less chicken. Yesterday I think we stumbled on the secret. 90 minutes of smoke at 224℉, then crank the heat to 300℉ and monitor the digital probe to a target of 165℉ internal temp. The results (with Meathead's Simon and Garfunkel rub) were simply outstanding. Would welcome anyone else's experiences with the boneless/skinless variety of chicken since they seem to be harder to manage at lower temps than they are at higher temps via BBQ.

[Huskee]

I've never done sous vide and not sure if it's somethign I want to venture into (counter space). But I have good luck doing them reverse sear. Smoked chicken fajitas are amazing, especially when the chicken is juicy and soft.

[mrmikemgm]

Believe it or not, depending on what equipment you select, it can have surprisingly little impact on counter space. The PolyScience circulators come with a zip-up travel case that mine live in until I need them and they sit on the edge of a stock pot or ar big bucket for the actual water oven when in use.

Now, the vacuum sealer... That's another story entirely. All I can say is I'm glad to have a big garage.

[David Parrish]

My best chicken ever has come off my Hasty Bake. I just can't make my pellet smoker sing for chicken like the Hasty Bake. Since the HB has a lot of radiant heat it's hard to compare temps. My Mav reads in the low 300s, but that doesn't take the radiant heat into account.

[Ozric]

... My first efforts yielded very tasty results, but many would call them more jerky and less chicken. Yesterday I think we stumbled on the secret. 90 minutes of smoke at 224℉, then crank the heat to 300℉ and monitor the digital probe to a target of 165℉ internal temp. The results (with Meathead's Simon and Garfunkel rub) were simply outstanding. Would welcome anyone else's experiences with the boneless/skinless variety of chicken since they seem to be harder to manage at lower temps than they are at higher temps via BBQ.

Yup. Pellet grills have a convection cooking component due the the fan moving air through the fire pot. You've hit on one solution (higher temps (I'd recommend even higher temps like 325°-375°)). Another is to brine the chicken first (I use Rich's poultry brine (MadHunkyMeats.com); it contains a food-grade surfactant that carries the spices as well as the salt and moisture into the meat; wonderful stuff; the pork brine is also excellent) and use your split temp approach (but with a slightly higher final temp). My 2 cents.