One of the most interesting parts of being married is getting integrated into a sometime fractured second family dynamic. My wife's family would be the poster child for this. A nasty divorce for her parents and quick follow up second marriages and second families yields some interesting negotiations at the holidays! On the silver lining side, it gives me yet another excuse to cook for a fun, hungry crowd This particular crew is pretty light on formality, so I decided to just keep it simple and try out some new recipes as I knew they'd be happy with this plan. After a trip to the butcher, my plan got trimmed down to 3 meat courses: 1) cracked fennel and garlic rubbed pork shoulder with a Kentucky black bbq sauce, spice rubbed whole chicken wings with an Alabama style celery seed white sauce and finally my "competition" style chicken thighs.
It was an ambitious menu, but the wings and pulled pork were easy, I was only nervous about the thighs. After a lot of research, I decided to try a chicken brine of salt, sugar, celery, carrot, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns over night for the thighs. I let them go for 24 hours, took them out, patted dry and let set up on a wire rack in the fridge for a few hours to completely dry out (please note: this was not for an actual comp, so I didn't get crazy with trimming the thighs to size and uniformity.).
Once dry, I placed the thighs in a disposable aluminum pan and tucked extra skin underneath to make them as uniform as possible. Once pretty'd up, I sprinkled with my house bbq dry rub and pats of butter and let them set up for an hour at room temp while I pre-heated the smoker to 375. I chose a combo of south Georgia white oak and pecan as my wood, both from our land.
Once the smoker got to temp, I placed the pans on the heated side of the grill and cooked for 60 minutes. Every 20 minutes I gave the thighs a quick spray of apple juice to moisten. At the 60 minute mark, I flipped all the thighs, sprayed, and sprinkled with a light dusting of the rub and cooked for an additional 20 minutes. At the end of the 20, I flipped, dusted again and cooked for ~30 minutes until the thighs hit 180 internal temp. When they hit 180, I dipped them in my sauce and put back on the grill for 10 minutes to set the sauce.
I can honestly say this was the first time I'd done a dedicated cook for thighs alone, but they were fall off the bone tender with bite through skin! I'd definitely recommend this process with your own tweaks for flavors as a good starting point for comp chicken. Good luck!
Patrick
The fennel-garlic rubbed pork didn't suck either
Happy family spread!
It was an ambitious menu, but the wings and pulled pork were easy, I was only nervous about the thighs. After a lot of research, I decided to try a chicken brine of salt, sugar, celery, carrot, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns over night for the thighs. I let them go for 24 hours, took them out, patted dry and let set up on a wire rack in the fridge for a few hours to completely dry out (please note: this was not for an actual comp, so I didn't get crazy with trimming the thighs to size and uniformity.).
Once dry, I placed the thighs in a disposable aluminum pan and tucked extra skin underneath to make them as uniform as possible. Once pretty'd up, I sprinkled with my house bbq dry rub and pats of butter and let them set up for an hour at room temp while I pre-heated the smoker to 375. I chose a combo of south Georgia white oak and pecan as my wood, both from our land.
Once the smoker got to temp, I placed the pans on the heated side of the grill and cooked for 60 minutes. Every 20 minutes I gave the thighs a quick spray of apple juice to moisten. At the 60 minute mark, I flipped all the thighs, sprayed, and sprinkled with a light dusting of the rub and cooked for an additional 20 minutes. At the end of the 20, I flipped, dusted again and cooked for ~30 minutes until the thighs hit 180 internal temp. When they hit 180, I dipped them in my sauce and put back on the grill for 10 minutes to set the sauce.
I can honestly say this was the first time I'd done a dedicated cook for thighs alone, but they were fall off the bone tender with bite through skin! I'd definitely recommend this process with your own tweaks for flavors as a good starting point for comp chicken. Good luck!
Patrick
The fennel-garlic rubbed pork didn't suck either
Happy family spread!
Comment