Opinions, please.
 

Please give me your opinions on appearance. I'll post the scores later today. Thanks!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...z/DSC02219.jpg

6

Greens look good (yes, I know... judge the meat), but as a backdrop they "add" not "detract" so I like them.

... but the chicken looks... well... Its hard to see the chicken. At least to me that looks like way took much sauce.

It looks heavy on sauce to me too. I wonder what the chicken looked liked after you closed the lid and it was reopened.

Looks like your pieces way be of varying sizes.

I would say a 6. A lot of sauce and it does not make me want to reach up and grab it.

Ok, that's what I was thinking also...too much sauce. For the last 45 minutes of cooking, I turned the thighs skin side down in a pan of sauce and put them back on the smoker. Pulled them directly from the pan and into the box. I thought about taking some of the sauce off with a brush before putting them into the box. All of this to try to get "bite through skin", which, of course, is not judged anyway :roll: I'm so paranoid about the skin that I think I'm hurting myself in other areas. My next contest, I'll do the thighs skinless. Screw it...I'm tired of dealing with the skin and I can get the thighs to look pretty tasty without skin. Here were the appearance scores from the Iowa State Championship in Marshalltown:

887777

Generous? Maybe. The sauce wasn't as heavy as it appears in the pic, but I agree there was too much on there. Thanks for your opinions, guys!

Here were the other scores:

Taste: 797877
Tenderness: 898987

I tagged mine with a little too much sauce as well, IMO.

A little chicken with your sauce sir?

Based on the numbers, the tenderness was there. Maybe cut the sauce with some
apple juice.

I like the appearance...probably would have given it an 8. As Bob said, thin your sauce w/ AJ, water, margerine, etc. and you'll have that problem fixed. You could still improve your appearance scores by using more uniformly trimmed pieces and laying them out in the box in 3 rows of 2 rather than 2 rows of 3 (turn your box 90 degrees for an example).

Based on your scores, I'd work on your flavor profile a bit. You generally need a 8+ average to take a walk.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Funny thing about that comment... That's what mike Lake told us in our cbj class but the guy that taught the cbj class at the GAB told the potential judges that if they didn't like chewy skin then they should judge down for it. And also told them that if they were judging and preffered fall off the bone ribs then they should judge higher for that too.
How can anyone cook the way a judge is to taste the food when the judges are "taught" so differently?
But I digress...
The thighs look way too sauced to me,but the pic could be deceiving.

Looks like too much sauce...
but based on your tenderness scores it looks like you achieved the bite-through part.

Scott

There is no rule that I'm aware of about judging chicken skin,other than that if it's in the box, judges should try it, but if anyone said judge down if you prefer fall off the bone ribs, he should be drawn and quartered!!!:mad: The judges handbook clearly states that "When eating a properly cooked rib, the meat should come off the bone with very little effort and only where you bit into it should the meat be removed. If the meat falls off the entire bone while biting, it is a good indication it is overcooked." Goes on to describe the bone drying quickly at the site of the bite, etc.... but, if a judge wants fall off the bone ribs, he/she should skip judging and go to Chili's!

You're right, there is no rule about chicken skin and judges are supposed to taste it if it's there. I was just making light of the fact that people spend a large amount of time on chicken skin (like I do) when, in fact, it's not supposed to be judged. Kind of like garnish...it's there, but not supposed to be judged.