To a certain degree. When I judge I can tell which entries were done in a tin. They tend to be small. If they were done in a rectangular tin, they score well as long as all other criteria is in line (color, sauce, etc). If they look like billiard balls they don't score well with me.
It certainly can depend on what judges/table you hit, but in my experience when we gave them a try in 5 competitions in a row we received maybe two 8's the entire time. The rest all nines. I also think 9 thighs in a box looks great since 6 is pretty common. We also had luck with 9 square'ish thighs that didn't use a pan.
Even though you can find some flaws in this with sauce and maybe a few other tiny details, this is what got us a lot of straight 9's in appearance. Now unfortunately the judges then had to eat them and we didn't have good taste on them so we stopped :becky:.
Congrats on all those 9's in appearance with that technique, but personally, I don't like it. It does make me hungry for spaghetti and meatballs.
I like my chicken to look like chicken.
Wallace- :icon_frow I should have elaborated...My statement was what "I" like but I judge what is presented. Almost any chicken is going to look more like chicken than the muffin pan version. I appreciate when the pieces are relatively symmetrical/uniform but the team does not get dinged if they are all not perfectly "groomed". I know teams get hit hard on BBQ critic for lack of uniformity. But for me they don't have to be *perfect*.
I like my chicken to look like chicken.
Thanks! IMO, chicken is the only thing that does not look natural in a competition.
I really wish just turning in "plain ol' smoked" chicken would work.
Sorry to get upitty, but, I like the muffin chicken idea; at home as well. :mrgreen:
wallace