So I'll be Scraping Skin From Now On. And Question?

My teammate and I have our 4th competition coming up in a few week and our 2nd KCBS (2 were MBN) and so we are cooking chicken so I wanted to practice. My last chicken was horrible and I could never get the skin to bite through. I tried scraping, but I was really bad at it. But I knew I just needed to practice more. So here is my latest attempt.

The bottom right piece I did NOT scrap and you can see it looks a little thicker and also pulled forward and it didn't come completely off only because I held on to the back for dear life .

The other 3 I bit right through. So scraping it is. The time is worth it for me. I still need to work on my flavor and color. These were rubbed, cooked skin side down in some margarine and rub for about 45mins at 275. Then pulled out covered in sauce and then cooked on a rack to tighten up.


Ok so now for a competition chicken prep question. Does anyone cut the bone ends? The rounded ball part that a lot of times sticks out and when I leave them on so many times the chicken pulls back as it cooks and the bone shows and looks bad. I know some people debone thighs and some do not and know people do well with either method, but does anyone just cut off the ends?

Fatback Joe said:

I have cut them off when I have a thigh that I really like with the exception of the bone during prep. I generally try to avoid doing it since it seems that the blood/marrow/whatever, kind of seeps out some during the cooking, but it has not seem to have any negative impact on my scores.

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Thanks for the reply. I haven't seen any adverse results from the marrow/stuff in the bone discoloring or adding bad taste just from my experience. It really help me to get the pieces more even looking and I will continue to practice my trimming skills.

Fatback Joe said:

Yep, for a while it would frustrate me having a nice looking thigh with a bone that was a little too long. After I cut the first bone, it was like :doh: why didn't I do this before.

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That was exactly my reaction too. And while I could completely de-bone I don't like the small size or maybe I need practice on that too . But this seems like the best of both worlds. I like the bone in and trimming the bone tips if needed get them down to a uniformed size since thigh bone size vary.