1st Practice Chicken Box

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kwas68

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Entering my first competition in May. Here's my first attempt at a box for chicken.

Go ahead and critique. I do have to say it looked better in person. Already have some ideas to make things better next time.

I used the Pickled Pig method (link below). Juicy as all get-out but too salty for my tastes. It was a lot of prep work and I felt like they needed constant attention on the smoker/grill. I can see why teams hate chicken.

http://www.bbqbug.com/forums/bbq-contests/894-award-winning-competition-chicken.html
 

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From the angle of the photo it is hard to tell how equal the sizes of your portions were. The color is good as well. It seems that the current trend for chicken in appearance is a sauce with a near reflective sheen, and if the photo does show that then hats off to you.
I would suggest you send it over to bbqcritic.com and let a bunch of KCBS Certified Judges take a look.
We use bbqcritic.com and have taken the comments and concerns as often as possible.
Great first attempt!
 
I think the chicken looks really good. I would tighten up the parsley though.
 
It isn't an optical illusion, the bottom ones are slightly bigger than the other four.

The sizes ranged from Lampanelli to Jolie. Since it was a practice run, I cooked them all. Next time I'll be more judicious about which thighs make the cut. And if they're too big, I'll trim the Lampanellis so they all look like Beyonces.
 
Just checked out the chicken boxes on bbqcritic.com. They had some Calista Flockhart thighs. Looks like all of my thighs were at least Beyonces or bigger. There is no way I could have shoehorned another thigh in there. Some guys had 12 pieces of chicken in a box!

I'm thinking that trimming them will get them more uniform next time.
 
Again, for your first time you should be very proud of yourself. I cooked a couple dozen boneless skin on yesterday and I had a bunch of Lohans, and a few Bea Arthurs. Unless you hand select then you have to get a bunch and trim and sort carefully. You will get it! PM me with any questions.:clap:
 
2nd Try

Tried it again. I put less rub on and it was MUCH better. Took the best 6 out of 10 thighs. I would have made more to choose from for a competition. Had bite-thru skin on 75% of them. I think my box improved as well. Overall, I was pretty pleased.
 

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2nd try looks much better. Pieces look much more evenly trimmed. I would score that a solid 8 on appearance.

Whatever you did to light the 2nd photo, or set your camera's white balance, helped on #2. The first photo has a blue-green tint of fluorescent lighting.
 
I like the size of the thighs in the first picture, but the color looks better on the second box. Can you cook more thighs and put 8-9 in the box? That would fill things up and take the focus away from the garnish
 
Nice first box buddy. You prepping for Westmont? You are going to do just fine out there. If you need anything, give me a call. When you pulling out the brisket, pork, and ribs boxes?
 
Yeah, I’m new to competition style chicken. I usually BBQ chicken spatchcock-style. So I need practice with chicken more than anything in preparation for Westmont.

Going to do my overnight cooks - brisket and pork - simultaneously next weekend and bring the results to a St. Paddy’s party. Double barrel smokers!

So expect those boxes to be posted next Sunday!
 
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