Need advice on Chicken Legs (Quarters)

[This is not your pork!]

To my surprise we are not going to do the point from last week's brisket, but whole chicken leg quarters, which look as follows:



These are now already rubbed and put into the fridge, and they will go on my WSM together with another 6 slabs of Danish Back Ribs. I will fire up the WSM in about 5 hours, so that everything will be ready at noon.

This will be my very first poultry, and although I tried to read up on how to cook such chicken legs, I have no clue on how to do them.

As far as I have seen, overcooking, drying out, "rubber chicken" and getting crispy skin are major problems with poultry.

• What cooking temp and time make sense for this product?
• What's the target internal temp?
• How to keep the meat moist and nevertheless get crispy skin?
• Any spritzing recommended?

I guess due to shorter cooking time I will first put the ribs onto the upper grate for their first 3 hours, and then when these will be put in a closed casserole with apple juice onto the lower grate for 2 hours, I will put the open casserole with the chicken legs onto the upper rack, unless 3 hours are too much for them. Since I had good results with my ribs so far, I intend to keep the temp at the lower grate between 225 and 250°F, so it will be slightly hotter at the upper grate (although I still don't know what difference in temp is to be expected between the lower and upper grate in a WSM 22.5 with a foiled 18" clay saucer in a foiled water pan without water).

Any thought, hints and directions are thankfully welcome.

[Bludawg]

Dry them real good, give them a good coat of rub, crank the WSM to 325 put top on and leave them alone at 1.5 hrs brush on a little sauce put the top on the cooker close all the vents top & bottom give it about 30 min and they will be ready crispy skin moist & jucy

[bbqchicken]

Originally Posted by Bludawg

Dry them real good, give them a good coat of rub, crank the WSM to 325 put top on and leave them alone at 1.5 hrs brush on a little sauce put the top on the cooker close all the vents top & bottom give it about 30 min and they will be ready crispy skin moist & jucy

thanks I will try that

[El Ropo]

What blu said. If you cook quarters any lower than 325, you'll end up with rubber band skin.

I also like to trim all the extra fat off the quarters, then put in a frost free fridge overnight to draw all the moisture from the skin. Then take out, apply rub and cook.

They should turn out something like this:

[This is not your pork!]

Originally Posted by Bludawg

Dry them real good, give them a good coat of rub, crank the WSM to 325 put top on and leave them alone at 1.5 hrs brush on a little sauce put the top on the cooker close all the vents top & bottom give it about 30 min and they will be ready crispy skin moist & jucy

Well, so that's a 2 hours cook then, but how can I combine this with the ribs, which will be 1 hour in foiled when the poultry has to go on, and what will the ribs say when I up the temp?

So if I do it like that, how much time will I have to give the ribs less, when at 325°F instead of 225-250°F?

What's the reason for closing all vents for the last 30 minutes, which will put the fire out? Never heard of that procedure before.

[This is not your pork!]

Already noon and the ribs to be pulled off shortly. I decided to not change the game plan for my ribs, so they were kept between 225 and 250°F for a total of 6 hours. I will fire up the WSM a second time today in the evening to cook the chicken legs as suggested.

[Wampus]

Not seeing this until now, but sounds like you've got a good game plan. I was gonna say that if you didn't want to worry about different meats at different temps, then just pull the ribs off and hold em while you crank the tamp in the cooker and put the leg quarters on to cook at a higher temp as suggested above.

Next time......the best advice I can offer to ensure moist and juicy chicken is.....BRINE! I will ALWAYS brine poultry. It not only improves flavor and juiciness, but also gives an amazing amount of cushion. I've had "oopses" before and taken chicken to higher IT than I wanted and it was still juicy because of the brine.

GREAT brine info HERE.

[slackdogbbq]

Poultry, Brine, Brine, Brine!

[2guystryin]

I smoke mine at 225-250 for 4 1/2 hours. Spray wjth apple juice every 1/2.

[Rodsboots]

Originally Posted by slackdogbbq

Poultry, Brine, Brine, Brine!

And then Brine again!!!.. Meat so juicy..!!

[humblegriller]

I totally agree with the brine.

If you have a way, I've also had good results with searing first.

[gtr]

Another briner here!

[This is not your pork!]

Thanks for the hint, will look into brining.

[pal251]

Originally Posted by 2guystryin

I smoke mine at 225-250 for 4 1/2 hours. Spray wjth apple juice every 1/2.

I cook mine at 250 to 260 and I only cooked mine for about 2 hours last time and I hit 180 degrees IT. Am I missing something?

[bbqchicken]

Im a brining machine.