Got a chicken question for you al

Once. Not well.

if its kcbs or fba dont think about it. although i love pulled chicken

abangs said:

I split a whole chicken (I think the BBQ term is spatchocked??), rubed with some Plowboys and put it on the BGE with a plate setter. Set the cooker at 350, thew in some hickory chunks and let her rip. The chicken came of with an outstanding smokey flavor and was super tender and juicy. Got me thinking....our chicken thighs have been doing decent in comps. A couple of top 5's but mostly 15ish. Anyone ever done a spatch'd chicken at a comp and turn in pulled chicken?? Thoughts on how it might do??

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Our first comp about 9 yrs ago we did a couple beer butt chickens.
We took 3rd.
Now days I am sure we would have tanked hard.

Work on those thighs that's what I'm doing.ray:

southernstyle said:

if its kcbs or fba dont think about it. although i love pulled chicken

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bbqbull said:

Our first comp about 9 yrs ago we did a couple beer butt chickens.
We took 3rd.
Now days I am sure we would have tanked hard.

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Unfortunatly that's right. There seem to be a lot of judges who have trouble with the "as presented by the cook" part .

I always do my spatchcock birds direct. Coke in about 50 mins.

Rookie'48 said:

Unfortunatly that's right. There seem to be a lot of judges who have trouble with the "as presented by the cook" part .

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Dave is right about that, but also bear in mind that some cuts simply won't give the judges as good of an opportunity to taste what you present. I got a box of wings recently as a judge. I did not mark them down for putting wings in the box, but they did lose some points for flavor. Part of the problem was there simply wasn't enough meat on the wings to really convey the full flavor of the meat, the rub, and the sauce. They couldn't fill my mouth with flavor, so I had to judge the little bit that I got. Smaller piece = smaller flavor. Think about the judge being able to take two full bites when you decide what goes in the box.

Thighs are in the box because they are full flavored, moist, and have lots of meat. Most other cuts put you at a disadvantage either due to less meat (like on a wing) or more risk of being dry (white meat).

I've had pulled or shredded chicken at several contests this year -- a gutsy move on a team's part. As a judge I could care less what the piece is but I'll look for good balanced flavor, good looks, and pleasing texture. Several of these entries were good but one tanked at our table because it had gristle in it. Moral: If you're going to be brave and experiment, know what's going in the box. Gristle and bone fragments are easy to overlook if you're in a hurry.

Once about 4 years ago - got slammed - it must have dried out sitting in the box.

my 2 nd place chicken
remove skin
brine meat
debone
rub meat
scrape fat off inside of skin
put skin back on
and smoke on

Just got to worry about texture -- the mushy will kill you.