Struggling with chicken thighs. Please help!!!

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work2play2

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Ok folks, I have a family of 6. I own 2 wsm and 1 egg. My ribs and butts are great. Everytime I make chicken I flat out suck. The skin is slimy and I get "this chicken is bouncy" from my 12 yr old daughter. Not even sure what that means. I've tried it every way possible and am at a loss. If we go to jim n nicks they eat the chicken and love it. But I can't get it right. Does anyone have a good recipe that will work on the egg or weber smoker that I can try so I can fix this issue? Thanks to all
 
While I cannot visualize your set up, both rigs will cook outstanding thighs. Get your cookers north of 275 skin side up- finish over direct heat skin side down while hitting with Worcestershire on meat side. You can also cook skin side up the entire time offset at higher heat while rotating the thighs to get even color nearest the coals.

There are other methods. Lots of good thigh cooks on this site, maybe they’ll chime in with photos.

Also- try Plowboys Yardbird Seasoning. It’s not the only great seasoning for thighs, but my wife’s Bunco Group think I possess some magical cooking skills when I cook chicken for them.
 
Raised direct heat on the egg at 350+. Don't pull the thighs until at least 185. When all else fails.....mayo

Maybe give a rundown of what you do. You may just need some tweaks.
 
High temps,have never had good skin straight from the smoker until I bought a pellet grill/smoker,1 hr smoke then set 300 til done,
 
In the kamado (like egg) I cook thighs on a raised grate well above the coals, direct, at 400 or so until an IT in the 160-170 range. Try not to crowd too much and like others I start skin up, then flip skin down to finish and crisp.

What ever marinade/cooking sauce I use is mayo based which helps with the skin and keeps the meat moist.
 
ynotfehc said:
What are your current methods for cooking chicken?
Click to expand...

I have tried it all different ways. I cook on wsm with water pan at 225 all the way to 300. Until 170 degrees. Egg I've done it all different ways. Direct indirect. It just plain sucks. I really don't have a answer. Should I try with no water pan and grill at 300 direct?
 
I would go raised direct 375-400 on either of those cookers
 
Even if you do spend an hour getting them smokey a blast of heat usually helps. I was just watching the Ubons cooking team use a blowtorch on their wings to crisp everything up. Baking powder can also help firm up the skin even more.
 
I think direct and indirect is more based on what you want from your chicken. I've only cooked on stickburner, so indirect heat, and prefer cooking at 300. I cook things in a pan with a little butter. I start skin side up for about an hour, then flip in the pan for 20, then finish skin side up for another 20. If I sauce, I dip them and set the sauce after the last 20m. Skin isn't crispy, but consistently bite through, has good smoke flavor but not over powering. They are about 10 min from being shredded chicken, very tender chicken and much higher than 170.
There are a lot of ways to do chicken. If you want skin that's crisper, go with more direct heat and even higher cooking temps.
 
And I spritz with pineapple juice at each flip. I despise the flavor of pineapple but can't detect it.
 
Try brining as well.

My base brine is 2/3 cup kosher salt and 1/3 cup sugar in a gallon of water. Bring to boil to dissolve then cool.

Trim your thighs and then put them is a gallon ziplock. Add about a quart of brine and refrigerate overnight.

Drain, pat dry, then season with rub.

I cook at 275-300 on the WSM, glaze with sauce for last 20-30 min, and pull at ~170° IT.

David
 
The easy way would be get a vortex for your egg. I think chicken cooks best hot. Indirect at 450+. Chicken picks up smoke quickly so you just need a chunk of pecan or cherry. Also I like to prick the thighs with a sausage pricker, to help the fat render.
 
For dark meat (wings, thighs, drums), I prefer to dry-brine the meat a good 24 hours before cooking.

For the cook, I agree with the above comments re: higher temps and indirect cooking until the meat is done or very close to done, then direct cooking to crisp up the skin and get some sear marks going.
 
work2play2 said:
I have tried it all different ways. I cook on wsm with water pan at 225 all the way to 300. Until 170 degrees. Egg I've done it all different ways. Direct indirect. It just plain sucks. I really don't have a answer. Should I try with no water pan and grill at 300 direct?
Click to expand...


Use the water pan just don't put water in it. Wrap the pan with foil and cook the thighs at 300-325 until you get to 180 or so
 
Probably won't in your situation I cook skin on thighs on the top rack of my HOS close to the lid so I am getting heat radiating off the lid to crisp the skin. I get CC temps to around 325 and it seems to work great. For boneless skinless thighs I cook in a pan at 275 to 300 till tender and juicy 175 to 185 internal temp.
 
I do chicken in my PBC around 275-300 with a salt dry brine and pull around 170 the thighs are perfect every time.

In my Weber I target 325 and get a similar result. In both grills the chicken skin crisps up even indirect, although I usually don’t eat it.
 
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