I'll get pics later (our practice this weekend includes chicken) but the best tip we've come up with is secret...
:tape:
...ok I'll tell you anyway, since everyone here is so incredibly helpful
There is a post (I think on pickled pig) that covers most of it, but here's what we do for thighs:
Pull the skin off (gently, don't tear it) and stack them (we do them by 10s)
Throw the pile of skins in a ziplock and into an ice bath
Cut excess fat off the chicken and trim them to an even size
Put them on ice (steam tray over ice bath, plastic wrap over top) to keep them fresh
Pull the now-cold skins out and lay them inside-up
Here's the scraping part: Take a -very- sharp knife and get under the membrane between the fat and the skin itself, then gently pull and slice the fat off. If it warms up too much, throw it back in the ice for a minute and start dipping the knife also (to cool it off)
Once the fat is off (its -really- gross) you'll have nearly transparent skins, hopefully with no nicks or cuts. If they are significantly larger than your thighs, or strangely shaped, trim them up accordingly.
When you go to cook, take a thigh and lay it out bone-side down. Drape a skin over it (preferably outside-out, but if you did it right it might be hard to tell) and make sure its not a -lot- larger than the meat. Curl the ends under the meat and cook accordingly..
The trick is the ice water - makes separating the fat a LOT easier. Otherwise the membrane is glued down and you end up basically shaving gooey fat off one microscopic layer at a time..
(We have another technique that we're practicing this weekend, might cut a lot of the manual labor out of that process. I hope. We've done about 100 of them in the last month, practicing, and while it gets faster it doesn't get any more fun...)
And our first competition isn't till Sept, so this advice may be worth less than you paid for it