How do YOU do quarters? (with pron)

[Bigpappa1]

So I have found that chicken quarters give you some of the best value out there. A 10 lbs bag often only runs around $6 and you can get a lot of good eating from it. I regularly cook a bag of quarters and spread them around the neighborhood. I'm curious: for anyone else out there that does quarters, how do you do them? Here is how I go at it:

- First I like to dry brine them overnight and leave them in the (garage) fridge uncovered. It helps the skin dry out a bit.

- When I salt them, I salt over the top of the skin AND I pull the skin back over the thigh and salt directly on the meat.

- I rub with an ever-changing blend of stuff, depending on what I have sitting around that day. I really need to write down my chicken rub one of these days...

- I smoke them at around 250 or so anywhere from 3-5 hours, depending. I like for them to be done enough that the bones easily come out.

- For wood I'm kind of all over the place. Right now I'm a little short on my normal fruit wood so they will be getting some hickory as well as some Mulberry I have sitting around.

- I do not eat the quarters whole. I shred mine, pull all the bones, and usually the skin doesn't really make it into the mix unless it gets REALLY crispy. Even then I tend to have enough moisture in there that is just gets chewy again.

- Serve it up on a bun and call it a day.

What's YOUR method for quarters? Do you do anything different with the skin? Remove it altogether, perhaps, or maybe you eat yours whole? Being one of the cheapest, easiest, and most forgiving cook items out there I figured I'd toss this one on the wood pile!

 

[Stingerhook]

Looking good Zachary.

 

[rwalters]

Nice work... looks fantastic! My best quarters have come from the pellet grill. Something about that forced convective heat that just works magic on poultry for me. Like you, I have done them at 275° many times. A lot of times I’ll jack the temp to 400° for a little bit at the end to tighten up the skin. Just depends on what I am after. Always a hit. And like you said... a lot of food for not a lot of $$

 

[LloydQ]

I like to wet brine mine with salt, whatever cheap rub I have on hand, and a nice dose of ACV in the water. I cook mine on the kettle with the dog bowl vortex, the brush with a good vinegar based sauce from a local joint here. Yours look great!

 

[BKING!]

Depending on how big of a hurry I am.
If I want to get them done quick then I grill them until I get the outside the way I like it then finish indirect for crispy skin. Either that or I will cook them 350-400 deg indirect all the way through.

If I’m not in a rush then I’ll let them go at 245 On the pellet popper until they are almost done then grill at the end to get some crispy skin, a little char, and some smoke!

 

[TropicDad]

Do you have a certain technique for shredding the chicken? I use 2 forks on pork butts.

I cook my chicken quarters at 250 on my pellet grill for about 2 1/2-3 hours. I like to use OakRidge rubs, whatever one I'm in the mood for. Last quarters I did I used a 50/50 mix of Carne Crosta and Santa Maria rub on them. I love the stuff so I figured why not try it on chicken? It was fantastic!

 

[Baychilla]

What do I do with 1/4ers? Sadly nothing. We don't have stores that sell worthwhile ones anymore.

 

[Hoss]

I soak them overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce.Rinse them,pat dry,sit them back in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.I rub em down with Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust and toss them on the Shirley if I am cooking a large batch or the 22 WSM for a smaller batch.I let them smoke till they hit around 170f IT,turning once during the smoke.I then remove them,hack the thigh and leg apart with a cleaver,dip them in a pan/bowl of Blues Hog TN Red,toss em in a pan and return to the smoker till the sauce sets.I just started chopping them apart at the last couple of cooks.I got to noticing women and kids were taking a whole quarter and only eating part of it.This method cuts down dramatically on wasted food.They can get a leg or a thigh and the big eaters can get multiple pieces if they are hungry.

 

[Bigpappa1]

I soak them overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce.Rinse them,pat dry,sit them back in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.I rub em down with Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust and toss them on the Shirley if I am cooking a large batch or the 22 WSM for a smaller batch.I let them smoke till they hit around 170f IT,turning once during the smoke.I then remove them,hack the thigh and leg apart with a cleaver,dip them in a pan/bowl of Blues Hog TN Red,toss em in a pan and return to the smoker till the sauce sets.I just started chopping them apart at the last couple of cooks.I got to noticing women and kids were taking a whole quarter and only eating part of it.This method cuts down dramatically on wasted food.They can get a leg or a thigh and the big eaters can get multiple pieces if they are hungry.

Nice work... looks fantastic! My best quarters have come from the pellet grill. Something about that forced convective heat that just works magic on poultry for me. Like you, I have done them at 275° many times. A lot of times I’ll jack the temp to 400° for a little bit at the end to tighten up the skin. Just depends on what I am after. Always a hit. And like you said... a lot of food for not a lot of $$
That sounds like good eatin'! That's a good idea on the chopping. It's actually pretty laborious to shred all that meat off all those quarters, but it's totally worth it to me.

Do you have a certain technique for shredding the chicken? I use 2 forks on pork butts.

So if I'm thinking straight, I'll let them cool down enough to get in there with my hands and latex gloves and do most of it by hand. There are a lot of pain in the butt bones in there that need to be taken out, especially a spear-like one that comes from the leg. Then I shred it all with bear claws. Then I go through it AGAIN just to make sure I got all the bones and nasties out of it. It's a labor of love...

Nice work... looks fantastic! My best quarters have come from the pellet grill. Something about that forced convective heat that just works magic on poultry for me. Like you, I have done them at 275° many times. A lot of times I’ll jack the temp to 400° for a little bit at the end to tighten up the skin. Just depends on what I am after. Always a hit. And like you said... a lot of food for not a lot of $$

That's a beautiful mess of yard bird right there...love it! I do the same thing towards the end sometimes; jack the temp up and try to crisp that skin a bit. To be honest, sometimes it works, sometimes not. It seems like I always end up discarding the skin. I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be the case if I were serving them intact, but since I shred it that skin seems to get all nasty and soggy anyhow...

 

[boogiechillen]

How come you cook skin on if you end up removing it after cooking? Does it cook better with it on a there?

 

[Bigpappa1]

How come you cook skin on if you end up removing it after cooking? Does it cook better with it on a there?

That's a fair question. I have removed the skin before and it seemed to me that the chicken turned out a bit more dry. I'm not sure if it was just in my head or not, but I couldn't help thinking that's how it was. I may actually give it another go without the skin and see how it does.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

That looks really good to me

 

[Smoke on Badger Mountain]

What do I do with 1/4ers? Sadly nothing. We don't have stores that sell worthwhile ones anymore.

That's too bad.

If you are willing to buy a whole case then may I recommend Smart Foodservice® Store #586 - San Francisco, CA
170 S Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 864-8284

https://www.smartfoodservice.com/locations/CA/

It's love these stores. But no longer living in the bay area it's hours of driving for me to get to one.

 

[SlickRockStones]

I love LQs but can’t stand ones with broken legs and “black meat”. Prefer family packs over huge bags for better selection. I trim all gobs of fat and tails. Sometimes I’ll remove the hip bones for stock. Dry brine in fridge(Adkins Western when I haven’t)then onto the 26” Weber with SnS.

 

[Tbro]

Looks good, great job!

 

[Bigpappa1]

I love LQs but can’t stand ones with broken legs and “black meat”. Prefer family packs over huge bags for better selection. I trim all gobs of fat and tails. Sometimes I’ll remove the hip bones for stock. Dry brine in fridge(Adkins Western when I haven’t)then onto the 26” Weber with SnS.

I hear what you're saying about the broken legs. That's kind of...off putting. You make me think, though; I wonder if I should try trimming up a smaller amount of them really well. That might make the pulling process much easier. They do tend to have a lot of little bits that need to be tended to and fished out when you pull them...