Rate the box. :)

[motoeric]

It's always hard to tell with a photo, but I can't see scoring this less than an 8 and a 9 seems very reasonable.

Eric

 

[BBQchef33]

I give it a 9 as well. I am having a hard time with pieces down the middle. Just not use to seeing that and seems out of place to me. Want a shine on that chicken. Great job.

I think you may have hit something there. We thought about that yesterday too. We try to be unique and deviate from the normal same ole same ole in presentations... but why would that hurt scores if it looks good.

 

[WineMaster]

I think the score would be higher on just the 6 Monster thighs. The add in (The cut off the side of the thigh) is not one of the identifiable pieces off the bird so I would think it would just confuse them. Plus they are already judging you on the thigh so why give them another piece form the same cut that can bring your score down cause they have to average the two. I would guess they thought it was white meat down the center and you got knocked because they're expectations were not met.
But what do I know.

 

[Alexa RnQ]

Was uniqueness the only reason for including the center pieces? If it was thigh meat, what was it really adding to the box, other than the visual? Had you tried this in practice to see how the cut thigh pieces held up in the wait interval before judging?

As far as color goes, I like it. It looks actually cooked, as opposed to some chicken boxes I've seen that are such a light red color that you wonder if the skin is fully cooked/rendered under the red lacquer.

 

[peterz]

KCBS CBJ here.
Just looking at the picture-8.
In person maybe-9.
I think the middle pieces are just overkill.
You asked, I geve you my 2c.
Hope this helps.

 

[Smokin J's]

New bee checking in here: looks very appetizing to me! I do see inconsistency with the color in the presentation. I also am not happy with the center pieces, they do takeaway a little from the presentation of the thighs.

I do gotta say, I want to try them as they do look like great BBQ!

 

[BBQchef33]

im appreciating all the input folks, and the comments about the center pieces are somewhat validating what we were thinking.

I think the score would be higher on just the 6 Monster thighs. The add in (The cut off the side of the thigh) is not one of the identifiable pieces off the bird so I would think it would just confuse them. Plus they are already judging you on the thigh so why give them another piece form the same cut that can bring your score down cause they have to average the two. I would guess they thought it was white meat down the center and you got knocked because they're expectations were not met.
But what do I know.

i think thats what happened.. rookie mistake after 10 years of competing. read on..

Was uniqueness the only reason for including the center pieces? If it was thigh meat, what was it really adding to the box, other than the visual? Had you tried this in practice to see how the cut thigh pieces held up in the wait interval before judging?

We thought about that too.. i was thinking maybe one of those side pieces may have been fatty or nasty and it came to bite us in the butt. If I had to guess, thats what hurt us.

i have used it before successfully, and yes it is for appearance only(fill the box). But IMO, I like those pieces.. its just a small bitesize piece of meat. Similar to putting a 'chunk' in the pork box next to the pulled.

My guess is that it wasn't 43rd because of appearance. If I showed you a pic of my pork box (if I had one) you'd think 22 was a screw job also. I don't think teams win or lose because of appearance scores. However, taste/tenderness anomalies always concern me. Our first place brisket got a 5 in taste from one judge (no comment card and obviously tossed out). Nice job on your 5th place Pork call.

Thats exactly right, and the taste/tenderness was even more bizarre to us.. Ever have one of those contests where you sit there and stare at the scoresheet for hours after? This was ours. :drama::shocked::twitch::frusty: I've been competing long enough to know stuff like this happens.. and you just suck it up and move on, but holy crap this one is baffling.

This presentation got some 6's.. :doh:... thats not gonna kill us.. but i thought that was pretty harsh to start with.. but it gets worse..

then comes T/T/T

i dont think anyone competing would make 'bad tasting' chicken. But texture/tenterness(skin) is the challenge..

Flavor profile was same as Ive been using for 2 years and has done pretty good.... no major deviations... and nothing offensive, so we should not piss off judges in taste. (but we got a 5 :shock: :shock.

Texture/Tenderness was dead on.. the pieces were really big, so stayed super juicy. Skin was nearly scraped transparent and stayed on the meat, you can bite thru multiple times and just have bites missing in the skin. Unlike our last contest where skin was like rawhide, this time we nailed it.

I thought top 10, team mate thought top 3, couple other teams agreed chicken would hit. We are usually strong in chicken. We were really confident that chicken would hit.

So after all this...We got 7s in presentation and a couple 5 and 6s mixed in taste/texture. Holy crap.. a 5!?? Someone bit thru that and said 'this sucks'? This recipe/technique has hit many time. I can handle being spanked.. but that 5 in taste is mind boggling. If i told you the rub i used as a base, more than half would say ' i use that'... :wacko: Sorry, but a 5 says its below average.. wtf... :doh: and the 6 in Texture, had to be from a bad end piece...

This put our chicken 43 out of 46. Ive never been this low in a category without being DQ'ed for getting there late. its just somewhat culture shock.,

(and of course, we did the coulda/woulda in the car ride home... if i remember right, Top 10 chicken(where it usually hits) would have put us 3rd-4th overall... top 5 in chicken, RGC.)

keep the feedback coming.. i appreciate it.. and almost convinced to stop using those center pieces. But i DO like them.


@jackle... congrats on your calls too... we were hootin and hollering when you guys were walking up there! Always good to hear it when familar names are called. :clap:

 

[BBQchef33]

KCBS CBJ here.
Just looking at the picture-8.
In person maybe-9.
I think the middle pieces are just overkill.
You asked, I geve you my 2c.
Hope this helps.

Curious.... Why would filling the box with meat be overkill? When we use small thighs, i put 9 in the box which just about covers the entire putting green. The 6 here left gaps, so my thought was to fill the box.

 

[Meat Man]

Comment cards?

 

[Alexa RnQ]

We got 7s in presentation and a couple 5 and 6s mixed in taste/texture. Holy crap.. a 5!?? Someone bit thru that and said 'this sucks'? This recipe/technique has hit many time. I can handle being spanked.. but that 5 in taste is mind boggling. If i told you the rub i used as a base, more than half would say ' i use that'... :wacko: Sorry, but a 5 says its below average.. wtf... :doh: and the 6 in Texture, had to be from a bad end piece...

This put our chicken 43 out of 46. Ive never been this low in a category without being DQ'ed for getting there late. its just somewhat culture shock.

Apparently you got the same two judges in chicken this week that we had last week in brisket.

Okay, so a clear message was sent that this presentation was found to be visually disturbing. I'd have given it a solid 8, so if a point was knocked off for the distraction aspect that puts you at the 7.

And the only possible conclusion on the T/T is, as you surmised, that someone objected to the chunks -- it could have had a fat seam in the middle and some delicate flower was appalled to find fatty meats at a BBQ contest, or it could have been gristly, or whatevs.

And yes, one low score gets thrown out. But when it's Judge 2 AND Judge 5, a good product gets screwed to the bottom of the field. It happens. It's a bitter pill, but it happens. We've competed long enough to objectively know when the food product is what it should be. I bet you do, too, given that you have the history of this flavor profile and process. And to see something that you objectively know to be good get dissed without one farking word on a comment card is maddening.

< Insert well-worn platitudes here about not letting one set of scores get in your head too much, blah blah blah. >

I feel your pain on this one.

 

[nucornhusker]

If a judge was going to be a real ass, I couldn't see it getting scored any lower than a 7 on appearance.

If that came across my table (pictures rarely make it look as good as in person), I'd give it a 9. Is it perfect, no, nothing ever is. But to me it looks very appealing and I'd want to take a bite of it right away, so that to me says 9. I compete and I'd be proud to turn that in. But I would personally not put in the center pieces.

I'm not sure how you got the scoring you did.

 

[yelonutz]

I would give it a 9 in appearance but...I would never put anything in a box that does not add value. If I judge brisket and the slices are great but they include burnt ends that are so-so they loose points. If the center pieces were just thigh meat with no skin, I bet you were judged on boneless, skinless chicken. Unfortunately, your score will be based on the worst item in the box.

NUTZ

 

[BBQchef33]

Comment cards?

nope.. none. :frusty:

 

[Lake Dogs]

9, to me it looks like chicken; BBQ'd chicken.

 

[gettinbasted]

It looks good to me. I'm guessing those little pieces killed you. Remember, kcbs judges punish anything different. I would give the box an 8, possibly a 9 in person. A small nitpick would be to wipe the sauce marks off the sides of your box from where the thighs touched going in.

 

[timzcardz]

But IMO, I like those pieces.. its just a small bitesize piece of meat. Similar to putting a 'chunk' in the pork box next to the pulled.

The age old competition question comes to mind; are you cooking for yourself or cooking for the judges?

I honestly don't know what I would rate the box, but it probably wouldn't be a 9, because upon first look I found myself saying WTF are those?

 

[boogiesnap]

nine all day long. perfect balance of caramelized bits and sheen. as said before it looks BBQ'ed.

personally, i think the thigh "chunks" are pretty clever. i really enjoy the taste and texture of well cooked bbq skin. what i suspect MAY have happened was the skin came all off of the chunks when bitten and got scored down for it. again, for me, i think it'd be delicious.

 

[virginia lawyer]

Maybe just a bad table?

Sometimes you just get unlucky with which table your box goes to. In my last 6 competitions, my chicken has come in 2/27, 4/32, 6/106, 5/60, 33/56 and 2/25. I cook it the same way every time, same seasonings, same raw product, etc., yet the judges in Middletown just hated it for some reason I cannot determine (no comment cards, of course). :rant::rant:

I think your box looks really tasty, but am also thrown off a bit by the pieces down the middle. Would stick to just the thighs next time.

 

[deguerre]

9, to me it looks like chicken; BBQ'd chicken.

Who are you and what did you do with Hance?!?





I don't rate by numbers as I'm not qualified to but...the middle pieces are distracting to me. Oh, and...FOCUS!

 

[mobow]

I would give this a 8 from the picture and probably a 9 in person. As for the center pieces I am not sure I would do that. When I get that box to judge it makes me have to think what was the cook trying to do here and in this case I think making the judge think is not a good thing. Since it is the same cut of meat with the same flavor profile it just runs the risk of throwing in possible negative factors with no positive factor that I can think of in regards to taste and tenderness. And once you make a judge have to think about your product I think you risk the score going down more that you will see it go up. Keith