Competition Chicken Butter in the Pan or Not?

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Fowl Hogz

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Okay everybody this is my first time posting to a forum so I apologize if I am missing some of the etiquette. However, I believe this is the correct place to ask my question. I have cooked in several competitions with mediocre results and have started practicing for competitions this spring. I have been cooking my chicken thighs in a half sized aluminum pan which based on the endless youtube videos and info on the internet is a fairly common way to cook them in competitions.

I am curios to find out if other people are putting butter in the pan with the thighs and if so at what point. When I put the butter in the pan I get very tender a moist chicken, however the bottom third of the chicken is missing rub. So, I end up with an inconsistent coating of rub and the visually the bottom of the chicken doesn't look great. It seems like I am missing a step so any tips would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Once cooking is complete, dunk chicken in sauce and put back on smoker for 5-10 minutes to set sauce. Arrange chicken in box and turn it in. In my limited (~15 as judge and ~5 as Table Captain) judging experience, I have never seen a judge turn over meat and judge the bottom. Not saying it doesn't happen, I've just never witnessed it. You could always give a light sprinkle on the bottom after dunking in sauce and before setting on smoker.


Good luck,


Robert
 
Matt, it sounds like you are doing everything right, and the advice that Robert gave is solid. If you want more rub, then dust it after you dunk it in the sauce, but the same thing happens to me using the same method, so don't stress too much about it. I will often put my finishing dust on the bottom if I think it needs more flavor.
 
cpw said:
As long as you can't see the bottom of the chicken in the turn in box, it won't affect appearance scores.



For what it's worth, we "set" the rub on the chicken for 30 minutes or so before going into the butter bath.
Click to expand...

That's what I do as well.
 
Robert said:
Once cooking is complete, dunk chicken in sauce and put back on smoker for 5-10 minutes to set sauce. Arrange chicken in box and turn it in. In my limited (~15 as judge and ~5 as Table Captain) judging experience, I have never seen a judge turn over meat and judge the bottom. Not saying it doesn't happen, I've just never witnessed it. You could always give a light sprinkle on the bottom after dunking in sauce and before setting on smoker.

Good luck,

Robert
Click to expand...

Before biting, I often peek at the bottom side or chicken, but only to check if parsley or kale might need removed. One of my cooking mentors claims the reason he always re-seasons the bottom side with a finishing rub is because the bottom side is what comes into contact with a judges tongue.
 
Yeah we have been playing around with finishing dust on the chicken. Putting it on the bottom might be a good place for a little extra flavor.
 
Agree with the comments above. Wouldn't worry about appearance as long as the sauce is set correctly.

As for flavor, I echo what was said earlier about dusting the bottom with extra rub if you feel the flavor is flat.

We put butter in the pan on top of the chicken before it ever goes on the smoker.

As long as i'm getting good scores (170++) I practice my other meats before chicken. But if you're not getting decent scores i'd still practice it.
 
We always take ours out of the butter and place on a cookie rack and place rub on the side that was in the bath and let that cook on the rack for a period time to ensure rub is everywhere.

Then after that, we dunk in our sauce and and stick em back in the smoker for a few minutes to let the sauce set.
 
10 years competing and never did the butter bath thing…always did very well in the chicken category
 
thirdeye said:
Before biting, I often peek at the bottom side or chicken, but only to check if parsley or kale might need removed. One of my cooking mentors claims the reason he always re-seasons the bottom side with a finishing rub is because the bottom side is what comes into contact with a judges tongue.
Click to expand...

I do that as well, but the appearance score is already recorded at that point.
 
cpw said:
As long as you can't see the bottom of the chicken in the turn in box, it won't affect appearance scores.



For what it's worth, we "set" the rub on the chicken for 30 minutes or so before going into the butter bath.
Click to expand...

Ron_L said:
That's what I do as well.
Click to expand...

I'm with both of these we smoke for 30 minutes before we put butter in the pan with the chicken.
 
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