Comp Chicken Question - legs or thighs

Pig_Farmer · Nov 14, 2018

So I was watching some Amazon Prime videos over the last couple days while I was out of work sick. I mean what else is there to do but binge watch BBQ shows. :mrgreen:

So I came across a show called "Bama-Q". It was pretty good, I thought. I noticed that most of the teams were cooking chicken legs as opposed to thighs. How many of you competitors cook legs in comps? I've always done thighs and I hate the prep. I looks like legs would be much less prep time. If you do legs, do you put them in a pan or hang them? I was thinking of practicing with legs for the 2019 season. you feedback is appreciated.

Thank you,
Carl

Rusty Kettle · Nov 15, 2018

We do legs. Its more prep for our legs vs. Thighs. Legs score better for us. Take it with a grain of salt though. Our thighs have always been hit and miss. Our legs are much more consistent.

Ron_L · Nov 15, 2018

It seems to be regional. Folks in the southeast have more consistent results with legs, but in the midwest our results with them have been less consistent.

West River BBQ · Nov 15, 2018

I haven't cooked legs in a competition but have spoken with a few teams (KCBS) that swear by it because of the easier prepping. I've played with it at home but am not quite ready to make the change. My big thought is about the single bite: will there be a mouthful of tendons?

ModelMaker · Nov 15, 2018

Thighs are the norm, but I've handed out many 9's for legs...and wings.
Box up your best and send 'em in. I've got 72 9's every contest!
Ed

Pig_Farmer · Nov 15, 2018

Rusty Kettle said:
We do legs. Its more prep for our legs vs. Thighs. Legs score better for us. Take it with a grain of salt though. Our thighs have always been hit and miss. Our legs are much more consistent.

Are you doing lollipop style?

Burnt at Both Endz · Nov 15, 2018

ModelMaker said:
Thighs are the norm, but I've handed out many 9's for legs...and wings.
Box up your best and send 'em in. I've got 72 9's every contest!
Ed

Since young judges get more thighs early in their judging career, it's safe to say that they have a better idea of what an excellent thigh is, just a thought!

gettinbasted · Nov 15, 2018

I always teach in my class that thighs are the safe play and legs or wings are swinging for the fence (except in the southeast where legs are way more common). If I had to win chicken, I’d run legs. If I had to win the contest, I’d run thighs.

I also teach that BBQ is a lot like golf. Everyone knows how to cook good chicken these days. It’s not uncommon for a score of 170 to land you in 20th place. Get on the green and get a par. If you get dumped in chicken, it puts you way behind the field. Why take the risk? Because you didn’t feel like putting in an extra hour on Wednesday? Box thighs, get your 173 and go win it with the big meats.

kwas68 · Nov 15, 2018

I've turned in both and scored well. But as Ronelle mentioned, the scores for legs were inconsistent here in the Midwest.

The biggest variable for me was tenderness. I did full (not lollipop) legs and did not do a lot of trimming. I received a couple of comment cards that they bit into a ligament or pin bone. While I thought biting into a pin bone would be overlooked as it was a commonly known part of the chicken's anatomy, the judges didn't like it.

I figured that if I'm going to do all that trimming, I might as well go back to thighs. And that's what I did.

Pig_Farmer · Nov 15, 2018

gettinbasted said:
I always teach in my class that thighs are the safe play and legs or wings are swinging for the fence (except in the southeast where legs are way more common). If I had to win chicken, I’d run legs. If I had to win the contest, I’d run thighs.

I also teach that BBQ is a lot like golf. Everyone knows how to cook good chicken these days. It’s not uncommon for a score of 170 to land you in 20th place. Get on the green and get a par. If you get dumped in chicken, it puts you way behind the field. Why take the risk? Because you didn’t feel like putting in an extra hour on Wednesday? Box thighs, get your 173 and go win it with the big meats.

Makes sense. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I do need to do some modifications though. :biggrin1:

Pig_Farmer · Nov 15, 2018

Why is it, that the southeast part of the country legs are more common?

Roast Beast · Nov 15, 2018

Pig_Farmer said:
Why is it, that the southeast part of the country legs are more common?

Good question. There are several well-scoring chicken leg cooks who teach (or have taught) classes down here through the years, most notably Scott Smith from QSB. That probably led the way, in combination with general campfire discussion of cooks' experiences down here scoring well with legs. From a judging perspective, it was probably a slow boil of gradually seeing more and more legs come across the table, so that now it's not even considered unusual.

Definitely lots of legs cooked in GA these days. The Georgia BBQ Championship chicken category winner the past 3 years has cooked legs. But lots of teams also score well with thighs.

Ron_L · Nov 15, 2018

West River BBQ said:
I haven't cooked legs in a competition but have spoken with a few teams (KCBS) that swear by it because of the easier prepping. I've played with it at home but am not quite ready to make the change. My big thought is about the single bite: will there be a mouthful of tendons?

Legs are easier to prep (ignoring lollipops, those are a pain in the backside :-D), but we have prepping thighs down and can do them pretty quickly, too.

Roast Beast said:
Good question. There are several well-scoring chicken leg cooks who teach (or have taught) classes down here through the years, most notably Scott Smith from QSB. That probably led the way, in combination with general campfire discussion of cooks' experiences down here scoring well with legs. From a judging perspective, it was probably a slow boil of gradually seeing more and more legs come across the table, so that now it's not even considered unusual.

Definitely lots of legs cooked in GA these days. The Georgia BBQ Championship chicken category winner the past 3 years has cooked legs. But lots of teams also score well with thighs.

Yep! I learned Scott's method for legs and it works well, but the scoring around here was more hit or miss. We're not fantastic with chicken, but we saw a lot more variation in our scores with legs.

thirdeye · Nov 15, 2018

From a judge's perspective I've seen less than 10% turn-ins with chicken drumsticks and all scored well above average. But once I judged a Cornish hen drumstick entry and that box scored 9-9-9 from at least 4 judges. How common is Cornish hen turned in?

BTW, what is the prep for chicken drumsticks? I would expect tendons to be present just like I expect to encounter a bone in a rib entry.

GA1dad · Nov 15, 2018

thirdeye said:
But once I judged a Cornish hen drumstick entry and that box scored 9-9-9 from at least 4 judges.

Now that's a turn in box I would like to see a picture of!! Sounds awesome!!

localyocal · Nov 15, 2018

I do legs. I was hesitant to switch but once I did I've done well with them. I actually like the bite better. JMO

B'Mackin · Nov 15, 2018

Thighs were always my weakness. Switched to legs on the drum this year and have since seen my scores do way better. Took a few cooks to get that technique right, but now they've been doing consistently pretty well out here on the West Coast and I'm going to keep it running in '19. As long as you turn in good que, that's the most important thing.

Mohitb793 · Nov 22, 2018

B'Mackin said:
Thighs were always my weakness. Switched to legs on the drum this year and have since seen my scores do way better. Took a few cooks to get that technique right, but now they've been doing consistently pretty well out here on the West Coast and I'm going to keep it running in '19. As long as you turn in good que, that's the most important thing.

Yeah i agree with it. I too did legs a couple of times and then fell in love with it.

Rusty Kettle · Nov 22, 2018

Pig_Farmer said:
Are you doing lollipop style?

Yes we are. I have tried switching to thighs and its hit or miss for us.
I went back to lollipops at the Ironman. They are a pain in the arse but the scores don't lie. For us our thighs suck and our lollipops score much higher for us. This is not the norm for most teams.
It use to take 20 minutes for trimming each leg but I have it down to about 10 minutes or less now per leg.

bbqred · Nov 25, 2018

Ron_L said:
It seems to be regional. Folks in the southeast have more consistent results with legs, but in the midwest our results with them have been less consistent.

I never knew this until I saw this thread, then lo and behold, watching a documentary on Amazon Prime about the American Royal, it looked like everyone was smoking thighs. Went from there to the first few episodes of Bama-Q and it was mostly legs. Learned something new and will definitely try legs for kicks (no pun intended).

Comp Chicken Question - legs or thighs

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