Apparently judges prefer a bite through or slightly crispy skin. I could bring the temps up fast and basically fricassee the chicken, then take the chicken off the heat and set the skin up for about an hour as the temps come down on the stick burner. I'm pretty certain I can get the back side up to 400+- with the front being only 320, then immediately let the temps drop back down to 250 and *voila* crispy skin on BBQ chicken.
Problem - When you put both in cold then they both rise at the same temp so in order to get the liquid up to 350F for frying you'd need to bring the chicken up to 350F. Preheating the liquid means that the liquid may drop when the meat is added and then both will increase at about the same rate. So to get from 320 to 350 only gets the meat from 40 to 70. So then the oil will cook the chicken.
The question is, IF I start with oil/lard at the same temps as the chicken, this is legal?
YES
15 minutes or so on a quick bring-temps-up-to-frying-range, then about an hour
back at normal temps should do it. Season on the "flip".
Even without meat in a pan it will take a lot longer than 15 minutes to get up to temp. Tried to heat stuff in a smoker. At 300F temp I can put in a quart of sauce and leave for an hour and it still isn't boiling. Deep fryer is putting out way more than 300F to get the oil up to temp.
Now if you took a cast iron pan and put it in the firebox for 15 minutes then pulled out and added a cup max of oil and it didn't immediately burn you could add cooked chicken and put in the smoker at any temp and crisp the skin. Or for that matter just leave the pan out. I'll bet it would be nice and crisp and it's sure not deep frying. And no I haven't done it but I know people have done it and don't do it anymore.