2 much fun

Ive been very happy with butts so far also. Not so happy about ribs and chicken yet...

Chicken skin was so rubbery it was scary. Ribs have been "ok" but not the presentation quality yet and slightly bitter even though Im now using very very little wood. Im still experimenting on that.

david

I did something different this last time with my yardbird.. instead of running the temp way up to 225�.. I put it at 200�, only because I had to get it on.. be gone for a few hours.. like until 2 hrs before dinner.. so, I put it on at 11:30A and pulled it at 5:30P.. To my surprise, the skin, while not crispy, was far from rubbery.. very edible. I don't know if this was an outlier.. but, I'm going to try it again. BTW, the bird was not dry either.

Lips - Have you tried wraping your bird in a butter-soaked cheese cloth? It does help a bunch. Skin is not crispy like from a grill but much better than just plain naked. I've even brushed mine with olive oil and got decent results. Experiment with a few pieces and see what suits your fancy

I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Costco so I don't have to worry about the skin. Also, the label says they are minimally processed so they have not been injected with a water/salt solution. I am going to be doing a large BBQ this summer (50 people or so) and plan on doing legs and thighs with the skin on. I am going to put them under the broiler to crisp them up before serving.

Matt

One of the keys to skin is separating it from the chicken. Try an experiment. Leaving the skin on, run your hand under the skin carefully, to separate it from the meat below. That tends to allow the heat to get under the skin.

Two pieces of chicken, one smoked without separating and one with, will come out different.