Chicken in the PG

Smokin,
I have not yet tried whole chickens. These would be boneless skinless breasts. I like them charred a bit and I think thats were I'm going wrong and drying them out. I've tried a couple minutes each side on zone 1 and then moving to zone 4 to finish. I've also tried just the reverse of that. I took some advice from Madrona on my last ones and they came out much better.

I am all ears and would love advice from the pro's.

So, what don't you like about them.

Texture of dryness?

I go for the reverse sear.

And personally, I buy bone in, skin them yourself and save the money (unless you're buying a bag of boneless/skinless)

Dryness mostly. Texture and flavor are great. Wife buys the bags.Chicken is her favorite amd she is happy. I'm the one being picky. I'm gonna try the reverse sear again and see if its better next time. Could it be
Just the quality of the chicken?

When doing the skinless, boneless breast for a chef's salad. I brine them for about 6hrs. I only use salt and brown sugar, don't want much flavor to them. Simple, fast, and they don't dry out.

Use skin on, bone in and brine with a 1/4 cup kosher salt and 1/4 cup of sugar and a quart of water for up to 4 hours. Remove, rinse, apply some type of seasoning and grill until 165*. Remove bone prior to slicing. Teach this in my cooking classes because boneless/skinless is better cooked by poaching, not grilling. Skin protects it and can be removed even if you crispy critter the outside and the bone add flavor.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I will try bone in skin on next.
Smokin, I'm gonna give whole chickens a try this coming weekend. What internal temp do I need to take them to? Do you do them at 300 the whole time or could I start them lower to get more smoke?

for the mayo technique, what's the proportion of mayo to rub?? how much should be applied to a chicken (thin coat or thick coat)?

That chicken looks fabulous Smokin.

For boneless skinless this will guarantee success (always works for me so I can guarantee)

Brine it for 8 to 12 hour
cover with mayo (just a good coat)
Sprinkle with rub
Smoke on the zone 4 (indirect) until meat hits 130
Put on direct grill and remove at 150 to 155.

Unbrined chicken will be dry at 165 and above.

I like to do as above, but bone in chicken, then you can skin it yourself. At the store, I can buy bone in chicken breast for $2 a pound less, and I just skin it myself.

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:
That chicken looks fabulous Smokin.

Thanks Pags, it's your rub. If I do it again, I might add a little paprika for "color" but not to affect the flavor.

Tim - I think BSCB are just prone to dryness, period. In any case, I'm standing by my reverse sear method. The others posted in this thread look good but adding the mayo and the salty brine are too un-healthy of a trade-off for me.

I'm running settings of 20,100 (haven't changed LHT back to 10 yet but I think I probably could), cooking them at 375. The ones right over the fire pot will come out nice and charred if forgotten about and left on for a few extra minutes. I made 9 BSCB on Friday and I had to cut parts off of two of them, though you'd probably have dug right in. :P

Actually. I thought they both looked great.

Tim,

I think they were medium sized birds, about 4 lbs.

I took them to 160 in the breast, but by putting the dark meat facing the direct heat, those were actually done at the same time (in fact the legs were fall apart tender)

Healthy almost never tastes good.

on america's test kitchen, they measured the actual added salt content after brining boneless skinless chicken breasts, and it was only a small amount (< 1/8th teaspoon) per piece.

mayo is harder to defend!

That's interesting Icubed.

quote:

Originally posted by Madrona:
... The others posted in this thread look good but adding the mayo and the salty brine are too un-healthy of a trade-off for me.

You can cook them up however you want, but I think you need to add the numbers up to decide.

Like they said above, Brining doesn't add that much salt. As for Mayo, if you don't eat the skin, then you're not eating the mayo. If you're doing skinless, I don't think you have have a teaspoon on each one and most of it melts off.

Are you eating BBQ? If so, then you just have to make up for a few BBQ items by eating healthier other times.

You'll find more salt and other bad stuff in fast food and prepared foods than fresh chicken you smoke yourself.

All things in moderation

I can cook boneless skinless perfectly, it's all about the temp, pulling them at 155, no more (if not brined) Reverse sear works well but you will have problems if you overcook it on the direct side.

Ok, I haven't tried yet but I'm kind of thinking my problem is taking temp to high. I've always had a fear of under cooking chicken and I always take it to at least 170.

I hear you Tim.

MY problem is bad chicken. Tyson and a few others use growth hormones to grow their chickens quick. It leads to brittle bones and even when I cook to temp, I can get red near the bones and my wife, who IS picky, won't eat. Even if I show her the internal temp if "food safe".

It's all about perceptions, but white meat is fine, try the lower temp and see if that works for you. 170 isn't too far off (if you're brining). The red isn't blood from being undercooked it's myglobin leaching out of the bones themselves. Juices run clear, so the food is safe, it just looks bad. Do a google search and you'll see some awful photos.

quote:

Originally posted by lcubed:
on america's test kitchen, they measured the actual added salt content after brining boneless skinless chicken breasts, and it was only a small amount (< 1/8th teaspoon) per piece.

Really! That is good to know. I figured it added quite a bit.

Nothin' worse than bad chicken! I buy bags of frozen Foster Farms BSCB at Costco... they seem to be fairly decent. I bought a bag of frozen breasts at Safeway one time cause I didn't want to bother with Costco, and I was so grossed out by them (they were so huge I called them Frankenchickens) that I ended up feeding them to the cats. I'll never do that again.

Well I think I have it figured out. Changed brands of chicken-- no more frozen in the bag. Also did reverse sear and pulled right at 165. These were the best yet. Very moist and tasty.

Thanks Smokin and all who chimed in.

See, the collective wisdom of the forum comes through again.

Glad it worked!

Russ

I tried the opposite of a reverse sear last night and it worked pretty well too. A reverse-reverse sear - lol. I put them on Zone 1 for about 3 mins/side and then put them on zone 4 until ... well mine got too overdone but pulling at 165 would've been ideal.

I can't eat the mayo. Wouldn't a light coating olive oil or canola oil serve the same purpose?

Sure,

You know mayo is 80 to 90% oil. A light coating is fine.