Pulled Chicken For 200?

Off the top of my head I'd say you'll need 4 oz of cooked chicken per person, or 50 lbs.

What kind of chicken do you normally use, i.e. whole? Quarters? Boneless? etc.

I generally use whole chickens. I have an Ameriqe and an Sm160 so I have plenty of capacity for cooking. What would you do to the chicken as far as brine and rub? I do thighs and other chicken cooks, but pulled seems to be my downfall.
Thanks for responding Max.
Gary I.

Were it me, I'd probably use 6-7 lb roasters...I'm guessing around 18 of them.

Brining is optional but will increase flavor and moisture. For that many roasters you'll need about 5 + gals. A simple 1 cup Kosher salt per gallon of water is the basis. You can sub in a gal or two of apple juice for water...add some peppercorns, bay leaves,granulated garlic, what have you and maybe 2 cups each honey and soy sauce.

I'd buy a new 33 gal trash can and double line it with some 33 gal bags. Add brine and chickens. The trick will be keeping it cold. To that end if you can find large blocks of ice, place them in garbage bags and add that to the brine container.

Cookshack sells a great chicken rub by the jar or gallon. It's somewhat salty so a little is all that's needed.

Hope that helps...I'm ad libbing this all off the top of my head

Max thanks for the info. I do cure alot of hams so I have the equipment for doing large batches of brining. I also have a large commercial fridge that will accommodate a large container. The rub you are talking about is that the Spicy Chicken rub from Cookshack?
Again thanks for the info.
Gary I.

Max probably does more of these than we do,altho have been forced to more than we like.
His approach to birds/yield is different than we use-but we wind up the same place.

Mine shows about 3 1/3 oz chicken,so if you do three oz pork that puts you in your area..

I agree that brined will make a little better flavor product,especially since you are used to doing it.Like Max says CS has a fine Chicken rub,but a little goes a long way.It is akin to Cajun,and if there are lot of dainty palates,be cautious.

Like Max says,if you weren't keen on it,your hens are probably pumped a lot and you are cooking on real moist cookers. Unless there are a lot of real yardbird fans-that used no sauce,we'd probably pass on the brine.

Just my $0.02

Thanks Tom. I do have a gallon of the rub. The group will be made up of about 85% women so I need to keep the spice level down a bit. I have to check with my meat guy on what he can do for a bulk buy on chickens. So many are enhanced any more, and the all natural are priced out of the market for this quantity. I will se what I can get for the right $'s and go from there. May get a couple and do a test run to check quality and net quantity.
Thanks guys for the info. It is greatly appreciated.
Gary I.

Gary, if you want non enhanced chickens, you might want to check with www.jakoinc.com. They are north of Yoder. Not sure if they are used to such quantities, but worth a phone call.

Soleman, thanks for the info. I had forgotten about them. I have never bought from them before. Will give them a call and see what they can do. Checked their web site, and whole chicken is $4 a lb. a little high for catering. I will talk with them and see what they can do. I will at least get some small amount to try for myself. Big difference between free range verses store bought.
Thanks again
Gary I.

Another option (I wish I could post anonymously-it embarrasses me to mention this on a thread with both Tom and MaxQ) is to buy pulled chicken from Sysco or US Foods, then smoke for about an hour to develop the flavor.

I know, it is cheating. But it sure cuts down on labor and waste, and having done this for a couple of large parties in recent weeks, it does produce a good product that is very consistent.

We can order white and dark meat separately and mix to our preferred ratio. 3 cases white and 2 dark would look real good. Just sayin'......

Todd, I had to laugh when I read this. I am checking into this tomorrow. I have a friend who has a bar/resturant here and I can have him get anything I want from SYSCO. I know it is cheating, but for this deal my bottom line is the most important thing. That is as long as the product is still good. I am a small operation, and I am the only employee so with the rest of the items I need to do it as easy as possible.
Thanks Todd.
Gary I.

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Todd G.:

I know, it is cheating. QUOTE]

Not necessarily, it's somewhat dependant on circumstances. If the customer is expecting "start to finish" hand crafted pulled chicken, then subbing in a Sysco product would of course be unethical. On the other hand, if the Sysco product is as good or betterthan what Gary can produce, why not use it?

No doubt, Gary can produce the end result cheaper vs buying it from Sysco but he'll have more labor invested in doing it from scratch. My focus would be centered on providing the customer with the best product...no matter how it got to the table.

Yep,situation often dictates.Especially if it leaves time to focus on something of higher priority.

Also,do you have the qualified labor to produce the product.

Cooking with Music City Pigpals,when they might feed a couple thousand-besides cooking the comp,I learned"that yes I only cook full packers".To feed 50 I have the skilled labor to slice and present".
When It is only me with a Forschner that has ever broken down a packer,than cases of flats fit well with the available labor.

I always respect Todd's insight when feeding a crowd.