New owner concerns with initial smoke (chicken)

[wayne47]

Got my 4-rack digital in time for the long weekend.  My salmon test came out great but my chicken had some issues.

2 chickens, brined overnight.  Rubbed one down with Oilve oil and Jamacian Jerk.  The other got olive oil, crushed garlic, thyme.  From my reading, 4 hours at 210F should have worked.  I had the upper vent about 3/4 open.  After 3.5 hours, I realized that it would take a very long time to finish so I went to 250F for the next 2 hours.  Got to internal temp of 168F at 5.5 hours so I pulled the birds out.  I used maple.

The meat is great but the skin is not edible.  Doesn't bother the wife, she does not like skin but I do.  So

1) What did I do wrong to mess up the skin?  I left the vent 3/4 open.
2) 4 hours at 210F seems insufficient.  Suggestions?

[3rensho]

I don't see that you did anything wrong.  In my albeit limited experience the skin always comes out leathery and never like a roasted chicken.  One thought though - Keep the BS at 210 until the desired smoking time is reached and then transfer the chicken to a hot oven to crisp up the skin and bring the meat temp up to the desired temp.  I haven't tried this but it might be worth a shot. 

[manxman]

I would agree with 3rensho, in my again limited experience the BS does not produce nice crispy skin, I use the oven to crisp up the skin.

Hopefully others with more experience in this area will chip in but it may be worth doing a search as I know this subject has been discussed in the past as well.

[Habanero Smoker]

In my experience, and I do a lot of chicken in the BS, your procedure is correct. To get crisp skin on chicken you have to bake at a high temperature. With crisp being a relative word, at high temperatures the fat in the skin rises to the surface to crisp it, at low temperatures the fat will just renders out. Cooking chicken at low temperature with it's high content of water the skin contains, you will get a texture from "almost crisp" to leathery. So leaving the vent open as far as possible helps, by letting the moisture ecscape. I have never used Old's T-shirt method, but he obtains crisp skin using his method. Sorry I could not provide a link, I couldn't locate it using a search.

Finishing off on the grill or hot oven will improve the texture. Using 3rensho's way may give you a crisper skin, because all of the fat may not have rendered out at the time you place it in the oven. So by putting it in the oven after you have applied the smoke may be the way to go, if you have enough oven room. Next time, at the end of the smoking cycle, I will pull one chicken and put it in a 375°F-400°F oven, to see if that is the best way to finish it off.

In my opionion, low and slow doesn't work well with chicken, so I smoke mine as high a temperature the BS will allow; keeping in mind that initially I have to start low so the chicken cooks long enough to apply the amount of smoke I want.

[Oldman]

Sorry I could not provide a link, I couldn't locate it using a search.

Hab it looks like to me the IT is deleting older threads. I cannot find it either.  Kind of like the Test board went Poof~~! Which truly ticks me off.  I answered a lot of questions and put up several how-to-do-tutorials on that board. Hours of work just trashed.

When I think of the hours I spent laying out and explaining KB, landscaping & foot print size with examples just going poof I want to throw up. I think what I will do in the future when someone ask me how to post an image or how to nestle tags correctly I will set up a board on the recipe site, answer it there and then just link the answer over to here.

It's a good thing we collected the recipes we did last year and created our own recipe site, or many of them would be gone as well.

The only reason I can think of to prune out a data base is to save money. I would not be surprised if this site was on a limited shared server.
Olds

[Habanero Smoker]

That a shame, there was a lot of valuable information in your instructional posts. It's fortunate that you set up that recipe site. A lot of the recipes on the recipe site were pulled from the thread about what members were making on the weekend, and that thread went poof.

[nsxbill]

I don't do any chicken in the Bradley except wings, and chicken breasts I am going to cut up into Smokehouse Rob's White Chicken Chili.   

I like to add the smoke flavor to chicken by smoking max heat for an hour or two, then onto the grill they go!  Whole chickens...well, I either put them on the rotisserie, or my new little stands and let the grill do the cooking and browning.  A couple of us guys have done the rolled up breasts after flattening them out, and adding cheese or bacon, or wrapping up in bacon to add flavor, but I just love whole chicken on a spit.  It is pretty difficult to improve on the flavor!

Bill

[Malc]

I saw this on the food network not too long ago, but I thought it may help to solve this problem, as well.  I think it was Bobby Flay that did this on his show.  He actually grilled a whole chicken by splitting it down the breast bone with poultry shears and flattening it out.  By doing this, each portion(breast, leg, thigh, wing) was in contact with the grill.  The skin looked pretty good to me.  I bet you could smoke/cook a whole chicken to almost done in the BS, split it down the breast bone, flatten it out and toss it on the grill for a bit to crisp the skin.  I haven't tried it yet, but if I do I'll post how it went.

Malc

[Oldman]

I bet you could smoke/cook a whole chicken to almost done in the BS, split it down the breast bone, flatten it out and toss it on the grill for a bit to crisp the skin.  I haven't tried it yet, but if I do I'll post how it went.

Great Solution.

[winemakers]

A similar method is called, are you ready Chez....... spatchcock your chicken.  Set the bird breast side down and use poultry shears to cut out the backbone.  Traditions says remove the cartilage underside of the breast bone and walla....... flat chicken.  We do it often when smoking or grilling, then have the back for stock.  Google is king for directions.

mld

[Oldman]

....then have the back for stock.

Yepper the backs with clean chicken feet (nails removed)  make for some great chicken stock.  ;)

For what it is worth I used 15 to 20 backs, 5 or so feet; slow boil until the backs are coming apart. Remove the chicken backs and feet; allow to cool; then painstakingly pick the back meat off of the bones.

Return back meat to stock and add my seasonings, carrots celery etc.. Cook until carrots are done. Server over hand made "chew-able" noodles.  ;D

[winemakers]

the filter police are at it again.

for the google searchers, the term for removing the back and flattening chicken is,

spatch(insert term for male chicken that is not rooster, that is often used as vulger slang for a man-part that rhymes with rock)

Lets see the filter grab that!


mld

[Habanero Smoker]

the filter police are at it again.

for the google searchers, the term for removing the back and flattening chicken is,

spatch(insert term for male chicken that is not rooster, that is often used as vulger slang for a man-part that rhymes with rock)

Lets see the filter grab that!


mld

To play it safe, use the term butterfly :), that is another term for preparing the chicken it that manner.

[iceman]

To play it safe, use the term butterfly :), that is another term for preparing the chicken it that manner.

Ann prefers I use the term butterfly also. She said when I use the other term it sounds like I'm going out to the garage to do something xxx rated to the chickens. LOL ::) ;D :D

[winemakers]

Here's a link with written/pictorial directions as well as a link to a video

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/butterflychicken.html

for the spatch(butterfly) poultry.  Politically correct, but doesnt generate the lockerroom giggles as well does it.

edit: olds, would this be worth posting on the recipe site?

mld