Another Round of Practice Competition Chicken


 
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Larry Wolfe

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I think I'm getting closer, still had a couple splotch spots, but overall pretty good.

I didn't baste nearly as much this time and the skin wasn't as tender, but I could still with a little effort get a good bite through. I'm thinking the basting every three minutes last time really helped with the clean bite through skin I would also like more sheen on the finished thighs than what these had, but that's an easy fix.

 
Looks like you shouldn't need much more practice they look great if i were judging at a contest and i saw these they would be a for sure 8-9 on appearence, how did they taste
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jason Duhamell:
Looks like you shouldn't need much more practice they look great if i were judging at a contest and i saw these they would be a for sure 8-9 on appearence, how did they taste </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you Jason! They tasted great, skin wasn't exactly as tender as I wanted it. I'm almost there though, I have one more weekend of practice before we head to Salisbury! We need to be on our "A Game" cause some of the countries top teams will be there. If anyone is in the Salibury Md. area April 18-19 look for "Iron Pig BBQ" and stop in and say hi!
 
Good luck in Salisbury i hope your chicken looks that good, I will be off to the Redneck BBQ in Sikeston Mo, this coming weekend for my first contest of the year, hope my chicken looks good too here is a picture of some chicken thighs i did last summer for some professional wrestlers i feed them thy give me and my kids tickets and we get to go back stage it is a blast and man can they eat

Chicken for the wrestlers

my son and the champ after the show
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jason Duhamell:
Good luck in Salisbury i hope your chicken looks that good, I will be off to the Redneck BBQ in Sikeston Mo, this coming weekend for my first contest of the year, hope my chicken looks good too here is a picture of some chicken thighs i did last summer for some professional wrestlers i feed them thy give me and my kids tickets and we get to go back stage it is a blast and man can they eat

Chicken for the wrestlers

my son and the champ after the show </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Great looking chicken and pic with the champ!
 
Here is a dumb newbie question. Are you cooking the thighs with high heat or low and slow? I tried smoking 24 thighs this w/e on my WSM. Did 3 hours of smoke @ 246 lid. They were pretty much raw at the end of 3 hours so I cranked up the heat and finished them. The skin was awful but the chicken was pretty good and had a slight smokey flavor. Can you get a smoke flavor with high heat? Or do you just not worry about it?

Thanks!

btw your chicken looks awesome!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jen W:
Here is a dumb newbie question. Are you cooking the thighs with high heat or low and slow? I tried smoking 24 thighs this w/e on my WSM. Did 3 hours of smoke @ 246 lid. They were pretty much raw at the end of 3 hours so I cranked up the heat and finished them. The skin was awful but the chicken was pretty good and had a slight smokey flavor. Can you get a smoke flavor with high heat? Or do you just not worry about it?

Thanks!

btw your chicken looks awesome! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jen,
Welcome aboard, and there are no dumb questions here! When I cook thighs and legs, I pretty much do this Use whatever rub you like. You will get smoke flavor from a high heat cook, just go easy on how much wood you use. Hope this helps.

Steve
 
Man those are beautiful. I really got to work on trimming mine right. I can't seem to get that consistency down.

Tommorrow I'm off, so I will be making another big batch to practice on.
 
Yep - those sure are some "pretty thighs" you got there Larry
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How high off the grill are they? Is that just heavy foil over the coals or is their something heavier underneath like a pan or something? Then you are crisping on the grill direct over the coals?

They sure look like a winner as far as color goes.
 
Larry a question for you where do you get your chicken i was wondering if anyone had a special place where they get there chicken for a competition, I just get mine at my local grocery store butr was wondering if others had a special source, anyway they look really good I may try using toothpicks with mine next competition looks like that is the way to help keep the shape.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bryan S:
We all know that no 2 piesces of meat are the same, Right? So why do they all have to look the same in the turn in box? Just curious, Bud. Thanks much, Bryan. Hey Larry Bud, the practice pieces look awsome Bud.
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Bryan, I want them to be uniform so it looks like each judge gets the exact same piece of chicken. The thighs don't normally look the way they do when I'm done prepping them either, but they look nicer than a natural looking thigh. Basically I want uniformity and beauty when the box if first opened. Afterall you taste with your eyes first!
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jason Duhamell:
Larry a question for you where do you get your chicken i was wondering if anyone had a special place where they get there chicken for a competition, I just get mine at my local grocery store butr was wondering if others had a special source, anyway they look really good I may try using toothpicks with mine next competition looks like that is the way to help keep the shape... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jason I get all my BBQ meat from BJ's, after all the definition of "BBQ" to me is taking a cheap tough piece of meat and making it into something special! I see alot of people spending an absurd amount of money on exotic high grade meats to make BBQ and for competitions and me personally don't feel there is a need for it and it's taking away what BBQ is to me. To each their own though, not that there's anything wrong with it, just not for me!
 
Larry, I am glad we are on the same page i agree with you 100% that is what true BBQ is, I get all my meat at Sam's but i always get my chicken at my local County Market grocery store.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Larry Wolfe:
Originally posted by Bryan S:
We all know that no 2 pieces of meat are the same, Right? So why do they all have to look the same in the turn in box?

Bryan, I want them to be uniform so it looks like each judge gets the exact same piece of chicken.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Simple question, simple answer. That makes perfect sense to me.
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Thanks Bud
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Click to expand...
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I see alot of people spending an absurd amount of money on exotic high grade meats to make BBQ and for competitions and me personally don't feel there is a need for it and it's taking away what BBQ is to me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I get where you are coming from but it is worth having an understanding of how the meat markets have changed in the past 20-30 years (and earlier). The 'exotic high grade meat' you speak of was the standard. A lot of the beef graded Prime now wouldn't have even been considered Choice 35 years ago. Commercial pigs have been so hybridized and production procedures so standardized over the years--both efforts to reduce fat and lighten the flesh (it's what made 'the other white meat' marketing tagline possible)--that what consumers now think of as good looking, good tasting pork wouldn't have been recognized as either well through the 60s and into the 70s.

Fat and, thus, flavor have been bred and/or processed right out of 'standard' beef and pork. In an effort to capture the flavor and texture of what used to be standard, some people have turned to buying the 'exotic'--the higher quality and unfortunately more expensive fattier cuts of beef and fattier cuts from non-hybrid pastured pork--that used to be the norm not all that long ago.

Ditto with chicken. Commercial chicken has much less flavor now than it used to.
 
Jen - Welcome aboard. Like was mentioned, no dumb questions. To answer yours, its possible to get some smoke flavor cooking at higher temps, although IMO its not a subtle smoke flavor like you might get with low temp cook. Also IMO, smoke isn't extremely necessesary for competition chicken. Some pretty good cooks once told me that they look for others to supply the smoke flavor to the judges. Best advice is to pick a chicken technique and practice practice practice it. We didn't start having success w/ chicken until the cook became a mundane mechanical process. Comp Chicken is meat that can be based almost solely on timing. There should be little or no guess work to it. You are the cook, you are in charge...I don't like taking orders from my chicken
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That brings me to respond to another question about reasons to make every piece look the same. The way i see it, there are two reasons:

1) uniform look in the box. the best presentations are all about uniformness and symetry. If you start with similar looking pieces, you can create eye appealing symetry. With various sizes, you'll spend too much time fighting with the piece to make them POP when the lid is opened to the judges.

2) uniform cooking time. this might be even more important to the cook than the appearance reason. Chicken is the last meat to go on the cooker, and the first one presented. You need to assure that all pieces are done at exactly the same time. The best way to accomplish this is to of course start with the same size pieces.

Jason - good luck down at Sikeston. And good luck to all who are taking the leap this summer.
 
Thanks Joe and Steve! Joe that was exactly the answer I was looking for. I should have posted my question in the comp section.

I have also read that some of the cooks think the tooth pick technique makes the chicken look like "eggs" and that if they were judging they would mark it down. I like the neatness to the rounded look. Plus you can fit more pieces on the smoker.

What do you see in comps? A mixture of both?
 
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