Best Chicken I've ever cooked!


 
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Rick S

TVWBB Fan
I've followed Chris' 1 hr perfect chicken skin directions before on the WSM cooking chicken breasts, legs, thighs etc. Tonight I cooked
and butterflied 2 chickens I bought at Sam's. Both were Tyson chickens, and they were already enhanced so I couldn't brine them.

I wanted to do something different so I thought about using a citrus chicken recipe. I looked around and all we had was orange juice. Since I was in a hurry, I decided to just try marinating the birs in OJ, and did it for 4 hours.

I rinsed the birds, dried them and tried to let them dry in the fridge for 1 hr while I set up the WSM. I sprayed olive oil on the skin and used lemon pepper seasoning along with Nature's seasoning. Cooked the chickens at approx 300-310 f on the WSM using apple wood and a dry foil lined pan. Removed them at 165 f in the breast. the results were incredible. No you couldn't really taste the OJ ( my wife said it smelled sweet, I had apple smoke in my nose ), but the overall flavor was incredible.

The skin could have been a little crisper, and I wonder if I should have sprayed them with olive oil. I also had a problem getting the temps up to 300 f for the first 30 minutes ( stayed at around 260-275 f), and I didn't go slightly over 300 till 40 minutes into the cook. It took almost 2 hrs to get the white meat up to 165f. I messed with the coals too much when the lid temp didn't rise quick enough, and I had the door off too much.

Despite the few problems this was the juiciest and most flavorful chicken I've ever had. I've got TVWB to thank for inspiration.
 
As far as enhanced birds go. I've been noticing that all of the whole chicken breasts I cook seem to be enhanced. I never new about enhanced meat before I started coming here. So I always brined them anywhay. I only use one cup of koscher salt in about 2quarts of water, and 2 quarts of apple juice. I also mix in 1 cup of brown sugar and a 1/2 cup of maple syrup. I'll let it sit for overnight to 24 hours. As long as I rinse the bird off really good before putting on the cooker there is no salty taste at all. I think the brown sugar and maple syrup really off set the salt. Plus I believe it actually soaks in less then a person thinks. But just make sure you rinse the bird off inside and out and pat dry before you put on the cooker.
 
According to this cooking topic: Perfect Chicken Skin

Patting the chicken dry helps removes moisture, and aids in getting crispy chicken skin.

I patted the chickens dry, but then for some reason I thought I needed to spray the chickens down with olive oil which defeated the purpose.
 
I've read that one of the secrets of good skillet fried chicken, is to let it "dry out" uncovered in a refrigerator for several hours, too.

It seems moist when you open the door, but the interior of a refrigerator is actually dry.
 
Even when I let my chicken "dry" in the fridge, I had it loosely covered with foil. I was unconfortable about letting the chicken sit out open in the fridge. I guess, since nothing can get in there and the air is dry, it's ok to do it.
 
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