Bone in Mediterranean chicken thighs


 
Brett-EDH

Brett-EDH

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I salted these this morning and left them exposed in the fridge till 4p

Rubbed them with PG, Aleppo pepper and sumac in EVOO.

Seared direct for a minute or so a side then went indirect for 35 mins.

Cooked over JD and a nice piece of oak.

IT is 178°-190°.

Grilled off some zukes and romas in the same marinade. And whipped up a quick batch of yellow chicken vermicelli basmati rice.

Cheers to a great weekend! The weather here is spectacular. 84°, sunny and with a gentle breeze.

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Bruno said:
Looks amazing! Nice light delicious meal.
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Indeed. And a little buzz from that wine. It was a peak age. Wife was super happy. All thighs which are her favorite. And neither of us could recall the last time I did bone in chicken.

Love the WSK.
 
Brett, why hot first and then indirect? I've been following ATK's suggestion to render skin indirectly first, then crisp. That usually works well, but I'm always looking to improve
 
Mack Manning said:
Brett, why hot first and then indirect? I've been following ATK's suggestion to render skin indirectly first, then crisp. That usually works well, but I'm always looking to improve
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Great question. From my experience, I’ve found that to get crispy and flavorful skin, the upfront sear, skin side down, really helps to drive a crispier skin. Because the chicken is still less than ambient temperature, the skin can take the direct fire without drying out the meat. And I can monitor the skins color and avoid any over charring, or burning.

I have done both ways over the years and strongly prefer the final product of the hard upfront sear and indirect to finish to get to temp. You can see the final product is darker than doing a reverse sear. To me this drives much more flavor in the finished product.

Another key point to for crispy skin is no water in your marinade and I prefer a cook temp of at least 400°F. You can cook at 350° but that under skin fat layer won’t fully render in a cook session, unless you go much longer on time.

This chicken was salt brined and air dried in the fridge prior to cooking. This really helps develop a juicy and moist done chicken. And the meat has loads of flavor from the salt only brine.

My finish seasoning was with oil and spices. This too helps promote better crisping of the skin.

As you can see in the near final chicken pic, all the pieces are evenly dark and the skin is rendered to my preferred near perfection of bite through crispy. The chicken was perfectly cooked with no red juices where the meat contacts the thigh bones.

Give this method a shot and share your experiences. Would love to see and hear how it works for you. And on bone in thighs, 175° is my minimum done temp for perfect meat and juiciness.

I hope this reply gives you enough data from my experiences over the years of cooking chicken.
 
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@JohnTak , Sobon is an Amador winery. They used to source these grapes in Lodi, thus the vintage says Lodi. They subsequently planted and now grow these grapes here in Amador.

I’d look for any tannat wines grown in Lodi and buy some. The fruit does very well in those fields. And yes, the ABV is a bit high at 15%. But it drinks beautifully. This was a 2014. My last 2014 in fact. It was beautiful.
 
I’ve been thinking along very similar lines for this weeks family dinner Brett! I plan on old fashioned indirect method on the kettle. A variation of the “Viral” Thomas Keller zucchini (look it up, pretty basic aside from the prep, cross hatch and salt)
or something else.
Now, it’s time to start clearing things way down in the fridge and freezer in anticipation of the get away!
 
Looks excellent! Don't see Tannat too often, nice choice. Anything in particular you did for the rice?
 
JimK said:
Looks excellent! Don't see Tannat too often, nice choice. Anything in particular you did for the rice?
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Thanks.

Here’s the rice recipe. Last night’s cook omitted the mustard seeds, by choice.

Toasting up the rice and vermicelli delivers a nice nutty flavor to the dish. That comes from the butter browsing as it cooks.

tvwbb.com

Chicken flavored vermicelli rice (better than Rice-a-Roni)

original post and convo here: https://tvwbb.com/threads/%E2%80%9Citalian-dressing%E2%80%9D-chicken-quarters.94021/ Recipe follows: 3 Tbs unsalted or salted butter (i use unsalted, salt is something to watch for in your stock our bullion, more deets to follow) 3 Tbs cooking oil 1/3 cup...
tvwbb.com tvwbb.com
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
I’ve been thinking along very similar lines for this weeks family dinner Brett! I plan on old fashioned indirect method on the kettle. A variation of the “Viral” Thomas Keller zucchini (look it up, pretty basic aside from the prep, cross hatch and salt)
or something else.
Now, it’s time to start clearing things way down in the fridge and freezer in anticipation of the get away!
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Post a king of the Keller video if you have it. I’ll try to find it as well.

I’ve enjoyed meals at Keller’s Bouchon restaurant in Napa (Yountville IIRC). Fabulous food and experience. It’s a must do if you visit Napa wine country.
 
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