Competition Thighs Part 1


 
M Morrill

M Morrill

TVWBB Member
So I noticed that this area of the forums is a bit slow. I decided to post my first attempt at making my very first batch of competition chicken thighs. I will update this post in a little bit with pictures but I am taking a break from prepping the thighs. So far I am 1.5 hours into getting 12 thighs ready to cook. I had no idea that it would be this difficult... More to come.
 
Update - OK, I just counted and I have 10 thighs not 12. I learned a few things as well. I need to cut even more meat off the thighs to get a little better shape and so that the skin fits a bit better.

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Here are the chickens after prep but before seasoning and skin wrap. I was going for a heart shaped product. I removed all fat and the odd piece from the bone side that covers the vein.

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This is how the skin came out. I lost 2 skins in the process. I tried several knives but ended up using a stiff bladed 6" knife that seemed to work well. It's a little like rolling out dough, just much messier. I am also hoping for a new camera for better close ups (hint, hint Santa).

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Here are the thighs after seasoning. I just used my normal spices as I plan to eat these. The point of the exercise was to see what is involved and if it is something I could do. Who knows, might even get a TVWBB rookie team together way down the road.

I hope to fire up the WSM around 3:00 and see how the next part turns out.
 
I got the thighs on after a few stumbles. My thermometer broke last cook and I had not replaced it. Took a bit of wrestling to get it working. After that was done I noticed that I was out of charcoal. I guess this is why we do test runs...

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This is my charcoal for the cook. Never done a small cook before so I cut back to about 3/4 chimney in the ring and about 1/4 in the chimney lit. I have a nice 260 degree WSM going.

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Had some down time so I made a small pan of popcorn. Works awesome for keeping a nice shine on the cast iron pans...

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Finished product

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Back to the post... Here are the the thighs after an hour. Looking good but I wish I had another 15 degrees or so. They should be ready for the next step in an hour or so. Hopefully I will have time for pictures and posting otherwise you have to check back tomorrow.
 
Quick update - 2 hours and everything is going good.

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About 15 minutes from being done. Pulled to add the sauce.

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Back down to get the sauce to stick a bit.

20 minutes until showtime!
 
Looking good. Is that the fat/juices from cooking in the pan or did you set them in or add liquid? I've done this style AFA prepping for shape and scraping and wrapping the skin. I liked the style and the bite in that the skin stay in place. Looking forward to see how yours turn out.
 
r benash said:
Looking good. Is that the fat/juices from cooking in the pan or did you set them in or add liquid? I've done this style AFA prepping for shape and scraping and wrapping the skin. I liked the style and the bite in that the skin stay in place. Looking forward to see how yours turn out.
Click to expand...

That is one of the pans I cooked the chicken in. I used margarine.
 
So here they are plated. I did end up with bite through skin and they were very tender. They did not have the same flavor that I usually get with the same seasoning/sauce on the Weber 22. I need to work on the flavor.

So overall I like the way the cook came out but here is what I will change for the next try.

1. A more consistent trim and wrap. Definitely going to remove a bit more meat to get them more uniform. It really is the hard part - I didn't realize how much work it is. I am going to take more pictures and weigh the thighs before and after prep to see how much is removed. I am going to guess about 40% of total weight!
2. I am going to "spice up" my normal mix of spices and change the sauce just a bit. Needs to be a little sweeter. Maybe experiment with pineapple/apple juice. I don't want to change too much at one time though as I want consistency first, flavor next.
3. I need to bring up the temps in the smoker as well. Next cook I am just going to go with 2 chimneys and just shut it down after I am done. I was trying to be thrifty with my charcoal.

If you have any comments I would love to hear them. I just want to get better at this. Here are my best 6 on a plate. I will worry about a box way down the road.

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I would try boneless, might be able to hit the uniformity better. Although I don't compete (or wish to) so don't know if boneless breaks any rules. Ok so now I remember margarine in the pan is a typical competition thing with these. If it were me I would use clarified butter. Not a huge fan of margarine.
 
r benash said:
I would try boneless, might be able to hit the uniformity better. Although I don't compete (or wish to) so don't know if boneless breaks any rules. Ok so now I remember margarine in the pan is a typical competition thing with these. If it were me I would use clarified butter. Not a huge fan of margarine.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the butter/margerine thing but I went with what I had gathered from endless days trolling the forums:D I may try boneless next time - You can use them in competition. FWIW, the margarine really worked well!
 
Yeah, I think it's typical to use margarine for some reasion - that's what I've seen from comp posters on the topic over the years. Always wondered why.
 
That's a realy nice reference.

Back to the margarine - pretty sure that's typical probably because of concerns about butter browning or burning. Clarified butter will take temps to 400 degrees. I use clarified butter (ghee) for deep frying paneer when making various Indian paneer recipes. I take the temp of the ghee to 375 degrees when I deep fry the paneer.

Here's another decent pair of pictorials I ran across:


http://thehogblog.com/?p=1095
http://thehogblog.com/?p=677

I think in comps folks often inject the thighs with chicken stock or broth.
 
I think you're off to a good start. I'd focus on getting the pieces a little more uniform in size and make sure the turn-in pieces are evenly sauced. You have areas that are more heavily sauced than others. The judges like consistency and pretty-looking entries.

I compete with a team in the St. Louis area and handled the chicken entry entirely on my own for the first time at a big competition this fall. Different recipe, different smoker than previous comps. Did boneless thighs, initially braised in margarine, and finished on the smoker grate. Sauced with off-the-shelf BBQ sauce mixed with a little pineapple juice. 9 thighs were boxed. The trimmed boneless thighs end up fairly small, so they only take about an hour total to cook.

Here's a picture of what I turned in:

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I didn't think the skin was "bite-through" but the judges must have thought differently. We won first place in chicken out of about 70 teams (14 out of 15 "9's" were scored). I really tried to make all the pieces as uniform as possible, and used quite a bit more seasoning (both sides of thighs, under and over skin; re-season after braising) than what it looks like you used.

You're certainly on the right track, at least for the current chicken trend. And yes, prepping is time-consuming, tedious, and downright gross at certain points. But the devil is in the details.

Best of luck to you.
 
Chad, Thanks for the reply. It is what I was looking for and I expect most people here (this forum) are looking for help. It is a bit uncomfortable for me posting because you know you are going to hear something you don't want to but it is what I need to get better. I may never complete but if I do I will be ready!

I will be doing another cook this weekend and while I don't look forward to the prep, I know it will be even better. I will be using pineapple juice!

FYI - After I master the bone in thigh I will switch to boneless so I have get them both figured out. Don't even get me started on ribs...
 
to get a more uniform layer of sauce, you are going to want to dredge the thighs in a pot of sauce. I like to thin my sauce with the liquid from the hot tub before dredging.
 
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