Competition Thighs


 
C

Chris Stanek

TVWBB Fan
Hey guys, I remember having a link I got from here about a step by step guide on how to do chicken thighs... it talked about taking all the skins off and putting them in a pile, deboning, trimming, etc.

A couple of guys and me are going to enter a local contest and are going to enter the chicken event as well and I could really use that step by step guide if anyone knows what I'm talking about.
 
I tried a slightly modified version of the pickled pig method last night and was pleasantly surprised by the results. First change I made was to use butter not that fake stuff. I tried both boned and aggressively trimmed bone in thighs (5 of each since there were 10 in the pack). I have to agree with them that scraping the skins sucks and is pretty gross, but it did make a difference. You don't need to scrape to make bite through skin but I think it makes it easier/more forgiving. I didn't have much hope for the skins when I was wrapping them back on the meat but even the ones with small holes ended up looking good. In the end they turned out to be some of the juiciest thighs I've made in a while. I just need to play with the brine/marinade step to get some more flavor into the meat. Remembering to add smoke wood next time will help too.
5 on the bottom are the boneless.
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Lots of work to have consistent competition thighs. Best advice is to practice, practice practice! Set an absolute time to have your thighs done, just like in a competition.
 
I think the hardest part of us is just going to be getting the timeing all down since it's a multiple step process. It's all for fun really so I'm not too concerned one way or another. It's just a way to get out of our offices away from all the numbers and just hang out. It'll be a good time. We still got a couple months to practice.
 
One thing that will help in comps is to prep your chicken early. You can trim, scrape & reshape your chicken ahead of time and vacuum seal it, then freeze it until the day before the competition. That will be one less thing you have to do on-site, and is legal by KCBS rules, as long as you do not season, marinade or inject it until after meat inspection on-site at the competition.
 
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