First Cook: Chicken Breast, skinless.


 
B

Bryn

New member
Brand new 18.5, placed a full starter chimney of charcoal, all vents wide open water bowl in place but no water.

Grate temp topped out at 412, and slowly dropped down to 300 after two hours, Dome temp probe read 30 degrees lower than grate probe most of the way down.

Basic chicken breast no skin, seasoned with salt and pepper. Internal temp of 167 and removed, approximately one hour cook time.

In thickest part, meat was juicy and tender, thinner areas was dryer. There was a dry outer layer not very thick all over.

QUESTION: How to keep a more moist outer layer on the chicken breast? Any comments, observations, advice to give please feel free to post.

DISCLAIMER: First time cook.

Thanks

Bryn
 
If you want to attempt to smoke boneless skinless chicken, do it on the grill. Throw a piece of hickory or mesquite on the hot coals and cook it for the 10 or 15 minutes like normal.
 
Bryn said:
Basic chicken breast no skin, seasoned with salt and pepper. Internal temp of 167 and removed, approximately one hour cook time
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Welcome to the forum Bryn

A no-skin chicken is a different beast to cook. The best chicken is typically cooked high heat, skin on. You pretty much had the high heat, but you didn't have the skin, so your cook resulted in a somewhat dry cook. If you wanted to do that again, you would not want your pit temp to exceed 250, ideal would be about 225 degrees. You'll get that smoked flavor and you'll not dry out your cook. Probably take maybe two hours, depending on size. You could do the same cook but have brine your bird in advance. A simple but good brine is 3/4 cup salt and 3/4 cup sugar in approx 1 to just under 2 gallons of water, if you wanted to reduce the salt, a 1/2 cup would work, just not as well. Soak the bird for at least six hours, best over night. Rinse after removing the bird from the brine, and let it sit out (in the fridge) for an hour

I used to cook almost all my chicken without the skin, but have caved in and gone back to the skin on, at high heat (300+ degrees)
 
Like Chuck I also cook my chicken HH with skin on, but the advice he offered is right on the money.
 
Bryn said:
Brand new 18.5, placed a full starter chimney of charcoal, all vents wide open water bowl in place but no water.

Grate temp topped out at 412, and slowly dropped down to 300 after two hours, Dome temp probe read 30 degrees lower than grate probe most of the way down.

Basic chicken breast no skin, seasoned with salt and pepper. Internal temp of 167 and removed, approximately one hour cook time.

In thickest part, meat was juicy and tender, thinner areas was dryer. There was a dry outer layer not very thick all over.

QUESTION: How to keep a more moist outer layer on the chicken breast? Any comments, observations, advice to give please feel free to post.

DISCLAIMER: First time cook.

Thanks

Bryn
Click to expand...

Wrap it in bacon? Lol My first wsm cook was some boneless skinless chicken, and it wasn't bad actually! Funny that I cooked mine low and slow though, took about 2 1/2 hours to hit 165. Came out more tender than I get on my charcol grill. I think the best way to cook boneless skinless though is to skip the bbq, do it on an indoor grill (like a cast iron grill that goes over a stove burner) pound it thin, and grill with some olive or canola oil on the grill to keep it moist and your favorite seasoning. comes out super juicy like that! Eggplant works best on an indoor grill too, (just dont pound it) lol.
 
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Bacon wrapped might be worth trying. I do like smoking things that aren't popular. I smoked a mock tender roast recently and it wasn't bad.
 
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