First Time Chicken Thighs


 
J

Jake Hugo

New member
I just finished eating some chicken thighs I cooked on the 22.5 WSM my wife got me for Christmas. They looked really good and were better than I expected, but I was really disappointed with the skin. I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions. I'm not sure how to post pictures, but if someone can give me a little help I'll put them up.

As far as the cook went, I used the recipe off howtobbqright.com. It was really windy tonight and my dome temperature was consistently around 225 with the vents full open. When I started the fire I had about a half ring of coals and threw on 25 lit coals. I am guessing that the skin would have been better at 275 though. Could that have been the problem? When I finished up the cook I noticed that the water had all evaporated, but I didn't think that had much to do with it.

Happy New Year's everyone and thanks for any suggestions!
 
Yep, only two ways I know of for chicken skin.. Higher heat, and leave the chicken uncovered over night in the fridge to dry out the skin a bit.
 
If you want crispy you will want much higher temps. I do chicken well over 400 but you'll pretty much need 325 or higher. If you choose to go for higher temps, skip the water. Just foil the pan (for easier cleanup) and leave it empty.
 
OK, thanks for the input!

I guess I should have probably just filled the ring all the way and started out with more coals. I'll work on that next time.
 
Jake,

You can also oil the skin. In my experience, the bigger the piece of skin, the more of an issue it is. I have no skin problems with wings at 250ish. They are bite through. But do a roaster at 250 and you'll have rubber for skin.

Things that help crisp the skin.....

1. High heat cook. This is essential for anything larger than a wing, in my opinion.

2. Slicking the skin with oil.

3. Let the chicken air dry uncovered in fridge overnight.

4. Salt right before cooking.

If you're doing high heat on the WSM, be aware that many people can't hit 325+ temps without cracking the door open. Techniques vary, but I turn the door upside down and then keep it propped up and open a little with a pair of tongs.
 
Matt covered it all.

How to post pics with imageshack :

1) go to www.imageshack.com
2) Browse your image.
3) Mark one or many(ctrl+left mouse button) Then open.
4) choose a size. 1024x768 is max for this forum. This is posted in that ress.
5) Klick on upload.




5) again
icon_rolleyes.gif
(should be 6) Klick on the image.




6) (well) Klick on "embed this image"
7) Copy the "forum" code in your post where you want the image. Copy: mark it all and ctrl+c. Paste it in your post ctrl+v.




Hoped that helped.
 
Matt & Wolgast, thanks a lot for the help.

img2011123100044.jpg

By jackhu22 at 2012-01-01

Do you think the brine/marinade needs to happen before or after letting it air dry in the fridge?

Also, should I slick the skin with oil before I put any rub/seasoning on or is that what you meant on #4?
 
Jake for crispy skin on chicken remove the water pan completely and let her rip wide open, make sure the temps are at least 350 or higher, works everytime, also chicken has to be eaten with in 10mins of coming off the grill to enjoy the crispy skin.
 
I crisp chicken skin after they come off the smoker using direct heat from a propane blowtorch. Just move around as the skin crisps, often it will shrink a bit as you go.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Noe:
Jake for crispy skin on chicken remove the water pan completely and let her rip wide open, make sure the temps are at least 350 or higher, works everytime, also chicken has to be eaten with in 10mins of coming off the grill to enjoy the crispy skin. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Noe said it perfectly. Cooking chicken on the grate with no water pan is far enough away from the coals that flare ups are not a problem. Tried it with a recent batch of wings, and they came out perfect, with the skin being just crispy enough. Kudos to Jim Lampe for this technique, as he is the first one I remember seeing that said to try it this way.
 
Ditto to Jim H. I've been using the WSM without the pan to high temp cook roadside chicken (recipe is in the recipe section) direct for a couple years. And in general whenever I have a large load of chicken parts to cook. I've even done two racks at a time this way.

For the same reason - flare ups are not a problem as they are at such a great distance. You simply add and remove the lid to snuff things out if it get's too far out of control, etc.

I still prefer the Performer if I'm only doing a few pieces. Whole chickens I still like to do on the rotisserie.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Do you think the brine/marinade needs to happen before or after letting it air dry in the fridge? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brine before you air dry.

I would go in this order:

1. Brine
2. Rinse, pat dry and air dry (incovered)overnight in fridge
3. Slick with oil and rub right before putting on smoker. Maybe add a LITTLE salt. You don't want "double salt jeopardy" since you brined, but just a little will help dry out the skin more.
4. 325+ temps.
 
Thanks everyone, I didn't realize I had received so much feedback because I didn't get any notifications. I bought some chicken this afternoon that I'm going to try tomorrow. I'll let you know if I do any better this time!
 
Here's some pictures of what I had to work with. I went to the local meat market and got some chicken thighs from them. I had heard that the skin was thinner on the chickens that weren't from the chain stores. I'm not sure what to think though, they are a lot smaller and also not uniform in size at all. I guess I'll have to watch them pretty close.


 
Well, I meant to marinade it for four hours and pull it out last night to let it dry. I didn't wake up and ended up marinading overnight so it will not have as much time to dry. I think we are going to eat dinner pretty late though so it should still be able to sit in the fridge for 7 or 8 hours. I noticed a definite color change after the marinade though:

 
OT: if you want to "follow" your thread click on "Notify" just above your thread's title. I think there may be some other options you can set up for your profile settings...

nice chicken thighs too btw.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jake Hugo:
Thanks everyone, I didn't realize I had received so much feedback because I didn't get any notifications. I bought some chicken this afternoon that I'm going to try tomorrow. I'll let you know if I do any better this time! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">they are a lot smaller and also not uniform in size at all. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
My kind of chicken. This fascination with big thighs, big chickens (see this board and others) and uniform sizes (seen in comps) betrays a lack of food knowledge. (In the case of the competitions, this is pretty astounding - though not unexpected).
 
Jake,

We are a thighs only family, and I too have had problems with the skin in the past, so I adapted Alton Brown's buffalo wing method to the thighs. IOW, I steam the thighs for a handful of minutes each (about 4 at a time in my steamer on the stove top), and let them dry for a short while in the fridge and then prepare. I use my performer in indirect method with a pretty high heat, but the smoker would be the same. Going this way I have yet to be disappointed in the skin or the thighs. In fact, we just polished off a sale pack two nights ago. Whatever you do, good luck.
 
Well, they turned out pretty good. Very tender and moist. I still didn't get the skin right. I ended up cooking them at around 275-280 thinking that I could get a tender skin, but it was still rubbery. I'm going to go for the 325+ next time. The skin was definitely more tender than last time though. Since they were so much smaller they cooked off pretty quickly and didn't pick up much smoke flavor, I might add a little more of the smoking wood next time.

On another note I am really enjoying the WSM. I just got it for Christmas. Before I have been using a performer with a smokenator and it's like night and day as far as babying it throughout the day. I can pretty much walk away from the WSM after getting the temp dialed in!



 
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