Pulled Chicken


 
J

Jason U

TVWBB Member
Hey all, on my 3rd smoke with my new 18.5" I attempted the beginner's recipe listed here for pulled chicken. I cooked the chicken leg quarters to about 180f and let them rest for 15-20 minutes before pulling the meat.

The taste was good but the resulting meat seemed very greasy, so when I mixed in my bbq sauce the chicken seemed soupy/slimy. I trimmed off extra skin and fat before the smoke so I'm wondering what I did wrong here. Should I have left the chicken on a bit longer to dry it out a little more?

The taste was good but I definitely didn't like the texture.
 
I have and seen folks finish off on a gasser or over the coals of a kettle to brown and get the skin crunchier. Wondering if by doing this it might remove more fat that what you have experienced in your last attempt. Let me know how future chicken pulls go, I'd like to know for myself too.
 
Jason, i normally cook a BCC for pulled chicken always a hit and super tasty, hard to beat a beer can chicken.
 
Was cooking at about 275, 280. That's as high as I could get it. Empty water pan, chimney and a half of kingsford.
 
I don't know the recipe you were using, couldn't find anything other than the Beer Can Chicken on this site.
Anything below 350F (give or take) won't crisp your skin or render the chicken fat quick enough. I can get 350-375F on my 18" with a dry pan and lit fuel, not Minion.
I think you may have had a bad experience with rendered fat coating the meat on it's way out. With higher temps, the fat renders and exits quicker.
Also, you may just have had greasy birds, which is less likely.

I do my chicken at 350-450F. Honestly, my gas grill is much more efficient than a smoker for this as long as I cook offset. I can get to and hold a 400F+ temp as long as I need. Use a smoker bag of wood chips for flavour.

If you want to do low temp chicken on the WSM you will get great skin colour but rubber texture with no appreciable difference in tenderness from higher heats, especially using dark meat.

Above is just my opinion anyway.
 
Hey Jason,

I'm a total noob and I hesitated in replying for that reason, but... I was goofing off and using a standard 26" charcoal grill to cook a whole chicken last night. (I haven't received my WSM yet...) Anyway... I cooked using the indirect method. I only used one 4" x 4" chunk of wood, and one chimney of charcoal. I was able to keep the cooking temps between 325 & 350 until the bird reached a temp of 185 at the thickest part of the breast (about 2 hours). I took it off the grill and let 'er rest for about 20 minutes. Man, it was incredible! It was juicy, but not greasy. The skin was great and very flavorful! I'm thinking that cooking at the higher temps really made a difference.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I used one of the beginners Chicken recipes in the Cooking Topics section of the web site. I'll definitely try this again and see if I can get the smoker up to a higher temp.
 
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