Split Chicken Breasts

[Rusty James]

Hi all,

Is this something that gets smoked/grilled here often?

I smoked three split breasts over a pan of water on my kettle grill and pulled them at 165 to 170 degrees, but I thought the meat was a bit tough (as usual with big split breasts, it seems) and not as flavorful as I like. I rubbed the breasts with slap-yo-daddy rub about 30 minutes before smoking them with apple wood.

1) I would like to get more flavor out of these cuts

2) I would like to tenderize them a bit more. Maybe an injection of Italian or raspberry dressing would be in order here?

Why are split breasts so large? They look like they came off of super-sized chickens. Even fried, they are not as tender and flavorful as breasts cut from a whole chicken. If the breasts are this large, the legs must look like turkey legs, lol.

 

[Bill Farmer]

I use my smoker, but raise the temp to 350 for these. I usually make a compound butter (mix your favorite spices in with butter) and fill the pocket between the skin and the breast meat. keep in the smoker for a bit over an hour or until temps reach just under 165 and then let rest. Never had a problem with them not being tender, but you could marinate them in buttermilk or Italian dressing for a few hours prior to cooking.

 

[GGross]

I prefer thighs on the grills because they don't dry out, when I do breast on the grill I slice them into cutlets maybe get 3 to 4 cutlets out of breast and then marinade and cook high heat 3 to 4 minutes a side. Just what I do, keep grilling

 

[Don Reed]

Have you tried brining them.

 

[Craig Alumbaugh]

I hardly do chicken parts on the smoker. I usually do indirect on my performer when it comes to chicken parts.