A Tale of Chicken Quarters: A Day of Enlightenment

[DivotMaker]

Today, I was excited about smoking 8 chicken leg quarters.  I brined them for 3 hours, in my poultry brine.  They looked so nice, after a 3 hour swim!

I rinsed them, coated in olive oil and Famous Dave's country chicken rub, and set the Auber.  I planned to smoke them @ 275° until they hit 170°, no water pan, and 2.5 oz of cherry.  I wrapped the bottom of my wood chunk with foil, since I wouldn't be ramping the temperature up slowly.

In the smoker they go at 2:20 pm!  Smoke started rolling at about 15-minutes in.  At 40 minutes, the temp was at 225°, but climbing slowly.  The Auber probe is fairly large, and probing a chicken thigh is not an easy task.  I planned on around 2 hours, but at 1 hour, the Auber said the meat was 170, and shut off.  Ugh.  Probe placement was the problem.  I shut the Auber off, repositioned the probe, and switched back on.  At 3:40, the Auber shut off again, due to being at 170°.  The quarters were not done, but I couldn't seem to get an accurate temp reading. 

So, in an attempt to crisp the skin, I fired-up the old Weber gasser!  The legs had received 1:20 of smoke, so they just needed to finish cooking.  When the grill heated, on they went.

Now, the story behind the post title:  It was a day of enlightenment, because I realized that I no longer care about chicken skin!  Except on whole chickens or turkeys, I'm going skinless from now on!  Chasing the elusive "crispy skin" is as pointless trying to get a smoke ring in an electric smoker!  Just face it, we're never going to have "good" chicken skin in these smokers!  If you look at the finished pics, you'll see the skin shrank terribly.  It was still rubbery (even finished on the grill), so I'm done.  Throwing in the towel on chicken skin.   Whew!  Glad I got that off my chest!  I feel SO much better, now!

Taste?  Great!  The chicken was very moist and flavorful, just the skin was terrible. 

Also, this was the first time I tried foiling the bottom & sides of my wood chunk (but left the top open), and it worked well.  I was able to go straight to 225° with no combustion.  I'll be trying this again, on the 12 lb packer brisket I'm putting in tonight!

Next time:  Skinless @ 225, brined of course!

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[jpittssr]

Now, the story behind the post title:  It was a day of enlightenment, because I realized that I no longer care about chicken skin!  Except on whole chickens or turkeys, I'm going skinless from now on!  Chasing the elusive "crispy skin" is as pointless trying to get a smoke ring in an electric smoker!  Just face it, we're never going to have "good" chicken skin in these smokers!  If you look at the finished pics, you'll see the skin shrank terribly.  It was still rubbery (even finished on the grill), so I'm done.  Throwing in the towel on chicken skin.   Whew!  Glad I got that off my chest!  I feel SO much better, now!

I know it is little consolation but  I don't remember ever having a nice crispy chicken on any of my other smokers.
Not like rubber maybe but still not crispy.
Health nuts say we should not eat the skin because it contains so much fat. ( They apparently don't know that fat=flavor)

I am interested to see how they turn out when you go with no skin @220. It seems to me we might lose some of the moisture from the skin. I have seen parts of my drumsticks get dry where the skin pulled back but that may have been from the higher temp

[es1025]

Tony
I am not a skin eater except for fried chicken (thats another story). I would rather smoke with skinless anytime. This time of year its poultry season.

Nothing on the smoker today, soccer all day.

[DivotMaker]

I'm not a big skin-guy, either, but my wife likes it!  Definitely on fried chicken, though!  I may try bacon-wrapping the skinless, next time I try it.  Today, I'm 11 1/2 hours into a 11.5 lb brisket!

[es1025]

I am going to try during the week. Bacon wrapped chic breast. I saw the recipe I myrons book

[DivotMaker]

Bacon makes everything better!

[Three Sons BBQ]

Ok. Here is what I have Tony ( ignore the one with next to no seasoning for my young boys).

2 hours 225F and then 2 hours wrapped in aluminum foil at 225F (oh and no skin) with 3oz of apple wood.

Very moist.

Vacuum sealed leftovers (two) which will be a delightful midnight snack at some point.

Cheers.

[DivotMaker]

Those look really tasty, Steve!  Nice job!  My next chicken is definitely skinless.

[swthorpe]

Thanks for this post, Tony.  You have me excited now to try the skinless quarters, and I think my butcher may even be willing to pull the skin for me!    This is a definite smoke in my future...   Glad to hear that the partially foiled wood in the smoke box worked for you...this is the way I handle the wood every time now.

Ed-- I have done the bacon wrapped chicken breasts and it works very well.  You won't be disappointed.

[DivotMaker]

Thanks for this post, Tony.  You have me excited now to try the skinless quarters, and I think my butcher may even be willing to pull the skin for me!    This is a definite smoke in my future...   Glad to hear that the partially foiled wood in the smoke box worked for you...this is the way I handle the wood every time now.

Ed-- I have done the bacon wrapped chicken breasts and it works very well.  You won't be disappointed.

Yeah, the 2 smokes with the wood foiled on the bottom went very well!  I think it's changed my thinking, and will be my new technique!  I guess that one layer of foil on the bottom is enough to shield the wood from heating too fast.  Thanks Steve!