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Myron Mixon's Cupcake Technique

J

jonobacon

Guest
Hi Everyone,

I recently attended Myron Mixon's cooking class (which was awesome, I am going to write up a report of the trip soon).

My weakest meat by far is chicken, and this is primarily from lack of experience.

Myron cooks his chicken by placing the thighs skin down in his cupcake mould and putting some broth in a pan. There are small holes in the mould to let the broth in. He then flips the thighs over and cooks them back-side down.

I just wanted to see if anyone had any input on Myron's approach and cooking style for thighs. I enjoyed the results, but the skin was not quite as crispy as I would like - I really want bite through, but also a little crispy (if that is even a thing!).

Thanks, everyone.
 
Perhaps a quick sear over high heat after the rest of the cook? I'm not into the comp BBQ, but seams that a quick sear would accomplish what you are looking for.

KC
 
Getting crispy chicken on the que is a hard thing to do... it ain"t frid chicken ya know. Embrace it for what it is and give it nice mildly smokey flavor w/some good ol' citrusy spices and you'll be golden.
 
Just BS said:
Getting crispy chicken on the que is a hard thing to do... it ain"t frid chicken ya know. Embrace it for what it is and give it nice mildly smokey flavor w/some good ol' citrusy spices and you'll be golden.
Click to expand...
if you are cooking comp, never settle for what it is...keep trying-searching--testing--asking questions and yes failure at times...however never settle for status quo...just saying....
 
I have been experimenting with it for a year or so... I have tried his way and adjusted slightly as necessary.

I put the thighs in skin side down, no broth (juices are plenty), and cook at 275 for 1.5 hr. I remove from muffin pan and finish on hot grill. They're cooked at this point but the grill gets it crispy. I dunk them in a thin sauce towards the end.
 
Skin side down at 325 on the grate will give you bite through skin every time. Flip it the last 15 min glaze & Bobs your uncle.
 
You might want to make a “finishing” rub by mixing your regular rub with some baking powder. When you take the chicken out of the pan sprinkle the fishing rub on when you set the skin on the smoker before you sauce it.
IMHO the idea in comp chicken is to keep the product as moist as possible and that is going to work against you. As stated before – just keep trying different things.
 
Myron's approach and cooking style for thighs
Click to expand...
I respect Myrons approach for cooking on his cooker.
Your cooker WSM may need to be approached differently.
It looks like you are in California. I would do a search for Slap your daddys chicken method. He is cooking the same cooker and same area and has tremendous success.
jon
 
North Is Up said:
JB: What does the baking powder do?
Click to expand...

A few years ago Americas test kitchen did some experiments to get crispy chicken skin.

Crisping Chicken Skin
From Season 10: Chicken Classics, Reinvented

First, the combination of baking powder and table salt will draw moisture from the skin of the chicken, helping the skin to dry out. The drier skin will become crispy faster because the skin cannot go above the boiling point of water (212 degrees) until all the water has evaporated from the surface. The temperature of the skin needs to rise above 300 degrees before it will start to brown and crisp.
Second, the baking powder is composed of an alkali (sodium bicarbonate) and an acid (monocalcium phosphate) in solid form. As the baking powder absorbs the moisture from the skin, the acid and alkali will react. The calcium ions from the acid can be absorbed into the skin and activate enzymes called calpains, which will start to break down the proteins within the skin. The alkaline baking soda and broken-down proteins will undergo browning reactions faster, thus creating a browner, more flavorful skin.
 
Last edited:
The baking powder idea came from a hot wing recipe I have for the grill. The baking powder tends to pull moisture out of the area that it is sitting on letting the skin crisp. When I did it on the hot wings they had a good crisp bite almost like they were fried – I don’t know if it will work on cupcake chicken skin but it seemed worth trying.
 
BigBellyBBQ said:
if you are cooking comp, never settle for what it is...keep trying-searching--testing--asking questions and yes failure at times...however never settle for status quo...just saying....
Click to expand...

Whatever. Usually to get one thing you have to sacrifice something else. If that's your thing, that's cool, it's just not mine. I dont cook anything to impress anybody else, especially judges. I cook things the way I like it....which ironically enough seems to impress lots of folks. If putting baking powder on your chicken works for you, go for it. I certainly would try some if you offered it up. But its not my thing, i like my BBQ simple. Just sayin'....
 
First time I tried Mixon's recipe I screwed up and cooked the chicken skin side up for the whole cook. Turned out great w/ crispy skin.
 
dwfisk said:
Sorry, I'm not a fan of these "turn-in-box" fabrications. Chicken is chicken, not a muffin.
Click to expand...

+1

Maybe this method would work even better if you deep fried the skin after yanking it off the thigh and shaving it with a Bic. Then you could use meat glue to put it back on the thigh in the muffin pan...
 
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