Chicken Skin Experiment with Heavy Pron

revkab said:
Gosh, what great research! But I wonder...

I really enjoy doing my chicken HnF. Mostly I just set the old Weber up in the usual way - coals on one side, empty on the other. After whatever rub I am in the mood for, I direct grill the chicken over the coals, flipping often enough not to burn, but giving enough time to get the skin nice and crispy. Then I move the chicken over to indirect, add some wood lumps, and finish cooking until done. Lately I have been using a KC style BBQ sauce (Zarda's) cut with a bit of bourbon, and a bit of added honey, basting during the last 15 minutes or so, and basting once again right after I take the chicken off the grill.

This may not be slo-smoked, but the skin is fantastic, the chicken has that great smoky taste, and it is so simple. I just finished a whole chicken I simply split into halves and grilled, and earlier this week I grilled some thighs the same way. Not sure if it would qualify in the competition circles, but who cares? It was some of the best tasting BBQ chicken I've ever done.

(P.S., I'd send some pron, but who gets off on a pic of clean picked chicken bones?
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Yep, H&F does produce good skin bite and texture. The fat renders nicely for sure. This was done to help those who don't cook that way or want to try it differently. For instance, where you say often flipping so it doesn't burn, would drive me crazy some days. Not against H&F at all, just like to put it on and let it do it's thing while I do mine.
 
Kimo1 said:
Yep, H&F does produce good skin bite and texture. The fat renders nicely for sure. This was done to help those who don't cook that way or want to try it differently. For instance, where you say often flipping so it doesn't burn, would drive me crazy some days.To be fair there is no flipping needed with spatchcock, hanging or rotiserie ...It can cook 400-500 no problem and turn out an outstanding product in a extremely short time. Not against H&F at all, just like to put it on and let it do it's thing while I do mine.
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Many cookers today just aren't designed to do chicken well because imo a direct heat is needed to do it well, just not high indirect heat. People need ways to get good bite through skin so I think your tests are great. Bludawg has talked about using mayonnaise and i know just olive oil has worked for me when in the past when i didn't do H&F.
 
Funky D said:
Huge thanks OP! Not only detailed explanations, and LOTS of different methods, but great pictures too.

This is exactly what we do when cooking for ourselves in the off-season of competition. (this type of experimentation gets expensive when attempting to do it with briskets!)

From what it sounds like, mayo, no-scraping seems like the winner of flavor/ease.

One thing you didn't mention, that always concerns me with chicken, is the smoke flavor. Too many barriers (skin, mayo, rub) sometimes can prevent enough smoke from getting in, while lower cook temperatures can easily allow too much, giving you that wood-flavored piece of chicken. How would you say these came out on that front?
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Ah ha! I did forget to mention smoke flavor so thanks for bringing it up. Mayo & baconnaise definitely had a good smoke flavor. My guess is that it had more moisture and surface area to adhere to. The oils were second, which again, I attribute to having the moisture content. Butter was third, although it had a touch of smoke, it was less than the first two. I can only guess that the cream/milk product in butter caused it not to absorb as much. Clarified butter may change that (another one to test). Finally, baking powder. The truth is I don't remember haha I spit those gross farking bites out too fast to taste smoke. Oh, hickory was wood used for this.
 
Fwismoker said:
Many cookers today just aren't designed to do chicken well because imo a direct heat is needed to do it well, just not high indirect heat. People need ways to get good bite through skin so I think your tests are great. Bludawg has talked about using mayonnaise and i know just olive oil has worked for me when in the past when i didn't do H&F.
Click to expand...

I do love me some crispy skin tho!!
 
To me, I want crispy skin, but I can deal with it not being crispy as long as it isn't black rubber too. We eat as much with our eyes...

Still learning smoked chicken.
 
Great Post!!! I've had good results with the combination of brining and using olive oil but mayo is definitely the best! :grin:
 
Another brethren had a chicken post so just a bump in case this helps anyone.
 
Since you bumped it...

How long did you let the mayo sit on the skin before cooking?
 
Great job and thanks for putting in the time and effort. I was wondering about the results with Miracle Whip/
 
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