Competition Chicken Thighs

hey welcome back to how to barbecue right I'm Malcolm Reed today I've got my buddy Eric Lee from fire dancer BBQ with me Eric we're gonna do some competition chicken you're gonna show me how you do it right just about all of it we're gonna do it we're gonna get some good eating a little later on all right I can't wait to try it we're gonna do the competition KCBS brother you've been killing it with this recipe you've got your own chicken season I know you brought some here we're gonna use that today and then we're gonna fire up the Jambo right because that's what you cook on I'm a minimalist I cook on one cooker and we're gonna put it on the Jambo we're gonna go beginning to end we're gonna we're gonna see you know how you can cook chicken on a Jambo hey I'm ready you ready let's do it let's get to cooking all right Eric so the first steps got to be the prep man what are we doing to this chicken first competition we got to turn it up make it look good I think we way overthink chicken I'm gonna show I'm gonna show you how I do mine I can trim 16 chicken thighs in probably 16 18 20 minutes we're gonna start with a good fresh chicken thigh I like one that hasn't been frozen first thing I do is just scale back here and find a tendon what's on the back it's it's usually always there the good part with having those fresh chickens is you can tell how clean they are I'll leave it as it is I'm not gonna take these knuckles off I want the chicken to look like chicken I'm gonna square up one side there's always a little overhang from the fat there on the skin and then I'll take off this top nugget right here and we'll come over and make sure I've got enough skin to cover everything KCBS but one of the new rules now is you don't have to turn in skin but if you turn in skin they have to try it there's always this one little fat flap over on the end of the thighs I don't want to give that to a judge first bite they have that that won't be a good one so I take that one off now anything that's left is gonna render rocket cook it hot then I hit this little this little pocket of cartilage down here in the bottom I don't want that in there so I'm gonna try to take off as much of it as I can there we go and just square it up I'm not too worried about if the skin didn't overall the sides the way it sets in the box that's kind of gonna be hidden we got to got it squared up ready to go all right Eric so you've trimmed all the chicken we're showing up to a contest with 16 thighs they're all about the same size and you're putting now you put them in the aluminum happened what's the seasoning process I like to come trimmed everything ready to go seasonings pretty simple I I came up with this rub after I'd cooked on the competition trail for probably seven six seven years so I'm just gonna come over and give give a good little medium coat on the back I like to put this on a little earlier in the morning so that could sit for a little while I kind of do like a dry braise on the back of it there's a lot of salt in here it's gonna pull out some of that moisture I'm gonna sweat loosen it up a little bit work into the meat as it's pulling it out it does it does and then I put this back in the cooler to keep it cool we're gonna inject them now these have been sitting for about three hours getting a good little sweat on them and and I like to use a butcher's original bird booster I just come in and the judges are gonna bite typically on each side there so I want to give them now gonna give them one little one little pop when they get in there some of its gonna come out that's all right well we cook it and we come in there and then sometimes in this little this little nugget right there I give them give them a little hit I'll just square it up I want to put it in the pan right the way it's going to look when it comes out because it's gonna cook the way it sits in the pan we'll come over we'll do the other one we'll just go down the line and hit them all just to give them you know an extra an extra bump of flavor when they bite in there since they're judging you on that one bite typically then that bird Buster it's kind of like chicken flavored tastes like really rich chicken broth today I think it goes with it it's not putting anything foreign in it you're just kind of fortifying that dye flavor and I like to finish off by just grabbing some more of this injection when I put the rub in there I don't want it on the side in that I'm rinsing the side off but it's it's it's actually helping with the cooking process because it's adding some more of the phosphates and stuff oh brother inject there we go now we're gonna come over come over on the top and I'm just gonna hit it hit it with another medium medium co2 rub you don't move them any more at this point they stay where they're at that's where they're at that's the way they're gonna cook I like them and I'm not worried about getting the rub on the sides the the sauce that's gonna you want to cover that when I set it on if I get a little heavy on some that's fine it's gonna get washed off when when I add a little butter or margarine to the end there and I just I just give it a good little even coat we're gonna let these sweat for about a hour you let them sit out on the counter you put them back in I'll back on ice now I leave them out I'll cover them up I'll leave them out you wanted to walk come up the room to come to room temp and then you know that helps again with that cooking process - for this chicken recipe I know you cook on Jambo all the time when you're doing these KCBS comps I rode miss Jolene out of the garage today I've got it ready to go you can show me how you gonna fire up we're gonna fire it up and I'm a little unconditional by the way the way I run mine my very first contest I was out that I had a baby J which cooks just like the regular J's threes and J fives my coals went out on me that point in time I said and never again so I burn a lot of truck oh and use wood for more flavor I start with a base of always have used royal oak lavro oak base of the briquettes and then I come over the top with lump to get the fire started and going it's gonna run up to about 325 350 which I'm fine with that and and then I just use wood for flavor as we go through the process so here we got the offset running about 300 just to the hair over chicken in the pan now we're gonna put it on the pit we are we're gonna get it in there and let it get about 30 minutes of smoke out I like to use peach I don't think they make peach in Mississippi so we're gonna run a little pecan or Hickory today I got you a nice nice hickory split here now to work that's what we're gonna get some flavor on and you can really use whatever kind of wood you want I guess you can I'm partial to pecan and peach just because I've done that from the beginning but with my process burning so many coals I don't go through a lot of wood so it's just I'm just using the wood for basically another ingredient layer on there where we putting the chicken on the pit I go up here at the front I put it up to the wall so we're gonna go 30 minutes we're gonna get some wood on those coals and that's what's gonna drive some of that smoke flavor in those thighs that's it you got it alright alright Eric so we've been on thirty minutes into smoke what's our next step we're running right where we want to be we want to be a couple of ticks above 300 on the Jambo that's that's the sweet spot for them we're gonna add some more flavor some more butter in there I like to use a margarine product the heavier cream based butters I've noticed have left the spot you can see they picked up some of that smoke tightened up with that rub on there a little bit it's got pretty color so we're just going one pad of butter on top of each I'm putting one on top of each and that's all the butter you've put in there first it was just straight thighs in the pan now we're adding the butter and you're going to cover the pan I'm gonna cover it with top I use these little I use these little things from sounds that you know any any pole do it so we're gonna set that timer and we'll come back to check on them in our 1/2 you don't want to mess with it at this point don't want to mess with it it's been an hour and a half we hadn't touched it except for putting the sauce in to warm it up so you can tell us what's in the sauce is a secret it's sweet with a little vinegar in there and just insert the brand name and killer hog he's got a good one there's a bunch of cross-line okay yes sweet sweet was that little vinegar trying you cut it 50 55 50 50 is good that's a good ratio sauce is bubbling getting hot over there but you can see these are screaming hot yeah they're there they're in there they're there looking right sauce is nice and warm we've got it down here on the hot end of the pit if you're doing this on another pit man as long as you're holding that temperature right over 300 you're good you are good we're gonna get them in there and get a little get a little sauce on them I like the little preheated rag too I just stumbled on that again keep from opening the door I want that constant heat for an hour while we're in there and it's not shocking the bottom of the chicken but putting it on like a you know room temperature rack or cool right that's a good tip messin up here pretty clean pit that's okay you got to get some miles on it man get some that season we're gonna close her up for about another 10 15 minutes and it's gonna be time to eat so Eric at this point we're off the pit walk me through what you would do at a contest I'm looking for her uniform anything that might need to be touched up right off the bat I can tell that this guy right here and this guy right here it's not pretty enough for me to go in the box so then I come back and then I want to line them up the way the way I'm gonna set them in the box and I try to get them all facing the same direction and this is where OCD kicks in if we're doing this competition barbecue I think we all are a little messed up in the mind to begin with but you're looking for everything being perfect these are the six that I'm gonna put in a box I'll get this guy out of the way they're gonna sit that way these are our six we're ready we're ready to get them on there and see how they score so would you do any final seasoning or this is it this is it one in the box this is it it's easy placing man like you have them lined up carefully transfer them me and I'm exactly exactly cuz you know we've only got the eight and a half inch box you want to get them in there sometimes you can layer them you can so drum one way or you can go across the other way or do a rant it's it's creative for you I usually go this way which one you want doesn't matter to go you're close all right I'll grab that first one isn't gonna burn me up you think we've just come on I think it'll be just right it'll bite through me that's it mmm perfect bite you can see the teeth imprints skin went right through its juicy and that's that's delicious chicken man that's what we want right there so the judges would take that one bite but you know I'm not a judge I'm an eater so I'm gonna get it I'm gonna come add other side don't be scared nah see you might need to go to the dentist teeth aren't sharp enough on that one I'm putting that on the heat a little hot off in there it's fine chicken man you got done yourself Eric this is first class competition chicken man I see why you get all those perfect scores I get the savoriness you get the richness from being in the butter the seasoning works great on it but it's got the sweet it's got the tangy all those elements in with the hickory smoke I mean I imagine it's really good with the peach too but the hickory smoke I like that I'm gonna be from Mississippi I like Hickory yeah and so you get that on it man that's perfect chicken dude first I got first place today I appreciate that I appreciate that at least you're not there to give me a run so I appreciate you I finished second to you sometimes all right but hey thanks for checking us out here at how to barbecue right today if you like what we're doing subscribe to our channel you can find us on Facebook Twitter Instagram we do the podcast at the end of the week Eric's gonna be on there this week Eric where can they find you man check out your season that's Facebook and Instagram fire dancer BB q calm I've got the website just hit us up we'll take care of you y'all keep an eye out for them this week at the Royal man good luck out I appreciate it for sure she's coming out thanks thanks for having me we'll see y'all next time you

Channel: HowToBBQRight

Views: 1,046,174

Keywords: Malcom Reed, HowToBBQRight, How To BBQ Right, competition chicken, competition chicken thighs, competition chicken recipe, competition smoked chicken thighs, competition bbq chicken, competition bbq chicken thighs, competition chicken rub, kcbs chicken thighs, competition chicken injection, kcbs competition chicken, comp chicken

Id: Vg1B90EWwE0

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019