chicken skin

[flounder boy]

whats up fellas,

looking for some help with chicken skin. love to eat the drunk chicken, however, i have been unable to cook the chicken without the skin getting tough. i keep liquid in the pit to help with moisture but no luck. i know some of you cookers may have some tips or tricks to keep the skin from gettin so dang tough. thank you in advance for sharing info.

greg

[CoastalOutfitters]

mop it w some butter mopping sauce or heat butter in commercial bbq sauce and add some beer to thin it

[Red3Fish]

I like my chicken skin kinda "crunchy"...not soft. If you are cooking it with indirect heat...it will kind of "cure" like leather. Even if I am smoking a chicken, (as opposed to grilling), I will put it directly over the coals for a short short, to get it kind of brownish and crispy, then put it to indirect heat to cook, without any sopping sauce until nearly done.

Come back and tell us what works!

Later
R3F

[El PescadoLoco]

Cook till you get skin color that you want then lay thick sliced peppered bacon over entire thing probably take 6-8 piecies....... Or you can do it oppisite of that bacon 1st then take off halfway threw...

[kempker1409]

What temp are you cooking your chicken? I don't think that chicken needs to be cooked low and slow because you don't have to break down the connective tissue like you do in beef. I usually cook mine pretty fast and have good results with the skin. Still great great smokey flavor too.

Brian

[Roger]

You can do chicken low and slow but you need to monitor the internal temp. of the chicken. The internal temp. needs to be 170 degrees before you take it off. I usually smoke mine between 225-250 till it hits 150 degrees, then raise the temp. up to 325 or so and finish it off to 170. The higher temp will help get rid of that rubbery texture and make the skin more crisper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/Rooster5101/funny%20stuff/36_1_72.gif

[Haute Pursuit]

When the skin gets the color you want, wrap it loosely with foil and it should stay moist.

[TooShallow]

I coat mine with olive oil before smoking and then wrap in foil after skin is right color.

[Team S.A. Blue]

cook mine indirect heat at 300 for bout two hours. comes out great all the time

[Fisher_Of_Men]

Chicken skin is a matter of preference. You can cook it slow, using a "Smoke Temp" of 190 degrees and the skin will be tender. If you like it Crispy, you got to get the temp above 275 degrees. The skin is fatty so you got to make the fat pop. (Sorry, thats the term my Culinary Arts instructor used) but she was correct. Everything in between will turn the skin into leather, most of the time. Its kinda like when you warm a flour tortilla. You can get it warm with a low temp, but you want a temp high enough to activate the fat (Lard) to make it blister (without burning of course):spineyes:

Keep trying and experiment with higher temps and cook times, also, make sure your temp gauge is working correctly. I like to use one of those stand up oven thermometers and place it next to my chickens so I know exactly the temp inches away from my birds...

Oh, and one of the post above suggested wrapping your chicken in bacon. I did this a few times using a smoke temp of 190 degrees and the chicken was awesome, tasted almost like a ham. remember to use a thick sliced bacon.

[The_Texican!]

Our cook-off team (i'm not the chicken guy) does a real good job keeping the skin just right (color wise and flavor wise). We inject (just under the skin) our chickens with homemade concauctions, and rub'em down with a mixture of seasonings before we place the chickens on a half full beer can and throw them on at around 200 to 225 degrees for 4 hours using the indirect heat method. We keep the temp very steady using hickory and constantly watch the fire and the skin color of the chick's while their cooking.

Just sharin an idea.

GoodLuck,

Charlie B.:texasflag

[wil.k]

Sounds good!