Barbecue Chicken - Some Tips and Thoughts

Chicken is GREAT when done right on the grill or in the smoker. It takes a little time and a little effort to do it right, but the results are certainly worth it.

Brian Pearcy, of TheBBQGuy.com, has this to say:

I fired up the Backwoods Party this afternoon and cooked some chicken thighs. The Backwoods was preheated to 300 degrees with some Royal Oak lump charcoal before I put the chicken thighs on. I had high hopes that a higher heat threshold would help the skin crispen up a little more to yield the ever challenging "bite-through" texture that's the talk among many competition cooks lately.

I was able to attain 170 internal meat temperature in 1 hour's time, versus my normal 2 1/2 hours, and the skin was perhaps a little more crispy, but unfortunately it wasn't the "magical" bite-through skin I'd hoped for. Also, the chicken dried out a little more than normal and was not up to par with what I normally cook.

One of the tricky parts of getting chicken right is the doneness. When I went to the Kansas City Barbecue Society's Certified BBQ Judges class, we were shown how perfectly done chicken could still look pink at the bone. A test to be sure it's done is to lightly dab at the pink area with a white napkin. If it comes away pink, the chicken isn't done yet.

I'm going to have to try some thighs on the grill real soon!