Tough Skin

waynewalker52

I've been buying "roasters" chicken, heating my fire to around 275 to 300, including soaked hickory chips and cooking my chicken - The skin is always tough.  I use the place setter to get the chicken off of the direct heat.  What am i doing wrong?

troutgeek

Well, I cook at 350, raised grid, direct. I remove the backbone (spatchcock) and flatten the bird. Cover with EVOO and dizzy dust. Cook cavity down for about an hour (165 in thigh). At the very end, I flip the bird for about 5 or 10 minutes. It turns out pretty darn good and juicy.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

No need to soak the chips. I know that was not your biggest concern here but no need to soak when egging.

I'm not a huge yard bird guy so I'll let the chicken pros weigh in on the skin.

FxLynch

Rumor has it that leaving the chicken uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours before the cook will make for much crispier skin.

FxLynch

Also a lot of folks here do the chicken spatchcocked raised,direct. If you haven't spatchcocked a chicken, you should google that and give it a try.  So you would probably get crispier skin from doing it direct, even without letting it set in the fridge for a day.  Both together and you might be closer to what you are looking for.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/spatch.htm