Chicken Target Temperature? Was undercooked ...

Mark_B_Good

Guys, I had my BGE going with 5 racks of ribs on Sunday, and so I used my Napoleon Prestige Pro 665 to cook to flattened chickens. Like on my BGE, I cooked at 375F, and went to 130F on the breast indirect, then went direct to flame grill the skin. Probe was deep in the breast.

We found the breast was still a bit raw against the bone ... and I had to put all that chicken back on the BBQ. 

Should I be measure temperature differently, or aiming for a different cook temperature?

buzd504

Mark_B_Good said:

StillH2OEgger said:

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Maybe to carry on what Matt is saying, if I leave the probe in (wire probe) during the sear, what should the finish temperature be on the breast?

It's safe at 140 but you need 150 for the right texture.  Some will go to 160 in the breast, and dark meat can go to 180.

fishlessman

with a finish sear like that i would say upper 150's with a good 5 minute rest uncovered

StillH2OEgger

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Mattman3969

What was the final temp after you seared? Was the probe you mentioned a remote therm or a quick read?  

Temp is temp no matter what vessel you cook on. 

fishlessman

what was the finish temp near the bone.  chickens sometimes stay red/pink near the bone even when fully cooked

Mark_B_Good

Mattman3969 said:

What was the final temp after you seared? Was the probe you mentioned a remote therm or a quick read?  

Temp is temp no matter what vessel you cook on. 

Hey Mattman.  I didn't take a reading during or after the sear ... I eyeballed it. They spent probably 5 minutes on higher heat, around 450F.  

Fishlessman, to answer here as well, it was definitely bloody/raw ... maybe only 1/8" thick, against the bone.  I know that pinkish color you are talking about, this was definitely not it ... 

Mark_B_Good

StillH2OEgger said:

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Maybe to carry on what Matt is saying, if I leave the probe in (wire probe) during the sear, what should the finish temperature be on the breast?

fishlessman

these question answer posts never seem to work on this forum, the posts just got all reshuffled on this post, the times are now out of order

Lit

Mark_B_Good said:

StillH2OEgger said:

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Maybe to carry on what Matt is saying, if I leave the probe in (wire probe) during the sear, what should the finish temperature be on the breast?

Most probes will not handle sear heat it will ruin it. As far as chicken goes i always take the breast to the high 150s with an instant read.

fishlessman

i see how that works now, accepted answers get bumped to the top. never seen that before

jtcBoynton

Mark_B_Good said:

...We found the breast was still a bit raw against the bone ... and I had to put all that chicken back on the BBQ. 

Should I be measure temperature differently...

Yes.  Probe temps while cooking indirect were fine.  You need to use an instant read thermometer to check the temps after the direct high temps portion of the cook.  A quick probe would have saved you the trouble of having to take the pieces back out to the grill after cutting into them.  A good instant read thermometer is essential equipment for any modern cook.

Mark_B_Good

fishlessman said:

these question answer posts never seem to work on this forum, the posts just got all reshuffled on this post, the times are now out of order

Yeah, the minute I give credit and say question was answered, it shuffles the answers to the top. It should do that, it just causes confusion.

Mark_B_Good

Lit said:

Mark_B_Good said:

StillH2OEgger said:

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Maybe to carry on what Matt is saying, if I leave the probe in (wire probe) during the sear, what should the finish temperature be on the breast?

Most probes will not handle sear heat it will ruin it. As far as chicken goes i always take the breast to the high 150s with an instant read.

Do you probe with an instant read? Couldn't I just take my wired probe and stick er in?

Mattman3969

I use a thermapen/pop to check final temp.  They read quick so you can check multiple spots to make sure your up to temp.  I personally don’t use probes much anymore but to each their own.  

Mark_B_Good

Help me guys with this. An insta read is just a pen like thermometer that you stick into the meat, or is it contactless and measures based on infra red (and if so how does it get the internal temperature)?

jtcBoynton

It is a pen like thermometer that you stick into the meat.  The distinguishing feature is the time to get an accurate temp needs to be short. One or two seconds.  A probe that takes 15-20 seconds will not allow you to check multiple pieces in a reasonable time.

fishlessman

thin and fast for using over high heats

https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/thermopop-equipment-review-thermapen.html

Lit

Mark_B_Good said:

Lit said:

Mark_B_Good said:

StillH2OEgger said:

I don't think I've ever seen 130 degrees as a target temp for chicken. Edit: Just re-read this to see 130 wasn't your finish temp, but just the temp you switched up to direct heat for the finish.

Maybe to carry on what Matt is saying, if I leave the probe in (wire probe) during the sear, what should the finish temperature be on the breast?

Most probes will not handle sear heat it will ruin it. As far as chicken goes i always take the breast to the high 150s with an instant read.

Do you probe with an instant read? Couldn't I just take my wired probe and stick er in?

I only use a leave in thermometer to gauge about when i need to start using my instant read and thats only if im not really paying attention to the cook. The probes on most leave in thermometers are only rated to like 400 degree range and if you leave it in when crisping the skin it will kill the probe. There are alot of good options for instant read like the thermapen or thermapop or javelin makes a couple depending on how mich you want to spend. Anything with a 5 second or less read time should work.

pgprescott

eyeball method is real bad practice with poultry. Temperature is like math, it is precise and it never lies. 

EagleIII

Lots of good input and answers here.  I will say, I use boneless breasts a lot, as they cook quicker, but you do have to watch out that you don't dry them out....so as been mentioned above, get an instant read thermometer of some sort and start using that. As for target temp, the old rule of thumb was 165 for chicken.  On a Boneless breast, I pull at 155 or 157 so as not to dry them out, and on a bone in, I try to hit 157 - 160, as you found out, near the bone you can still get a bit of rawness...best of luck to you.

gerhardk

When I do spatchcock chicken I rarely use a thermometer, I aim for temp of about 350°F and cook direct for an hour. When I can grab one of the drum sticks and it easily separates from the body I call it done.

Mark_B_Good

gerhardk said:

When I do spatchcock chicken I rarely use a thermometer, I aim for temp of about 350°F and cook direct for an hour. When I can grab one of the drum sticks and it easily separates from the body I call it done.

I have to say, the legs did come off easy, it was just this one thin area on the bone of the breast, was clearly raw.

Anyhow, I got myself an insta-probe (okay maybe it's a 3 sec probe, but close enough) ... will be using that next time to check the breast while on direct fire.

Mark_B_Good

Ok, so I did two spatchcock chickens yesterday at 375F indirect. They were big boys, thick breasts, my guess about 4 to 5 lbs each. Smoked them with Applewood pellets for first 1.5h. Overall took just under 3 hours to reach an internal breast temperature of 150 - 152F.  Took them off, let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes while grill heated up to 500F to 600F. I then seared for literally 1 minute a side, flames coming up. Crunched up the skin nicely.

Cook was spot on. Thighs were perfect, breast still juicy, wouldn't want it any dryer. Thanks for suggesting the higher temperatures and letting it rest a bit before the sear. Made a world of a difference. 

Mark_B_Good

Just did another spatchcock chicken. 5 lb bird premarinated in bbq seasoning.

I cooked indirect at 375F ambient, and took the breast to an internal temp of 155F then seared at 450F to 500F direct for a few minutes.  Took 3 hours to cook.

It was amazing, both breast and thigh were very juicy and cooked thoroughly. When I opened it up, I found some "redish" parts, but it seems that was more smoke ring than anything else. It was not jelly like that you'd expect if it was undercooked.

I know this isn't the best presentation,  I only thought about taking the photo after we got through supper. I apologize. But you can probably see the breast was real juicy.

stv8r

I will go 150ish on white meat but vastly prefer jacking my dark meat up to 195 or so.  Dark meat doesn't dry out at that temp and isn't too chewy like it can be at lower temps. 

Mark_B_Good

stv8r said:

I will go 150ish on white meat but vastly prefer jacking my dark meat up to 195 or so.  Dark meat doesn't dry out at that temp and isn't too chewy like it can be at lower temps. 

How do you do that without overcooking the breast?  Do you cut up the chicken and leave the dark meat on the grill?

What I found is that I took the breast off at 155F ... and it was PERFECT. Really, couldn't ask for anything better. The dark meat was a little pink only in certain VERY SMALL sections towards the bone when I first cut it up ... but as it sat to cool ... those pink areas seemed to disappear ... I guess it kept cooking on the cool down.  Anyhow, it was pretty spot on.

It's hard to get it perfect when you have a big bird (this one was 5 lbs) ... and not dry out the breast ... there's a fine line.  Maybe I need to cool the breast with ice like the Mad Max Turkey method ...??

PigBeanUs

Aside from the majority of people using the pop-up timer, the common advice to truss the turkey is (saying it here for the record, before it becomes popular opinion) perhaps THE chief reason for overcooked breast. 

The legs and wings are commonly enjoyed done to higher temperatures, with the breast meat lower. Hence the ice packs, or removing the breast sooner. 

Trussing the bird affects the breast not at all, it cooks pretty much the same whether trussed or not. 

But it brings the wings and legs/thighs tight against the carcass, so that the heat only reaches them from the outside. 

The thinking was always to make it cook more “evenly”. And yet it never does. The breast is always done sooner, right?

Just once, try letting the legs and wings splay open. They will cook from all sides and reach a higher temperature than the breast. 

If you stuff the bird (with bread stuffing, etc.) the breast will cook only from the outside, which slows it down. 

If you don’t put stuffing in the bird, instead put halved onions, a lemon, celery ends, herbs, etc into the cavity. This will also slow down the breast meat (because an empty cavity would allow heat in the bird, the breast cooking from both sides).

We haven’t trussed a bird in years. Chicken either. 

And I have stopped temping the breast. We pull the bird off when the joints are loose. Very loose. My wife prefers the dark meat cooked quite well. Better mouth feel. Crispier skin etc 

The breast might actually hit 160-165, but it is always moist. 

The pop-up timer is designed to pop at 185°. I pull that thing out before it even goes in to roast.