Spatchcocked Chicken With A Skin Transplant ;-)

[day_trippr]

In deference to my wife, who's been watching her calories closer than normal - what with beach season here and all - I wanted to smoke up something she could eat without feeling guilty. As we'd just had grilled salmon the night before, the best candidate was a chicken, but even there, she's been discarding chicken skin of late, so I decided to smoke up a chicken sans its skin.

In a conventional oven, I'd start a 5 pound chicken off at 450°F and immediately drop the temperature to 350°F, and it'd be done in about two and half hours. On the smoker, I decided to start the birdy off at 225°F, ramp up to 300°F in the first hour, then to 350°F over the second hour, then pull based on a remote thermometer reading. And to easily hit those temperatures in my ECB I'd smoke without water, foiling the water pan instead.

I was concerned that the totally skinless birdy would dry out without some care, but I didn't want to be basting every 15 minutes, either. I decided I'd smoke the bird for an hour to get a healthy dose of smoke flavor, then drape a few layers of cheesecloth over the bird, and load that up with a mix of butter and olive oil, and hopefully only have to baste it once or twice over the duration.


So, with a plan in place, I whipped up a brine/marinade in the morning and stuck it in the fridge to chill down. Then I stripped all of the skin from a 5 pound chicken, and spatchcocked it.


Plopped the whole bird in a stainless steel bowl and poured the brine over it, and stuck it back in the fridge for 4 hours.


Time to cook! Got the smoker up to initial temperature and laid on the chicken.


30 minutes into the first temperature ramp, with a plume of applewood.


Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I melted some butter with some EVOO, and cut out one spatchcock chicken suit out of some folds of cheesecloth


Back at the grill at the end of the first hour, I dressed the chicken in its new suit - and then drenched it with the butter/EVOO. I bumped up the intakes to ramp up to 350°F, then I headed back to the kitchen to mix up some finishing sauce.


An hour and a couple of bastes later, the chicken was looking good in its new skin, with the cooker now reaching 350°.


After almost 2:30 of smoking, with the breast meat reading 165°F it was time to undress the chicken.


With a thin coat of sauce and a few minutes on the hot grill...


...the chicken was ready for its destiny!


And it turned out wonderfully! The meat was still moist and tender, and definitely benefited from the brine/marinade treatment, as well as the "skin transplant" The smoke flavor was outstanding and combined well with the marinade flavors. And going skinless certainly rendered moot any issues that can crop up with smoked chicken skin.

And the spousal unit was quite pleased indeed - a nearly guilt-free BBQ treat for her! (By contrast, she loves/hates my SLCs - she says I'm teasing her when I smoke 'em up )

So, in spite of my trepidation about smoking a nekked chicken, it turned out great - I'll definitely do it again!

Cheers
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[roxy]

Dude.. I got to wonder why "you" would feel any form of guilt about "your wife" eating chicken skin.. Thats interest paid on a debt you dount owe... Personally, if my better half dont want to eat no skin it is up to her to pull it off after its cooked... After all..!! She did not cook it and is doubly blessed to have a meal prepared the meal for her.

Dont take me wrong my friend, .. but.. do you hear the sound in the back ground.. that of that whip.. Ya know.. the pussy whip.. Dude, you, by your submission here with that chicken and the process you went through you know your way around a smoker.. Your dear wife should be lucky to be able to eat your offerings IMHO..

In my house, if I cook, and ya dont want to eat it.. Mcshizzles is down the road a ways...

Just my 2 cents worth
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[Rojellio Es Caliente]

There are three things I know of that cheesecloth is good for.

1. Making "Clootie Dumpling" {the cloth or clootie part}
1b. Making "Spotted Dick" which is practicly the same thing.

2. Boiling Haggis in, yet another sheep part butchers wont let you have is the Stomach. A large sausage casing makes a nicer looking presentation haggis than cloth.

3. Making Cheese. OF course I am only guessing here, I really dont know for sure.

There is no guilt involved, as the skin usually crisps up, and the excess fat drains away free and clear before this happens. ALSO it keeps the chicken moist in its own oil while its cooking. Even with the skin, you are better off fat & grease wise than with fried chicken.

You could emove the skin before eating. OR remove the skin during the last 30 min - 1 hr, letting it air out, drain off and collect some smoke.
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[allsmokenofire]

WOW....ease up on the "whiskey posts" there guys.

If you'll re-read the post, you'll see he's trying a different method so that SHE won't feel guilty about eating it, not so HE won't feel guilty about her eating it.

I say if he wants to try a different approach to make something that will be more apealling to the better half, well then more power to him. I do the same thing around my house. If that means I'm PW'd according to you...great, to me it means I'm happily married.
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Team Enoserv

[kingofcool]

Who would've thought this would've been so contreversial?

Did you tell her you washed it with butter and EVOO?

[day_trippr]

[whitey]

Nice job Day_tripper,The bird looked great.

And Congrats to 34 years of bliss,I cant say I will make it that long Just keep telling Myself one day at a time.

The bird looked great
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[Smokinfunk]

Just to inject a little extra perspective - I wouldn't take Roxy's comments the wrong way. (Correct me if I'm wrong on this, Roxy..) Here's where I'm guessing those comments are coming from: it definitely took me a few years of sweat, cursing, throwing away results of 'q that turned out crappy, etc., until I began to "see the light" (no doubt a lot of that vision of the light is due to so much that I've learned here).

At any rate - after all the frustration, toils and tribulations before I finally started turning out consistently decent 'q, I've acquired some pride in what I'm doing. And after all that, the idea of having to deviate from my own tried/true methods to satisfy somebody else's (possibly ill-thought) request tends to make me bristle. As in "Don't eat it if it ain't good enough for ya - it's damn sure good enough for me!".

<assuming devil's advocate role> Not that there's anything at all wrong with catering to your better half. I think the keys to a happy marriage consist of being friends, not just lovers, and the fact that friends know how to discuss things and meet-in-the-middle (compromise) without constantly being at loggerheads.

So - my first reaction at the suggestion from someone who knows nothing about 'q that I change something, is to get my hackles up. But before I vent what my raised hackles are making me want to say, if I think about it for a second, not every suggestion is an attempt to intrude upon my turf. And the greater good? What's wrong with having her look a little more sporty in that bikini if the solution is just sacrificing some chicken skin?

So I wouldn't call day_trippr "whipped" - I think he just has a very good awareness of what side his bread's (or her buns?) buttered on.
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If God hadn't meant for us to eat animals, He would not have made them out of meat!

[Pigslips]

[ShahBQ]

Great job day_trippr! Hats off to you for compromising and being creative and supportive to your wife. I find absolutely nothing wrong with that...marriage is about compromise, not being a jerk and saying to your loved one who is trying to be healthy "if you don't like it don't eat it"!
Not to mention the bird looks delicious, so it is hardly a compromise if it turned out well!
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[wooph]

Looks like a great idea to me! I may try that next time I smoke a bird. I'm not very partial to the skin after smoking - pretty chewy, really.
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mmmmmm....beer

[ramtuf6]

Forget everything else. Look at the rack on that bird!! C-cups at a minimum.
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[fs3putt]

I don't see the point behind removing the skin. After you did it, you reapplied fat soaked cheesecloth. In my opinion, any caloric or saturated fat benefit gained by removing the skin was lost by adding the butter blanket.

Wouldn't removing the shin after the chicken was cooked have done the same thing (with the benefit of adding some flavor to the meat)?
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Weber Performer, 18.5 WSM

[Pigslips]

[day_trippr]

[k.a.m.]

day_trippr, the bird looks mighty tasty Next time you might try raising the skin and splitting the bird in half Then over cut the skin on the Mrs. side to lay down on your half and skin hers the rest of the way out. If you like the skin it would be a good way to compromise.
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Hybrid Cooker

[ah]

You sir have boldly went where no Ring member has went before. I did spend quite some time looking for something similar to what you did to no avail. End result a few sideways comments (no Pain). If anything its a tutorial on how to happily co-exist for 34 years The effort put into the Cheesecloth suit was enough to probably get you back into the positive on the points tally All in all that was a good looking bird. If the Boss liked it then of course we know you loved it. Good job man
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[NCBBQFAN]

Give the guy a break fellows.
The bird looks good, and I’m not sure how much less fattening the butter and cheesecloth vs the skin. But this is the real deal “If the wife ain’t happy nobody’s happy” so do what you need to do, even if it’s a little different.

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

The Bird does look good.

In retrospect... back in November I posed the question of whether I could/ should/ or might do the same thing to a Turkey.

I might wonder, given that your Wife is concerned about lean'ness and fat... I could guess that dark meat.. thighs, legs and wings are not her first choice. One could guess that the breast is the primary, perhaps only cut she is after. If that is the case, there is a lot less skin to remove and re-dress. OR de-skin about the last hour of the cook.
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