Our oldest and our SIL came home for the weekend festivities and wanted PBC chicken. Our SIL loves ribs, so we had ribs too. Now we all enjoy PBC chicken but I experimented trying to get a crispy-skinned chicken. First up was splitting the two hens in half, and cutting off the backbones. These were a treat for Bella. She is on a raw meat diet and chicken backs are about 50 - 60% of her meals. I must have cut a bit too much off one of the halves as it was kind of "wobbily" and fearing it would fall into the coal basket as it cooked, I just cut it into 2 qtrs. Next I trimmed extra skin and fat. I decided on a brine which I seldom do in using the PBC. This was a gallon of water, 3/4 C kosher salt, 1/2C sugar, and 1/2C local honey. Brought to a boil and when cooled added the 3 chicken halves and 2 qtrs. Put a plate on top to cover inbrine and into fridge for 18 hours. At the end of the swim, chicken was rinsed and dried, placed on a rack over a half sheet and dusted with baking powder, and put back in fridge. About 8 hours later I seasoned thechix with S&P and a rub.
This was refrigerated for about 6 more hours, until being brought to room temp before being hung with the 2 half racks of ribs. 2 hours later everything was done! The ribs were very good, the halved chicken was great as always, but so much more juicy and tender, but the two qtrs actually had very crispy skin, crunchy! It was just as juicy and tender but the skin was like night and day compared to the halved chix. I'm thinking much of the difference was quartering it allowed more grease/fat from the skin to release. I do believe this is how I will be prepping all chicken on the PBC!
Besides chicken and ribs the sides were scalloped corn and Roseanne Cash's potato salad. It was a very nice family meal!
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