My youngest daughter is a science geek, and proud of it. For the past two years she has participated in the local Science Olympiad (SCIOLY) program at the middle school she attends. Last year her team went to the State Competition; this year she was in a first-year program at the new middle school in the district and their team missed qualifying for State by one place in the Regional competition, placing higher than several teams that have competed for years. These were outstanding results given it was the first year for the team and they had a lot fewer kids involved in the program. Tonight was their awards dinner at the local regional park, and in keeping with tradition, I was on tap to cook all the meat.
There were about 50 people of all ages in attendance. Much like Memorial Day, I trotted out a couple of the Platinum Smokey Joes, and since I was in charge of reserving the park and had to hang out most of the day to insure we had the shelter we reserved, drug along the newly-modified 18.5″ WSM.
On the menu was the obligatory hamburgers and hot dogs, and for a special treat I smoked up a huge batch of pulled chicken on the WSM. To make a long story short, the meal was a huge success, the kids ran roughshod all over the park, the presentation of awards went well, and all in all everyone seemed to have a good time.
As for me, I got to take a day off, sit in the park, read, BBQ, listen to some Zydeco music, and generally unplug from the world. It was an outstanding day.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You read my mind! I am helping my martial arts instructor and bbq apprentice cook for a BBQ event for the school next weekend. We are trying to keep cost down and I suggested using pulled chicken instead of serving quartered smoked chicken. I am guessing that pulled chicken will stretch further since not everyone eats a whole quarter chicken. Now, thanks to you, I actually know how to make it:)
I was going to try using whole birds cooked to 180 in the thighs and then pull, but I see you just used thighs. Have you ever used whole birds for this?
I’ve always used parts for this. I’ve done it both with and without skin; I like the results without skin better. The thigh meat seems to work best for this because it doesn’t dry out as much; you may want to add some wet sauce to the final result. Also, if you are going to do whole chickens the pulling/shredding process is going to take longer.
Another thing I noticed yesterday is that even though I had the WSM packed to the gills with thighs, they were done a LOT sooner than I expected. I could have pulled them at the 2-hour mark, but instead kept lowering the temp, moving them around, and generally delaying the cooking process. I finally pulled them off the smoker at the 3-hour mark, ripped them to shreds, and then put the pan back on the smoker with all the the top vent closed completely, and the top vent open just a crack. The end result was slightly drier than what I would have preferred, but a splash of Sweet Baby Rays took care of that problem, and no one complained. There wasn’t much in the way of leftovers and I got a lot of compliments, so apparently I am the only one who wasn’t completely satisfied…