[USA] How To Make "Cold" Picnic Chicken

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Chuckwagon
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[USA] How To Make "Cold" Picnic Chicken

Post by Chuckwagon » Thu Mar 03, 2011 03:03

[USA] Chuckwagon`s "Hobble Creek Cold `Picnic` Chicken"
(Cold "Picnic" Chicken Without The Greasy Fat)

Cold chicken just doesn`t make any sense. :lol: Its difficult to eat using a fork and messy eaten with the fingers, especially if it has been smothered with gooey barbecue sauce. Cooked and chilled, the skin often has a texture much like hard-boiled halibut and the meat may be dry. Worse, the first bite is often an unpleasant and unappetizing surprise of cold, rendered greasy fat. It just doesn`t make sense, yet the stuff remains an American classic. Why? It is convenient.

Is there a way to prepare moist cold chicken with crispy skin, without the fat? :?: Absolutely. For this recipe, let`s use the dry, convected, indirect heat of a roasting oven rather than submerging the bird in hot oil. Here are a few ol` sourdoughs` tricks. :arrow:

First, lots of folks still enjoy eating the skin no matter what their doctors tell them about cholesterol, so brining the bird is not an option if the skin is to become crispy during cooking. However, salting raw chicken will initially draw out its natural moisture within about six hours time placed in a refrigerator. At a specific point, a reverse natural occurrence will take place as the meat`s moisture is drawn back into the flesh along with the salt and the flavors of any added water-soluble spices. Use slightly more salt than you would normally apply and allow it to penetrate the poultry six or seven hours. Don`t allow the salt to remain on the raw chicken more than sixteen hours, as the flesh tends to break down, becoming mushy. On the trail, keeping the chicken cold during the six-hour salting process is critical. Use an ice chest with plenty of ice. At times, old timers used snow or even cold, salted river water to keep the meat from spoiling.

Second, to eliminate cold pockets of fat, a cook must provide a means of draining the fat while it is liquid being cooked. A good cook will trim the excess fat from the outside of the chicken pieces as well as making incisions through the skin. Toothpick holes are not large enough and will seal during cooking. Using caution not piercing the meat, make three or four short slashes through the skin of each piece for draining the hot, liquefied fat usually restricted by the skin.

Third, use a powdered rub rather than a wet sauce for flavoring the poultry. Spread it beneath the skin where the flavors may penetrate the flesh, then use toothpicks to secure the skin in place while it cooks. A good barbecue-flavor dry rub contains the following ingredients:

1 tblspn. kosher salt
1-1/2 tblspns. brown sugar
1 tblspn. chili powder
1 tblspn. paprika
1 tspn. freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tspn. cayenne

Preheat your kitchen oven, barbeque grill, or camp Dutch oven to 425 degrees F. and roast the chicken on a wire rack or screen away from direct heat. Use a shallow tray to catch the drippings and cook the poultry until it registers 140 degrees in about twenty minutes. Next, raise the oven`s temperature to 500 degrees to brown the skin and fully cook the thickest parts of the breast. In about seven or eight minutes, the internal meat temperature should be about 170 degrees. You may wish to remove most of the pieces to a cooling rack while cooking the drumsticks and thighs five minutes longer to achieve 175 degrees. Be sure to cool and then refrigerate the cooked chicken until shortly before it is to be eaten. Picnic chicken is always best served at room temperature.

In the United States, labeling of raw poultry has always been a little confusing. If you purchase chicken from an American market, be aware that during December 1997, the USDA clarified its rules a bit. Poultry held at 0 degrees F. or below, must be labeled "frozen" or "previously frozen". The term "fresh" may now only be placed on raw poultry that has never been below 26 degrees F. No specific labeling is required on poultry between 0 and 26 F.

I hope the next time you have a nice picnic in the country, you take along some good "picnic style" cold chicken - just leave the cold greasy at fat home!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
Last edited by Chuckwagon on Sat Dec 13, 2014 05:42, edited 1 time in total.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by ssorllih » Thu Mar 03, 2011 13:31

The very best use of the cold fat is as shortening in the batch of baking powder biscuits that you take to eat with the chicken.
Ross- tightwad home cook
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Post by steelchef » Fri Mar 04, 2011 03:09

Thanks Chuckmeister for sharing that recipe and method. I don't think we can wait for picinic weather to try it out.

Oh, and Ross; great suggestion about using the fat. We regularly save and use bacon fat for baking and frying but never thought about using chicken fat.
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
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Post by ssorllih » Fri Mar 04, 2011 04:13

Poultry fat has a low melting point so it must be kept cold and it helps to keep the flour cold. The only fat I don't cook with is beef and lamb they are hard fats and high in saturated fats. Goose fat is choice if you can get it for pie crust.
Ross- tightwad home cook
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