Cook #1 for Mak #1817

[Darwin00537]

First cook on the Mak 2. It would figure my Mak arrived just hours before the worst snow and ice storm in 20 years hit Charlotte. Despite the snow and weather that "feels like" 11F I got the Mak assembled, the wifi installed, and ran the searing burn in. My fingers may be frostbit but it was WORTH IT.

For my first cook I grilled pounded boneless skinless chicken breast. Don't judge, there's a long story as to why I had to cook these. Anyway, I decided to try out the Grill Grates Vs the Mak Sear Grate to see what difference they make. I used McCormick's Tomato, Basil, and Garlic(TBG) marinade combined with water, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Set temp was 400F and I flipped them at 5 minutes and 12 minutes. Meat came off when internal temp hit 160.

Overall I'd give a slight nod to the grill grates. The meat on the left side (grill grate side) was a bit more tender than the meat that came off the sear grate side. It's only a slight nod though because for some reason the three pieces on the grill grate side weren't as flat as the pieces on the sear grate side, and their internal temp was a few degrees lower. The temps were close enough I give the nod to the grill grates but I plan on doing another comparison to make sure. I really recommend TBG for boneless chicken breasts. It wakes them up and takes plain jane to sweet and savory.

 

[scooter]

What's next??

 

[Darwin00537]

What's next??

In the fridge I have two racks of baby backs, a pork butt, a family pack of thighs, and a brisket flat. So one of those is headed to the Mak tomorrow. I'd have preferred St Louis Style over Baby Backs and a whole packer Vs a flat but I was constrained by what the butcher had on hand today. I made a last minute meat run before the ice storm hit. Just think how sad it would have been to have a new Mak and no meat... OK don't, that'd be wrong to wish on your worst enemy.

Would you mind sharing a link to your favorite competition thigh recipe(be it here or elsewhere)?

 

[Big Poppa]

nice first cook!

 

[hank858SD]

Agreed with BP. Nice looking cook!

Also thanks for sharing your comparison of the two searing grates. Glad I went with GG

 

[Darwin00537]

Thanks BP/Hank. Hank I'm glad I helped reinforce your like for the GGs. I've used mine over charcoal, propane, and now pellets, always to good effect. They turn out a nice result every time (chicken REALLY seems to like them).

BP includes GGs with the Mak 1 bundle and the Sear Grate with the Mak 2 bundle, which I'm guessing is because the Mak 2 comes with the flame zone built in... So, I'm thinking for searing steaks that Big Poppa thinks the Sear Grate/Flame Zone combo might be better than the GG/Flame Zone Combo. BP am I right?

 

[Big Poppa]

No...JUst supporting the system on the MAK

 

[TentHunter]

Great first cook and experiment!

Darwin, next time try the same experiment, but with the searing grate on the left side and the grill grates on the right and see if the results are the same or different.

On my 1 Star I have noticed I get slightly better results with the searing grate on the left. I think it's because the FlameZone Drip pan tilts up to the left allowing the heat to rise a little better to that side.

 

[jimsbarbecue]

I see you have a Hasty Bake which I think is a great chicken cooker. We feel like we hit a home run cooking chicken on the MAK when it is a good as what comes off the Hasty Bake. Ribs on the MAK are good and easy to duplicate.

 

[Darwin00537]

JB you're not kiddin the HB is an AWESOME chicken cooker. I made a mess of wings last weekend for poker night and it went quick!

It also does a mean bone in split breast. Is the chicken you're talking about for personal consumption or competition?

 

[Darwin00537]

Darwin, next time try the searing grate on the left side and the grill grates on the right

On my 1 Star I have noticed I get slightly better results with the searing grate on the left.

Very scientific. I like. I will give this a try.

 

[Tatonka3A2]

Chicken looks great! I have the hardest time with chicken breasts and not getting them over cooked.

 

[jimsbarbecue]

Personal consumption. We eat a lot of chicken, truth be known Valentines dinner is Chicken breast with grilled asparagus and baked potato on the Hasty Bake. I learned the grilled asparagus from watching Big Poppa , Bigmista and Steph from Simply Marvelous cook them on a Hasty Bake. Limone oil and Desert Gold. NEVER any leftover when feeding guest.

 

[Darwin00537]

Personal consumption. We eat a lot of chicken, truth be known Valentines dinner is Chicken breast with grilled asparagus and baked potato on the Hasty Bake. I learned the grilled asparagus from watching Big Poppa , Bigmista and Steph from Simply Marvelous cook them on a Hasty Bake. Limone oil and Desert Gold. NEVER any leftover when feeding guest.

I did a prime ribeye, bacon wrapped asparagus, and grilled portabellos on my HB last weekend, cooked it all at the same time, and reverse seared the steak even! That grill is super versatile.

I'm impressed you're rockin the commando Mak and cook so much chicken. That has to make for a lot of cleanup.

 

[Darwin00537]

Chicken looks great! I have the hardest time with chicken breasts and not getting them over cooked.

What temp do you take it off at? I remove at 160. The trick for me is to cook hot enough that the outside gets a little charred by the time the inside gets to 160. I always marinade with olive oil as it's low flash point causes it to burn off nicely during the short cook.

 

[scooter]

Would you mind sharing a link to your favorite competition thigh recipe(be it here or elsewhere)?

So no one has responded to this question yet and here's my take on why. Competition BBQ pitmasters guard their recipes vigorously. Many comp pitmasters will be very open with helping you with a tip here or a tip there but none that I know will simply sit down with you and give up everything unless it's Friday night at a comp and they've been drinking liquid truth serum out of a red solo cup and you catch them at just the right time and circumstance!
I have doubts you will ever find a really good, scoring high in comps right now, comp chicken recipe simply posted on the internet for all to see. Getting a comp cook to share their comp chicken recipe is no small request. Comp chicken is called "devil meat" for a good reason. If not learned in a class, a good comp chicken recipe is one that is the result of loads of online research weeding your way through the crap for the pearls then working your way through many, many, many family value sized packs of thighs, trying this, then trying that, tweeking this, tweeking that, working your way through many different cook processes and rub/sauce combinations, brine or no brine, marinade or no marinade, inject or no inject, finding what works and abandoning what doesn't then using a cook process that both produces bite through skin and leaves some semblance of evidence that the chicken was actually cooked in a smoker and not an oven, then finally placing it in front of 6 certified bbq judges to see if what you think is good is really what they think is good. Don't listen to family or friends for advice on your comp chicken unless they're CBJ's. So after you've done all that (or paid top dollar for a good comp class) it's understandable if comp cooks guard their hard won (or paid for) comp recipes!
So, with all that said, you can use google or go to youtube and do a search on comp chicken prep and/or recipe and you'll get some pretty good tips on both and some will even give up most everything they do, or used to do, depending on how old the video is. Search bbq-breathren also as it's loaded with comp cooks and the cooks there do a lot of sharing. It's a good staring point for information but eventually, you'll have to determine what works after going through a stack of value sized thigh packages.

Big Poppa posted this in the HOF forum: http://www.pelletsmoking.com/hall-fame-recipes-22/comp-style-bite-through-skin-how-4637/
It's a simple and effective way to get bite through comp chicken skin which is only one aspect of comp chicken. You want a CBJ to bite through a skin and not have it pull off and flop in their chin because it wasn't tender enough to bite through.
For spices, I'm going to point you to the source where a very large, and growing, section of very successful competition cooks go to for some, or all, of their spices, bigpoppasmokers.com. What's called the "west coast offense" has really made a huge impact on comp BBQ. It's a combination of Big Poppas own rubs and that of another rub genius, Steph Franklin (Big Brother Smoke) of Simply Marvelous BBQ. Both are based here in CA and their rub combinations are winning GC's from backyard comps to the American Royal and the Jack. You can't go wrong if you start with those rubs. Think of Sweet Money as a good starting point and work with SM Pecan or Sweet Seduction in combination, LLWP, DSSR and/or Peppered Cow for beef.
So many rub combos to mention, maybe BP or Steph will kick in some combinations if they see this. Like BP did when he posted that bite through chicken skin process. If you read here enough, you will see some of the pearls of wisdom BP has put out there for your edification but usually it doesn't have neon lights to attract your attention. You need to read careful and close to discover.
BP and Steph (And MattD and AndyG along with others) want you to be successful but also want you to go through the journey to learn not only what works with chicken (or any comp meat) but what doesn't work and only through your own practice can you understand what doesn't work. Just like what you're doing right now with your new MAK only it's for your family and not CBJs. You wouldn't want to feed your family comp chicken! You will find out why if you do the research.

Oh yeah, DivaQ put out a reality series called BBQ Crawl. She does quite well in chicken and if you look close, and make use of the pause and frame advance functions, you'll learn a few things about how she does her chicken, ribs, pork and brisket. She was pretty careful not to reveal much in the way of flavor profiles but her processes she shared fairly openly.
BBQ Pitmasters is another series you can learn a few things from and quite a few current pitmasters can trace their journey from having watched BBQ Pitmasters. See if you can get your hands on either of those series and hit the pause and frame advance and take notes!
Or, pay someone to teach you.

 

[Darwin00537]

Scooter, that's a lot of info. I'm going to have to read that a few times! I'm not sure I want to go down the competition route. Honestly I'm not quite sure why I'd asked that question. There was a time I was gung ho to try it out, but it seems like a lot of expense with very little money in winnings. Seems like a no brainer for folks that have a restaurant or retail website where winning competition results would help build a brand, but as you said it's not the kind of food you feed your family.

Ah, I remember reading a post a couple of days ago where folks were saying chicken is the devil. That's what got me to wondering about it.

Thanks for sharing! I will read up on your suggestions and learn the process as best I can whether or not I decide to compete.=)

 

[scooter]

Yeah I can blather on a bit!! Sorry.