Chicken Advice

[tractor guy]

I've been lurking here for a while, and as the weather starts to turn warmer my desire to build a RFS is beginning to grow. How does this fit into the Poultry forum you may ask. Well let me tell you.

The Women's Club at church used to host an annual chicken BBQ dinner as kind of the unofficial start to the 4th of July festivities in my little town. It was always on the Saturday before the 4th, and it was the only event on that night. Several years ago they began enlisting help from the Knights of Columbus to help with the man power cooking and serving. More recently a couple of other groups have started holding dinners on that night drawing off some of "our" crowd. The ladies weren't making any money, and they were losing interest in doing it any more so the chicken BBQ is no more.

As a member of the Knights I have discussed bring it back a KofC function. If it happens we will cook the chicken on site. The women were using some big cement block pits that were a 20 minute drive away. All of the chicken was cooked early in the day and then served in the evening. It was bland, rubbery, and cold by the time most people got theirs.

Now for the questions. How big of a cooker would I need (sq. feet of grate approx.) to cook lets say 200 chicken halves? What is the approximate cook time (I've never smoke halves)? Is anyone willing to share a recipe that will be a hit?

thanks
Joe
Certified story stretcher (I can make almost any short story long)

[SoloQue]

A 250 with 3 pull out racks should handle a 100 halves although that's probably gonna be some tightly packed bird.
Everybody has their own chicken process but for me its right around 275F for 3.0 - 3.5 hours for quarters but I like my bird done to the bone. Halves shouldn't be all that different time wise. I'm sure other folks will toss in some suggestions.

As for a recipe, brush them well in EVOO and sprinkle heavily with your favorite seasonings, they will brown up nicely.

[coma44]

As Solo said a "250" with three pull out racks will hold about 100 halves. One thing you can do is cook them in batches. Get the first set done about 2.5 to 3 hours early. Place the just cooked halves in coolers that are clean and have been warmed up with hot water then drained.

Load the next batch and once the first 100 are served you should have the second ready to serve right out of the smoker.

Here is my smoker with 16 racks of full spare ribs and 30 splits from last weeks cooks.

I only have two racks right now going to build another one this summer just for ribs and chicken cooks.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

[Rodcrafter]

Yep, nice


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[dnoneck]

is it just me or does cooking a big load of chicken take a lot longer then you would think. I'm guessing that amout of cold meat takes a longtime to start heating up

[The Czar]

Twss