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LTH,

I poked fun at the use of Parkay and muffin tins shown on the TLC show Pitmasters so felt compelled to try the techniques. Muffin Tin Chicken (courtesy Myron Mixon on Pitmasters) looks pretty, and with a little practice I could get the pieces completely uniform, but man-o-man is it a lot of silly fuss for no flavor reward.

Parkay chicken is the same, lots of futzing around with no, at least none that I could taste, flavor enhancement. If anything BBQ flavor, for both techniques, is diminished as scant smoke is absorbed in the first half of the cook.

Constants in the two techniques:
- 6 Hour buttermilk brine
- Wiviott BBQ Rub
- Big Green Egg at 290 degrees
- Apple Wood
- Open Pit BBQ sauce

I tossed on a couple of fresh Polish sausage, also made chicken stock with the thigh bones. Matzo ball soup for breakfast.

In summary, I see no advantage in either Muffin Tin Chicken or Parkay Chicken for the non competition BBQ cook, and little reason for the competition BBQ cook as flavor is not enhanced with either method. If uniformity of size is the main goal then Muffin Tin Chicken seems the logical choice.

Thigh, deboned, deskinned, brined in buttermilk, BBQ rub



Trifold, skin wrapped



(top) Chicken braise in Parkay Margarine, (bottom), Muffin Tin Chicken



Chicken two ways, and Polish Sausage, on Big Green Egg



Chicken two ways, painted with BBQ sauce, finish direct on cooking grate



Muffin Tin Chicken





Matzo Ball Soup for breakfast



Enjoy,
Gary

Nice photos!

I'd like to try something like that just for fun.

You need some Activa - you could pre-form the chicken packets in to any shape you wanted in molds in the fridge, then pop them out of the molds still raw and smoke them with 100% of the surface exposed to smoke. I vote pyramid-shaped.

-Dan

HI,

The finished muffin tin chicken look cute. I could envision them plating very nicely for a ladies lunch. Some people like to fuss for a good visual effect.

Regards,

Thanks - I suppose - for doing this (so that I don't even have to think about trying it*)

*frankly the pics on the parkay link on the other thread as well put me off enough - just looks so, well, fake; like food for shooting, not eating.

Mostly I delurk to give thanks for the palate cleansing soup at the end of the post.

The matzo ball soups looks great!

Stuff like muffin-tin chicken really cracks me up. Here's a scene from an upcoming Food Network "Challenge" show where some competitors in a contest in Greenwood, SC take the muffin tin chicken concept to a whole new level by actually giving the finished chicken a haircut before turning it in to the judges. (This show will air on Jan 17, 2010).

First "pulled pork" from a crock pot (just the thought of it makes me ill)... , and now parkay chicken..., The scope of your research knows no boundries.

I tip my hat to you GWiv.

Thanks guys, the soup was actually an afterthought, I just couldn't bring myself to toss a dozen chicken thigh bones. Made matzo balls as I had a container of matzo meal on the counter from making latkes earlier in the week.

Serendipitous soup!

great pics

Pace SteveZ's epigraph, serendipitous has always been my favorite flavor.