Quote:
Originally Posted by tuxpuff
You don't have any problem with them drying out at all? I've never smoked just breasts.
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Funny you ask that.
Not really sure that 300F lid temp (midway up the lid) is really smoking so much as it is a a low heat indirect grilling with a lot of smoke, but regardless...
This was kind of a last minute thing, so I didn't brine the breasts.
Both breasts were pulled off the smoker at the same time.
The breast on the right, which, as you can see had the breast meat almost parallel to the firebrick & fire pit area, was at 165F or 166F when I pulled it.
The breast on the left, which was the smaller of the two, went down on the grate a tad further back and at an angle to the firebrick, with the thickest part of the breast meat furthest away from the heat source. It only hit 160F when I pulled it.
USDA recommends 165F for doneness on chicken breasts.
The one on the left was succulently juicy. The one on the right was typical restaurant moisture levels - the meat was low moisture, you could cut it and it would have moisture, but not much of any running juices and only a slight sheen to the meat. Dry, but not dried out, if that makes any sense.
Since they were going in a salad, it wasn't a big deal. Well, actually, only the one on the right went into a salad. The one on the left was too good to cover with dressing.
Next time I use unbrined chicken, I'm going to place them a bit differently, squared up to the firebrick at the same point as the front right corner of the left breast, this still allows the radiant heat browning, but not quite as much heat directly onto the flesh and shoot for 160-162F internal.