Swim Cap Chicken is where you smoke the chicken skin side down for the
majority of the cook. The skin acts as a 'swim cap', not allowing the
juice to run out of the chicken and keeps it tender and juicy.

Swim Cap Chicken comes from the fertile brain of the Right Reverend Rock
Mc, a long time Porch member and BBQ Icon in good standing. Though Rock
has not posted much since you came on board he is a wealth of BBQ
knowledge, innovative ideas and, from what I hear, is an excellent
dancer.

We had had a list discussion of brining, then roasting using a vertical
roaster, the kind that looks like the Eiffel Tower and my preferred
chicken method, vs other methods and Rock was kind enough to contribute
his seemingly simple, yet incredibly delicious Swim Cap method.

While I still enjoy the brine then vertical roaster smoked chicken, I
now also enjoy Swim Capping poultry, which does not necessitate brining
in advance and is done in a shorter time frame than traditional smoked
chicken.  

I would do Rock an injustice by trying to outline his method so I will
simply follow my post with his 'Swim Cap' posts. 

Regards

Smoking in Chicago,
Gary

~~~~~~~xxxx~~~~~~~~~
BBQ List
6/18/01
THEBBQDUDE@aol.com

Howdy Bill!
    Other than smokin' brats, smokin' chickens is just about the easiest 
there is...  
    Simply lightly oil up the butterflied bird (back bone removed and 
flattened) and then sprinkle with Lawry's Seasoned Salt and Garlic
Pepper
and 
smoke skin side down at 275 degrees for approximately 90 minutes.  Kick
up 
the heat to 350 and flip the bird over, skin side up and legs pointin'
toward 
the door, and crisp up the skin to finish the bird.  When the bird
shakes 
your hand in a relaxed and friendly manner, it's done.  They'll come out 
moist and tender every time...
    I just served these up this past Saturday night to our guests and 
garnered positive critical acclaim from each and every one of them, all
the 
while thinking... If they only knew just how easy it was?  So, at their 
request, I showed them!
    I pulled another chicken out of the fridge and walked them through
the 
process of butterflying the bird, oiling and seasoning, and then tossing
into 
the Big Jim Pig Gym.  It took all of five minutes.  
    We continued with our Bible study and then concluded the evening
with 
letting them remove the bird from the smoker, cutting it up and sampling 
their efforts.  Each was amazed at just how easy it was!  
    While I may have knocked myself off of their culinary pedestal of
awe, 
I'm pretty sure that there were at least 8 new converts that night.  BBQ 
converts that is...  <G><

Smoke the chickens...  You're in-laws will be glad you did.

Rock

``````````````xxxxxx`````````````````
Gary W in Response to Bill, then Rock in response to Gary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xxxxx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<< Bill
 
 Sounds good, but don't forget, as Rock suggested, to remove the
 backbone, this makes the birds much easier to grill. I use a kitchen
 scissors to remove the backbone and find it easier than using a knife,
 in fact for smaller chickens (4-lb or less) I use a kitchen scissors to
 cut them into serving pieces. 
 
 I have been doing quite a bit of liquor infused brines with poultry
 lately. With chicken I smoke them upright on a vertical roaster and
they
 turn out much better than just laying them on the smoker grate. With
the
 vertical roaster the smoke/heat can go through the bird and the smoke
 and heat is distributed evenly. The other advantage of a vertical
 roaster is that you can get more birds on a smoker grate.
 
 Regards
 
 Smoking in Chicago,
 Gary >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BBQ List
6/19/01
THEBBQDUDE@aol.com

To the contrary, my Chi-Town Smoker friend... <G><
    While I adamantly agree that the vertical roaster does produce a
juicy 
bird, I respectfully disagree with your summation that it turns out a
"much 
better" bird.  That is if we're talking strictly smoking here?
    I, too, am a fan of the vertical roaster.  However, after doing side
by 
side comparisons and having smoked hundreds of birds using the methods 
heretofore described, I'll put my money on the butterflied, skin side
down, 
bird every time.  
    The reason being that, the skin side down bird retains more of its
own 
natural moisture during the cooking process because the skin functions
as a 
'swim cap' of sorts and doesn't allow the natural juices to run off
during 
the cooking process.  The juices and rendered fat tend to pool around
the 
meat thereby retaining more moisture and flavor from the rendered fat. 
When
the chicken is flipped skin side up to finish cooking, all excess fat is
then 
drained away from the bird leaving behind moist, flavorful, meat.  The
breast 
meat, especially, benefits from this cooking method.  
    The other advantages of the skin side down method is that because it 
retains so much more of its own natural moisture, brining is no longer 
necessary to add additional moisture to make up for what is
traditionally 
lost.  
    Also, while the vertical roaster does take up less surface area on
the 
cooking grate, not all smokers can accommodate the height of the
vertical 
roaster mounted bird between the levels of cooking grates.  That tends
to be
a problem when you have more than a couple of birds to smoke.
    Another benefit of the butterflied skin side down bird is that
they're 
much easier and quicker to cut up into serving portions once removed
from
the 
smoker.  Two quick cuts and the bird is quartered and ready to go!
    Again, I, too, am a fan of the vertical roaster.  I just do not
believe 
them to be the most beneficial way of smokin' birds for a group.
    Now, if we're just talking about grilling said yard bird, well then,
I'd
go with the vertical roaster, in a pan, with the hood closed.  It's much
more 
forgiving....  <G><

Just my respectful two drum sticks worth... <G><

Rock

