I started w a tray of thighs . I wanted to see how easy they were to trim away the skin // excess fat , and if S&S gave you that extra flap under the thigh :
they did !
trimmed . note : the every day price of the thighs is higher than the legs !
these went into the IDS @ 185 F , full smoke , for 3 hours , shifting trays ever hour :
as it was still early in the day when the thighs started their smoking , went back to S%S and got a tray of CkDrums ;
these were actually a bit easier to trim : I learned from the last tiem I used these , its impossible to get all the skin off, as the bit around
the end of the bone is stuck there firmly . Soooo I cut around the skin , right to the bone , about 1 " up from the bottom of the bone.
then bluntly dissected the skin away from the bone , which was fairly easy to do . I cut the freed up skin down to the end cut , and peeled
the rest off the leg. It stuck fairly firmly in one area. I then bluntly dissected the skin all around the leg , down to the bottom 1 " before
I cut the released skin to the bone end. Easier this way :
these also went into the IDS for 3 hours , 185 F , hourly rotation .
I measured the ' trim's ' weight , and as I thought : the trim on the thighs was 31 % of the chickens weight , and was 17 % of the legs weight.
as I thought , they do slip you more skin // fat w the thighs . these leg are very very large , much more so that MarketBasket
so if you use slimmer legs , you wont get as much meat // leg. I was initially planning to use the thighs for ' SV IDS thighs ' , as
I recently just SV'd a pack of skinned legs , w/o IDS'ing , and was pleased w the results. but Im going to make IDS smoked CkStock
w the thighs via the iPot. and SV the legs , as Ive done in the past.
Ill saute the thighs first , to get some fond and Maillard flavor first.
learned this : stick w the plump legs @ S&S . thighs are not worth it.
And remember here the color on the legs // thighs is from the smoke , not the Maillard Rx.
