This isn't anti-KCBS. Not all barbecue sanctioning bodies have chicken as a sanctioned meat, but many do.
I was talking (you know us barbecue guys, we like to talk) amongst a few friends and the topic of competition chicken came up. I was surprised how passionate everyone was with their opinion on this. From whether this or that should be allowed, the arguments for or against breasts and whether tenderness needed to be scored differently (we'd been drinking a little), the making of chicken balls (boneless thighs in a little ball), whether skin should or shouldn't be presented, or skin allowed to be removed if the judge doesn't like it, I think we hit most everything. It was towards the end of this lively conversation when I asked rather rhetorically "Is chicken actually barbecue"? There was some laughter, and I went on: Barbecue, traditional or otherwise, is the result of the act of barbecuing, which is low and slow cooking over wood. In competitions it's RARE that any competitor cooks chicken low and slow. Most are cooking over 300 degrees; some being significantly higher than this. Grill marks, for example, are a little clue here. We've got competitors pseudo-frying skin to get it usable for their purposes. So, it all begs the question: Is the resulting meat product actually barbecue? If not, should it be a meat category at all (in a sanctioned barbecue competition)?
I was talking (you know us barbecue guys, we like to talk) amongst a few friends and the topic of competition chicken came up. I was surprised how passionate everyone was with their opinion on this. From whether this or that should be allowed, the arguments for or against breasts and whether tenderness needed to be scored differently (we'd been drinking a little), the making of chicken balls (boneless thighs in a little ball), whether skin should or shouldn't be presented, or skin allowed to be removed if the judge doesn't like it, I think we hit most everything. It was towards the end of this lively conversation when I asked rather rhetorically "Is chicken actually barbecue"? There was some laughter, and I went on: Barbecue, traditional or otherwise, is the result of the act of barbecuing, which is low and slow cooking over wood. In competitions it's RARE that any competitor cooks chicken low and slow. Most are cooking over 300 degrees; some being significantly higher than this. Grill marks, for example, are a little clue here. We've got competitors pseudo-frying skin to get it usable for their purposes. So, it all begs the question: Is the resulting meat product actually barbecue? If not, should it be a meat category at all (in a sanctioned barbecue competition)?
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