Disclaimer: If you are tempted to smoke chicken breast, I would advise against it. Stick with the dark meat on the smoker, or maybe a whole chicken. This is only included here for completeness. The competition called for chicken breast, so that's what we did.
The competition called for chicken breast, which is a little out of the ordinary. I thought the chicken was a little dry, but then I would guess everybody's was. It was probably the prettiest box I turned in.
Given that the breast is predisposed to drying out, the first part of meat prep I did was to brine the chicken after my inspection was complete. I wanted that meat to sit in a salty bath as long as possible before cooking. The brine consists of 64 oz (2 boxes) of chicken broth, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of salt. That sat in a cooler in a plastic bag from about 2pm until 6 am the following morning.
When it was time to put the chicken on the smoker it was lightly seasoned with the rub mentioned here. At this point the whole chicken breasts went on the smoker, which was running between 225 and 250 at the time. I put them on roughly at 7 am. Turn in time for the chicken was 12:30. Looking back I could have put the chicken on later. And I probably should have.
Starting at about 10:45 I basted the chicken in BBQ sauce every 20 minutes or so. That is why it had the really nice glaze you see in the photo above. It also helped a bit with the dryness. I pulled the chicken off as soon after 12 as I could, right after the ribs were turned in. The chicken was given roughly 10 minutes to rest before cutting. Longer probably would have been better. 20 to 30 minutes wrapped in foil would have probably led to better texture for the meat.
For boxing I took the most cylindrical pieces I could and I cut about 1/2 inch medallions. As with all the meats, we had to turn in 7 pieces. After selecting 7 pieces that led to a nice tapered look in the box, all of the chicken medallions were sauced one more time and spritzed with apple juice. A spray bottle full of apple juice is a good thing to have at a barbecue competition. It adds another layer of flavor and sweetness while providing a nice sheen to the meat.
The chicken ended up placing third in its category. I believe it would have done better had it gone on the smoker later. It was a little dry.
