Feet hurt, Tummy full!

Just came home from our church picnic. Grilled 150 pounds of chicken halves. I cheated. I used Goya Mojo Criollo marinade and baste. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely nasty.

55-65 degrees rainy and windy. This increased the cook time by 20 min per batch or so.

Church supplied Kingsford which worked out OK . It seemed to be really fresh. It lit well and burned fairly long. Went thru about 2 and a half bags (24's)

I bought 3 cases of fryers at Sam's. That's 36 birds (in our area they use Purdue chix). They were about 4 lbs. each which seems large for fryers. They used to be around 3 a piece.

Cut out the back bone with shears split them in half with a cleaver and soaked 'em for 4 hours in the Goya. I tweaked it with fresh cilantro (almost a pound) and the zest of 6 lemons and 6 oranges and cracked black pepper. We used about a gallon and a half of marinade.

Only had 3 hours to soak and did birds in batches of 10 on two 55 gal. barrel grills from New Braunfels (I don't think this is made anymore since the buyouts by Brinkmann and Char-Broil.

Cooked about an hour and half per batch flipping and mopping every 15 minutes or so. Pulled the meat at 150 degrees and held in 200 degrees ovens (we are lucky to have a commercial range with three 36" wide ovens which can hold six large steam table trays each).

Temps were in the 168-174 range at time of serving. Cut the legs off and split them and cut the breasts in half. Not much was wasted this way. A whole breast is too large anymore.

Came out great! (knew it would) Fed over 135 folks. Had tube steaks for the kids and those who cared for one, My son cooked 80 and had only three left, not bad planning on portioning (this time!)

Sold all of the leftovers and made enough money to cover the cost of the chicken for the entire picnic.

Gotta go get flat now, back gave out @ 9:30 during cleanup.

Great Job, sounds like a good time was had by all. I agree about the size of the chickies With just I and my Bride I look for smaller birds and I am no longer able to find any in the under 4 lb range. Oh well, it just means more Grilled Chicken Salad.

Yard,

Great job. I am impressed. I wish I had know about it. Could have tried to help anyway. Sorry about your back.

Well done YB,

Sound's like you were quite the Pitmaster today. I'm sure your effort's were well appreciated by everyone there. Hope your back will be feeling better soon. YB2

Came home, cut a lemon, put some ice in a glass,found the Sauza Hornitos poured three fingers into a glass (and I have thick fingers) and it all got better.

Yard it didn't get better, you just can't feel it anymore!
Not that thats all bad. I've treated many (most) ailments in a similar fashion.
Congrats on your feast. That sounds great to me!

YardBurner sounds like a most excellent meal. Take care of yourself. I strained my back at our church cookout on Mother's Day, it's better now but I can still feel it. Keep up the great work!