Results of using Morton Tender quick in brine

I suppose that it was more of a maranide technically but anyway, the chicken definately had a distinct ham flavor. The people who ate it were familiar with my "regular" smoked chicken and they saild they liked the ham flavor for a change of pace. So the addition of nitrates/nitrites is a flavoring agent; not just to prevent the growth of nasty critters (i.e., botulisim).

For reference, here's what I did:

Monday night I cut up 3 big Tyson chickens and started brining them. Here's the brine recipe I came up with:

Pour 1 beer in a mixing bowl
Add 1 tbsp of Tender Quick per lb of meat
Add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup soy sauce and spices to taste
(I added a thumb-sized piece of ginger, half an onion and a tbsp of both cayenne and garlic)

Put the cut up chicken in gallon freezer bags and marinated it in the frige till Saturday noon when it went in the smoker. Came out about 3pm in time for the Rams and Panthers play-off. Only complaint: Rams lost (but what an exciting ending: doulble overtime).

The following link is to the original thread.

http://www.bandera-brethren.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1186