Brine for Chicken - please share experience

[Kbunk]

Greetings Brethren!

Had a 7lb rack of pork I brined for 3 days, then smoked on my Traeger. Turned out so tasty.

Was wanting to brine 3 whole chickens, then spatchcock and put on my Humphreys DEB. Any help or suggestions you can lend would be greatly appreciated. Brine recipe, time in brine (hours/days) maybe comments on your end results.

Thanks all
Jim

 

[Cook]

You don't need to brine a chicken for days. I'd recommend 12 hours min/24 hours max.

Pork loin...I'd have been cooking the next day...but that's just me.

 

[dadsr4]

If the chicken is enhanced, I start the coals, spatchcock, rub under the skin, and cook. If it's not enhanced, I do the same, with the same results. YRMV.
If you don't over cook, it makes no difference, except wasted time.

 

[diggles]

Lately I've been doing a super-simple dry brine. After a rinse and pat dry, I cover the whole thing in a liberal amount of kosher salt and let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours. After that, rinse, dry, and apply rub. The rub for me has been just a little black pepper since the brine puts in enough salt. You can adjust the time based on how salty you want it.

 

[JS-TX]

Brining is very subjective.. it depends on how much salt flavor you want. I'd suggest keeping it simple and modify your brine from there depending on your results.

 

[mchar69]

I once brined a chicken in solution, but smoked it over mesquite.
Moist, but way too smoky (obviously -wrong wood).
I don't have room enough to do this. Try it.
Get back to us.

 

[IamMadMan]

I like Cornell Chicken Sauce, actually a brine... (enough for 10 halves):
http://yates.cce.cornell.edu/resources/cornell-chicken-barbecue-sauce-and-safe-chicken-barbecues

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/2652/bbq.pdf;jsessionid=39673C18D8566D6F693B092ED7FD5F19?sequence=2

1 cup cooking oil
1 pint cider vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper per taste
1 egg

Beat the egg, then add the oil and beat again. Add other ingredients and stir. The recipe can be varied to suit individual tastes.
store in the refrigerator

Dr. Robert C. Baker, creator of chicken nuggets and Cornell Chicken Barbecue Sauce (Roadside Chicken), passed away at age 84 on March 13, 2006.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg white and yolk together with a balloon whisk or a hand mixer. Add the oil and whisk until it gets thick, and bright yellow, for about 2 minutes. Now whisk in the vinegar, salt, seasoning, and pepper.

Marinate the chicken for 24 hours in ziploc bags in the fridge. Turn the bag so that all surfaces get well coated.

Set up the grill for 2-zone cooking. Try to get the indirect side in the 225°F range. Place the chicken over the indirect zone and close the lid. Every 5 to 10 minutes baste with the marinade, turn the chickens on both sides, then rotate the chickens every 20 minutes so they cook evenly.

Cook about 60 to 90 minutes until the internal temperature of each part is 150°F and stop basting. Exact time will depend on how thick the meat is, and how often you basted. Then move them over the hot direct heat side of the grill, skin side down. Remove the lid, and crisp the skin without burning it for 10 to 15 minutes. turn and heat for about 5 minutes more. This step is important to finish the cooking of the meat, crisp the skins, and make sure everything is sterile since it contains raw egg. When the skin is crisp and the internal temp is 165°F, take the meat off. Even if it is a bit red in there when you cut in, it is safe at 165°F. You cannot judge a chicken's safety by the color of the juices! I strongly recommend you use a fast read digital thermometers like a thermapen to make sure your poultry is cooked properly for taste and safety.


.

 

[Cook]

Brining is certainly not a waste of time if you want flavor to the bone. With that said, I rarely do it.

It's a great way to introduce flavor into the bird that you'd have trouble with any other way.

And a brined bird does not have to be salty.

 

[tom b]

Naturific Harvest brine, it is a dry brine that is well worth the money, directions are on the package but it doesn't take much and 2-3 hrs per lb

https://www.naturiffic.com/gss/

 

[mikemci]

Two words.....Oakridge Game Changer. That may be 3 words, not sure. Good stuff though!

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Naturific Harvest brine, it is a dry brine that is well worth the money, directions are on the package but it doesn't take much and 2-3 hrs per lb

https://www.naturiffic.com/gss/

What ^^ He said ^^ (Thanks Tom!)

Dry brining is the way to go, and our Naturiffic Dry Brine is designed specifically for Poultry and Pork.

 

[Tricky]

I rarely smoke a chicken, but I roast one for Sunday dinner a couple of times a month. I almost always brine my chicken and feel like it makes a moister, more flavorful bird.

I used to use the Oakridge Game Changer brine for chicken and pork and still love it. But I don't know that its worth it to pay extra for brine -- now I usually just about a cup of kosher salt to several cups of water and heat it up, letting the salt dissolve. I then usually jump in some garlic powder, some peppercorns and if I have a good BBQ rub I'll dump in some of that. Any additional spices I have handy might end up in there too. Recently I've started adding umami boosters like soy sauce (but I back off the kosher salt a bit if I'm adding soy sauce). I add my cups of concentrated brine to a round cambro (probably a 6 qt) that's 1/2 full of ice. That cools the brine. Then I drop in chicken and pop the whole thing in the fridge for 3-6 hours.

No real magic to it but it works for me and my family.

But sometimes after I'm finished brining I wish I had something else I could do with the brine rather than pour it down the drain . . .

 

[cfrazier77]

Two words.....Oakridge Game Changer. That may be 3 words, not sure. Good stuff though!

I cannot agree enough on this. My best smoked chicken was brined with this and it was well worth it.

 

[Smokiemon]

I cannot agree enough on this. My best smoked chicken was brined with this and it was well worth it.

Did you still apply Rub after the Brining process before cooking ? I was gonna try some Game Changer this weekend and was curious about applying Rub.

 

[Win nut]

I use a modified Alton Brown's turkey brine recipe. I skip the candied ginger and add some Old Bay crab boil and a little cayenne pepper. I put it in the Briner for 7 to 8 hrs and rinse thoroughly. I put rub under the skin, usually Adkins Western Style BBQ seasoning. I put a little peanut oil on the outside and spinkle with a little rub for color. I cook at 325° until the breast measures 175°. I usually use pecan and cherry wood, and use a 3/4 full beer can and stand.

 

[Fillmore Farmer]

Any help or suggestions you can lend would be greatly appreciated. Brine recipe, time in brine (hours/days) maybe comments on your end results.

First thought....listen to anything Iammadman has to say

I've been trying to nail down a solid BBQ chicken approach and I too have been dabbling with variations in method/approach/recipe. In no particular order, here are my thoughts based entirely on experience and what I've been told.

Several professional chefs have told me that in order to make moist chicken, you MUST brine. I've found this to be true for breast meat but not dark meat. Breast and thigh are both 'chicken' but the meats are fairly different. Because EVERYTHING in the world can be explained using brisket analogy I'd say thigh meat is like the point and breast meat is the flat...and ain't the flat always the challenge?

I've been using Oakridge Game Changer with good results....but, as much as I hate to say this, the process of brining does seem to induce more sodium into the picture, even if you do a post-brine fresh water bath to pull excessive salt off the outer meat. I've had chicken that didn't taste overly salty and I've woken up from sleep at 3am to a parched mouth gasping for water. IMO, you gotta choose how much you wanna rock people's taste buds against their sodium intake. But make no mistake, a brine will prompt the protein to absorb more water and bring flavor into the meat. If you're only doing thighs, you can pass...but trying to make good breast meat without brining...yeah, good luck with that.

Injection? Nah...the holes you make to inject in seem to let juices flow out while cooking...I don't track mark birds

Spatchcocking...DEFINITELY good, more even cooking and looks cool/professional. A must for turkey too!

Cooking on a grill...doesn't capture that true 'pit smoked' flavor. Cooking on a smoker can be overpowering and lacks the grill flavor that comes from the maillard reaction. Gotta get both!

Getting right to it...my top approach:

I remove the skin and do a reduced sodium brine overnight
Rinse, pat dry, apply low-sodium rub
Place chicken in vac-bag along with 1/2-cup BBQ sauce, seal (this can sit in frig for a while too)
Sous Vide (water bath) at 155F for 2 hours
Smoke at 225F for an hour until golden brown
remove from smoker, lightly coat with oil
heat grill to med-hot
place pieces on grill for one minute, rotate 90-degrees for 30 seconds, get your X marks
Flip to other side for one minute, rotate for 30 seconds to finish other side
baste with favorite BBQ sauce on each piece and move to upper rack, lower heat or even back to smoker

There it is...very moist, very flavorful, true pit-smoked flavor, grill marks with that grilled sizzle taste

Brine, Sous vide, smoke & grill 4-stage process :doh: Remove a step and it's a compromise. The brine makes it a wee bit better but the water bath does an excellent job of cooking the meat without losing much fat. Still, to get that flavor deeper into the meat, the brine seems essential.

Last thought, make sure it's quality meat. I know a few butchers who'll admit that when meat starts to smell bad, they'll soak it in water/bleach, rinse and repackage it. Beyond that they'll apply seasoning rub and sell it as pre-seasoned. Point being, you can't make a quality result from mediocre stock. There is no substitute for quality.

 

[Haastyle]

Funny, we are doing the same thing almost. I will be turning these on the rotisserie however this evening. I put these in the brine yesterday morning, and taking them out here in about a hour. Going to pat them dry, place on a wire rack, and let the skin dry out for tonight. Then, I am taking a compound herb butter and larding the bird under the skin with that. Then it goes to rotisserie.

The brine was a simple, what I call a "Thanksgiving Brine".

Diced up one large onion
4-5 ribs of celery
stems of one bunch of parsley
6 or so bay leaves
about a tablespoon of black peppercorns
heavy pinch of red pepper flakes
cup of kosher salt
half a cup of white sugar
half a gallon of water

Bring this all to a boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Crash cool with 12lbs of crushed ice. Pour it directly over the birds. I already know I need exactly 2 gallons of brine for when I do chicken in this bin. If you need less, just ratio it down.

Herb butter is
No salt butter
chopped parsley
fresh lemon zest
garlic ran through a micro plane
finely chopped fresh rosemary
chopped thyme
coarse ground black pepper
little bit of cayanne powder
splash of white wine

Easy, nothing flashy. Simple Hotel Butter.

Adjust the levels of whatever herb you want... to what you frigging want.... Nix half the stuff and take it another direction, by adding cliantro, onion, lime and lemon zest, and chilies instead... Whatever you want.

Mix it up and push it up under the skin, either cavity end works fine.... You can span the entire bird with that butter under the skin, just not the wings. Then truss each bird individually, run the spit through them. Any leftover butter you can smear on the outside of the birds at this point.


Then indirect rotisserie on the Weber. Be sure to have a drip pan....... All that butter will eventually go somewhere.

 

[tom b]

I over shot these a bit but they were fantastic, used the Naturific Harvest brine I mentioned earlier, just to debunk any thought that a wet brine is the only way to get moist breast meat

 

[PNWSmoke]

I over shot these a bit but they were fantastic, used the Naturific Harvest brine I mentioned earlier, just to debunk any thought that a wet brine is the only way to get moist breast meat

Fantastic looking. I'm of the opinion that wet brining reduces the flavor of the meat. Maybe it's just the brines I have had, but while the meat is always super moist, it's just sort of watery.

I need to give dry brining a try.

 

[Cook]

The way to get moist breast meat is to not overcook. When I wet brine, which isn't often, it's to get other flavors into the meat...not necessarily for moisture. Because, lets face it, I know who to cook a chicken without drying it out.