Since we're chatting about different methods to prepare a bird, I'll toss my method into the mix. Count me in as fan of dry brining, but with a bit of a twist.
After thawing, but before brining, I deconstruct the bird into quarters, full wings, a bone in breast and the back. Once separated, the sections (less the back which is reserved for stock) are brined for up to three days. For today's cook, one breast section got the full three day brine and the remainder only about four hours this morning.
Here are 1.5 birds (one full, one breast only) on the Oval running at 325 after about an hour:
And here's the finished product:
The quarters & wings came off right after the first pic, the smaller breast about 30 minutes later and the bigger breast about twenty minutes after that. All in all, it was less than a two hour cook. IMHO, the beauty of this method (besides the speed) is the ability to take the parts off individually as they are done.
The dark meat was succulent as expected and breast was out of this world juicy... While it's tough to catch any drippings, we pre-roast chicken quarters ahead of time and reserve those drippings for gravy.
If you've never tried deconstruction and dry brining, I'd suggest you give them a test drive. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the results. :mrgreen:
After thawing, but before brining, I deconstruct the bird into quarters, full wings, a bone in breast and the back. Once separated, the sections (less the back which is reserved for stock) are brined for up to three days. For today's cook, one breast section got the full three day brine and the remainder only about four hours this morning.
Here are 1.5 birds (one full, one breast only) on the Oval running at 325 after about an hour:
And here's the finished product:
The quarters & wings came off right after the first pic, the smaller breast about 30 minutes later and the bigger breast about twenty minutes after that. All in all, it was less than a two hour cook. IMHO, the beauty of this method (besides the speed) is the ability to take the parts off individually as they are done.
The dark meat was succulent as expected and breast was out of this world juicy... While it's tough to catch any drippings, we pre-roast chicken quarters ahead of time and reserve those drippings for gravy.
If you've never tried deconstruction and dry brining, I'd suggest you give them a test drive. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the results. :mrgreen:
Best cooker ever.
