Incredible maple brined chicken 2 - 5lb chickens

Slabotnick

24 hrs brine. 
1. 1/4 cup kosher salt, poured some maple syrup, water, honey, and dizzy dust seasoning. Mixed together in 5 gallon bucket, put in fridge for 24 hours. 
2. Set egg at 250 with applewood chunks in it. 
3. Set chickens in disposable pan with some apple juice in it. 
4. Left with indirect heat for 5:30 hours without opening. 
5. Pulled out and chicken was perfect. So tender, legs just pulled off. 

Great first try. 

Legume

Those look great.  Did you have the chickens up on a rack or sitting right in the juice? How much juice, must've cooked off after 5+ hours?

Homebrewguy

They look great!

slovelad

Could you be more specific with he brine measurements? I would love to try this

blasting

@Slabotnick  Those are some great looking birds.  Nicely done, thanks for posting.  Maple syrup is kinda expensive - did the flavor come through?  Wondering if that is worth it, as opposed to another sweetener like molasses.

More importantly, welcome to the forum.

Slabotnick

Legume said:

Those look great.  Did you have the chickens up on a rack or sitting right in the juice? How much juice, must've cooked off after 5+ hours?

I had them sitting in the juice with no rack. I didn't measure. I would guess around5-6oz. I literally just ran home from work on my lunch break. Fired up the egg. Pulled the chickens out of the brine. Open the vents to where I knew the temp would get to 250 and had to leave to return 5 hours later. The first pic was when I first opened it and they were done. 

Slabotnick

slovelad said:

Could you be more specific with he brine measurements? I would love to try this

They brine wasn't difficult. It's my second brine. I don't think you could mess it up. I didn't want a huge amount of salt in it so I just used 1/4 cup kosher salt. I would say 1/4 cup maple syrup. Around 4 tablespoons of honey and stirred everything togetherI did this for a turkey too (which was my first try and it was the best turkey I've ever had). Let me know how it goes! 

Slabotnick

blasting said:

@Slabotnick  Those are some great looking birds.  Nicely done, thanks for posting.  Maple syrup is kinda expensive - did the flavor come through?  Wondering if that is worth it, as opposed to another sweetener like molasses.

More importantly, welcome to the forum.

Glad to join the big green egg family and forum! I did like the maple syrup and do feel like it was a nice subtle flavor addition to the applewood. I've never used molasses so I wouldn't know how to compare. The chickens were an affordable option though Sam's was was having all natural chicken two packs for sale. Going to get more this weekend. 

Legume

Love it - toss them on and back to work for 5 hours before the egg even settled in.