Buttermilk Chicken??

The Cen-Tex Smoker

NDG said:

@The Cen-Tex Smoker. Got 3 lbs of thighs in buttermilk brine . . I’ll probably do half as Sv/fry and grill others later.  My question is moving from this brine to SV.  Best to rinse 100% and vac seal dry before the SV cook?

That I don't know. When I grilled it, I shook it off but left some buttermilk on it. Not sure how that would play in a SV bath. If it were me, I would rinse after the brine, then use fresh buttermilk for the dredge instead of egg for the fry. Just riffing here but that's what I would try first. 

SciAggie

About to go into the wood oven. 

NDG

@SciAggie how did your cook go?  

SciAggie

NDG said:

@SciAggie how did your cook go?  

It was great. I posted the cook. The bird was tender and juicy as advertised. I often do a dry salt brine on birds that I cook in the oven in the same way. Honestly, I’m not sure I could tell the difference between either method - they are both good. Either method is far superior to just putting a chicken in the oven... I think the color was better on the buttermilk chicken. 

jetman96

NDG said:

after watching Fat, Salt, Acid, Heat . . The heat episode she makes a buttermilk full chicken.  Anyone see this?  I didn’t find anything on the search & surprised nobody tried it on the BGE yet?  Looks simple, and she hyped it big time. I will try next chance I get, lemme know if you tried ?

Haven't tried yet, but here's the recipe (link). The series is great, but check out the book. It really amped up my cooking.

dmourati

Got a 5 pound chicken today and about to put into the bag overnight. I'll post my cook in this thread tomorrow.

NDG

Well that was GOOD.

GrateEggspectations

Wow. Made this recipe tonight and the whole meal was perfect. No pics, of course. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

NDG said:

Well that was GOOD.

Dude. This is over the top. 

dmourati

Chicken is on. Raised (AR+Extender) direct at 425. Added two chunks of cherry.



And here is the finished bird.

dmourati

TBH, I liked my first spatchcock attempt (sans buttermilk/brine) better than the second. I changed a few things so hard to say what made this attempt not quite as good. The skin def wasn't crisp.

NDG

@dmourati yea I can see how harder to crisp . . I ended up frying all 3 lbs, but next time I want to do the same, but GRILL buttermilk boneless skinless chicken thighs - lots to explore

Thatgrimguy

I made Buttermilk Turkey today. It was delicious. I had the browning issue as well but I expected that. 

GregW

I cooked 2 chicken halves that I brined in buttermilk for 24 hrs. I cooked them in the convection oven, it's been pouring down cold rain all day.

The flavor of the chicken was an A. The skin was a B. The texture was an A.

If I repeat the cook, and I most likely will, I will add salt to the buttermilk to help season the meat.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

GregW said:

I cooked 2 chicken halves that I brined in buttermilk for 24 hrs. I cooked them in the convection oven, it's been pouring down cold rain all day.

The flavor of the chicken was an A. The skin was a B. The texture was an A.

If I repeat the cook, and I most likely will, I will add salt to the buttermilk to help season the meat.

It’s all about the salt. I tbsp per cup of buttermilk 

Thatgrimguy

I combined this with the Franklin method and made a turkey breast that was awesome!


i also threw salt on a frozen turkey last and cooked it whole and mostly still frozen today and it was awesome as well. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Thatgrimguy said:

I combined this with the Franklin method and made a turkey breast that was awesome 

We are doing g that this weekend as a test run as well. Good to hear it was good. How did you cook it? 

SciAggie

I’m going to cook a spatchcock turkey on Friday in the wood oven. It’s a small 9 pound bird. We’ll see. I’ll post the results. 

Thatgrimguy

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Thatgrimguy said:

I combined this with the Franklin method and made a turkey breast that was awesome 

We are doing g that this weekend as a test run as well. Good to hear it was good. How did you cook it? 

Shirley at 275 ish, let it run about an hour then about an hour in the butter. It was off a 12pb turkey so not a huge breast.

GregW

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

GregW said:

I cooked 2 chicken halves that I brined in buttermilk for 24 hrs. I cooked them in the convection oven, it's been pouring down cold rain all day.

The flavor of the chicken was an A. The skin was a B. The texture was an A.

If I repeat the cook, and I most likely will, I will add salt to the buttermilk to help season the meat.

It’s all about the salt. I tbsp per cup of buttermilk 

Thank you. I will use your recommendation.

Eoin

Did this yesterday on the Egg. For me, not worth the effort. Maybe the meat was a bit softer, but I never have a problem thinking that chicken needs tenderising in the first place. Tastes the same, skin the same (did it high in the dome on the MMX, same as for the last non-buttermilk chicken). Meh.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Just did a practice turkey breast. I thought it came out great. Skin was better than the chicken we did last week. Nice, salty, crispy, and juicy. Lighting is kind of funky here but the skin had some color and crisped up really nice.

I did 3/4Tbsp per cup of buttermilk (she does 1Tbsp but I thought the chicken was a little salty), let it sit 8 hrs (would do overnight next time) in the brine then wiped the brine off with my hands and let it sit on the counter for an hour. Added cracked pepper and Cooked at 425 on a bge. 

GrillSgt

I’m guessing you like a bit of heat. Try adding a fair amount of Texas Pete. 

Botch

SciAggie said:
I often do a dry salt brine on birds that I cook in the oven in the same way. Honestly, I’m not sure I could tell the difference between either method - they are both good. Either method is far superior to just putting a chicken in the oven... I think the color was better on the buttermilk chicken. 

If that's the case, the cost for the dry brine vs. a container of buttermilk would far outweigh anything else.
I wonder if adding just a bit of sugar to the dry salt would help with the color; I always sprinkle a very light amount of sugar on seafood for a bit of color, should work on cheekun too.  

NDG

another Buttermilk Bird . . just pulled after 24 hrs in b-milk brine (blot w/ paper towell & added pepper) . . going to let this sit for 5 more hours in fridge and grill indirect super raised.  Last time I fried, so curious to try texture/moistness/etc this way on BGE.   

NDG

Pretty Bird - grilled up nice !!  So hard to compare Buttermilk Brine vs Dry Brine (both help) but recency bias tells me this was a top notch spatchcock.