Brining - one last question

Unknown

Thanks 'all' for the response re subject. One last question on the subject: In brining chicken (from your experience) have you used straight salt and sugar or just sugar? Would the sugar not give the meat a sweet flavour? Comments re your experience with chicken and the result. This whole topic of brining came as a result of a spatch **** chicken I cooked where the bird was a bit drier than it should have been and the skin was tough. I used one hour cooking time at 300 - 320 degrees with a lot of smoke. Cooking time was one hour. Real smoky flavour but, once again the bird was tougher than it should have been with tough skin. Comments appreciated. Bully

sprinter

Bully,[p]You need to use salt as its the ingredient that actually opens up the pores of the meat and allows the other flavors, spices and sugars, to penetrate and flavor the meat. I generally use equal parts salt to some sweetner. Typically its brown sugar, or molasses, or honey. Be creative. The base for any brine though is equal parts salt and sugar, about a cup of each for a gallon of water. You can size this as much as you want just keep those portions in line.[p]Troy

Tom Harmon

Bully,[p]The salt is the key for making the flavors 'travel' into the bird. The other flavors are carried into the cells of the meat by osmosis. You may (will) also find that the meat cooks more quickly - guess the proteins change some as well as the additionaly steam that gets generated.[p]No basting needed. Remember the brining gets the liquids into the cells themselves. The proportions of 1 cup salt to 1 Gal water hold true. Smaller pieces should not brine as long as whole birds would.

The Naked Whiz

Bully,
Wow, I've never heard of a dry spatchcock chicken. I do know that everything I"ve ever heard says do the bird at 350 degrees. Chicken does not like to be cooked at lower temperatures or you get rubbery meat. Maybe you had a bad bird...
TNW

[ul][li]Spatchcock Chicken[/ul]

Unknown

The Naked Whiz,could be a bad bird (although I do think that it had more to do with the cooking). When I say dry I really meant that it wasn't as juicy as it should have been. The curious bit was the tough skin (hard to chew). Good smoky flavor however. Would this have anything to do with excess smoke??? Certainly the tempature (300 320) wouldn't be considered as too low. I am going to give it another shot. I will brine one (want to try it anyway) and do a second one without the brine. Obviously you have'nt experienced the problem and given your experience with Spatchcock I guess I am inclined to lean towards a bad bird. We'll advise progress. Thanks and have a nice day. Bully

The Naked Whiz

Bully,
I've seen a number of people complain of rubbery meat if they cook it at temps that low. I've not heard of too much smoke being a problem. I usually use a ton of smoke and the skin wasn't tough, so I doubt that was it. Good luck on your next bird![p]TNW