Chicken breast question

I do them at similar temps but I have an XL so have the space to move around to get the appearance and doneness I want. 

CincyEgg said:

I've done chicken breasts a few times on the egg both indirect and direct and both ways don't seem to finish the chicken off the way some of the more particular people in my family like. When I do it direct, it seems like the chicken is just too close to the fire and gets some burned parts. With the indirect, it usually gets cooked well on the inside but the outside doesn't even really get grill marks, much less a good crisp to it.

personally, I prefer thighs but I'm in the minority in the house with everyone else preferring the white meat.

Does anyone have a failsafe method with temp included for chicken breasts? 

Brine them for a couple hours first, then go raised indirect at 350F until desired IT.

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I do almost always brine breast as well. Mostly just a dry brine for a few hours but we wet brine as well. 

Wet brine for me. It seems, for whatever reason, to work better for my BGEs. Any idea why?

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

raised direct for me at 450. I go up pretty high in the dome with an adjustable rig with the stock round grid on top. Sometimes I bump it to 500 if it's not coloring up the way I like. Works well with all chicken, from whole spatch to wings, breasts, or thighs. 

I never brine, or cook chicken that hot or that high in the dome. 400 direct at gasket level and still only so so as far as crispy is concerned. So thanks! I'll try hotter and higher next time. Still no brine though. Two outta three ain't bad.

In the mini 350° direct, in the small 400-425° raised direct and in the large 450-500° raised direct.   All depends on the distance from the fire.  Chicken breast work better hot and fast.   If I'm using the hot box inside I'll cook at 475 for 18-20mins. 

Melissa Clark said something that I'd never really thought about: that part of the problem with grilling chicken breasts is that they're very uneven thickness, so it's hard to get the thickest part properly done without getting the thinner parts overdone.  It sort of rang a bell for me, given how unforgiving they are, how easy it is to get them overdone or underdone, neither of which are good.

So her recommended solution is to pound them to an even thickness, like 1/2", and then cook them hot and fast, a bit like a thin steak, with a rub or a marinade to give them a bit more flavor.

This is what I do most of the time to grill chicken breasts, now, and I think it works really well.  Here's one of her recipes for a rub, with chicken breasts cooked this way, which is now my wife's favorite grilled chicken.

Even cook, juicy not crisp on the edges.

You need three of them!

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

YukonRon said:

Even cook, juicy not crisp on the edges.

And it's not that way if you dry brine? If that's the case, I have no idea why it would be that way with one and not the other. I have not noticed a difference in the cook and both are very juicy for me.

Can someone help me understand the wet or dry brine process?

SouthernEagle said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

YukonRon said:

Even cook, juicy not crisp on the edges.

And it's not that way if you dry brine? If that's the case, I have no idea why it would be that way with one and not the other. I have not noticed a difference in the cook and both are very juicy for me.

Can someone help me understand the wet or dry brine process?

These are fairly crude explanations but will get you there:

dry brine is just coat with salt and stick in the fridge for a few hours (with chicken- bigger cuts, longer time. Country ham is a dry brined ham that hangs for months). This process will draw the salt in to the meat and the water in the meat will attach to the salt molecules and migrate throughout the meat to find equilibrium.

Wet brine is essentially a salt water solution that you would immerse your meat in for a period of time. This takes salt and water in to the meat. It will actually increase the weight of the meat as it actually adds water. 

A wet brine definitely add juiciness in the form of getting additional water in to the muscle.  In some cases (like chicken breast or fish) when the meat is very mild, adding more water can actually water down the flavor even more. That's why I like to dry brine most chicken and fish. I dry brine steaks too, even the night before. 

If you dry brine, you should use either use the normal amount of salt that you would season with, or you can coat the whole thing in salt then rinse that off and dry very well before you throw on the grill. You normally do not need to season with anymore salt after you brine

i have better luck with whole breast, not split, better skin and more juicy. think spatchcock with legs and wings removed. split at table or split and sauce. i mostly just cook them direct, raised direct at 350 dome but sometimes in the mini direct close to the coals