Monday, May 28, 2012

WE COOK: HOW TO BRINE A CHICKEN


Using a brine on your chickens before cooking helps lock in the moisture
and give amazing flavor.

Brines seem so complicated yet really they are very simple & the best marinate for 
chicken (in my opinion)

Yesterday I had 4 whole chickens to cook so I did a mass amount of brine.
The chickens turned out amazing.

Here is my brine recipe
*I was brining 4 whole chickens so my recipe is large.
The base to any brine recipe is always the same so you can just make your
brine batch smaller for the amount meat you have!

A brine is 2/3 liquid to 1/3 salt + additional seasonings

For 4 whole chickens my brine was:
24 cups water to 8 cups salt + additional seasonings

In 8 cups of hot water, dissolve 8 cups of Kosher Salt

and 1 Cup of Sugar 

Add any seasonings you want you chicken to taste like:
I used a handful of rosemary, 2 Tbs of black pepper & a handful of Thyme
*Fresh Garlic & Lemon rine is always amazing also!! 



Because I had so many chickens, I used a large tub lined with a garbage bag
to hold my chickens and brine 

Rinse the chickens and place them in a container to brine.
Pour the salty mixture over them.
Then add the remaining 16 cups of cold water 

Get as much of the air out as possible and seal the bag.
Place Chicken in the fridge or (in this case)
cover with ice to keep cool.

Let marinate for at least 4 hours


When ready, cook however you like.
BBQ, Smoke, Oven Roast.....or in my case
we cooked them a very large Dutch Oven (size 16 in case you are wondering)
*Pour a beer in the bottom on the dutch for moisture
Placed all the chickens in the dutch & cooked at about 350 for 3 hours.








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