Brining Chicken

[JohniusMaximus]

I've got a recipe for an apple cider brine that sounds wonderful but it's made for a 12 or 14 pound turkey.  I'm planning on buying a similar pound amount of whole chickens, halve them, and soak in the brine.  Here's the question:

Should I decrese the amount of time the chicken should be in the brine in order to prevent them from becoming too salty?  Compared to a turkey I'm not sure if these little chicken halves will need as much time.

Recommendations?  The original recipe calls for an 8 to 24 hours soak for the big bird.  I was thinking 6 to 8 for the chicks.

[Habanero Smoker]

Yes, you should decrease your time. Your times look reasonable, but it hard to say without seeing the recipe. For turkey depending on the brine, you brine 1 hour per pound, most chickens whether they are whole or halved 4 to 6 hours.

Can you post the recipe or the total amount of salt and liquid that is in the brine recipe. The reason I ask is that a lot of brines out there are brine recipes for preserving meat, in these days you want to brine to add flavor to the meat. Brines for preserving meat is strong in salt the recipe calls for longer brining times, brines for flavoring food have less salt and require less brine time.

[JohniusMaximus]

I didn't get to check back before I had to start the cooking process.  Luckily it worked out perfectly!  The brine was one and a half gallons of apple juice, one and a half cups of salt, some brown sugar, thyme, peppercorns, orange peels and cloves.  The chickens sat in that for about 8 hours and then for 4 hours of apple wood smoke.  The whole family loved it.  They weren't salty at all.  In fact I think it's the best yard bird I've ever had.

Brine before adding a plate to submerge them.


Smoker at work.


Finished product.

[Pachanga]

Great looking birds.  The coloring is really nice.  It is always good to remember that a great food experience starts with the eyes before it ends in the belly.  Presentation is very important.

My family has gotten spoiled to brined poultry so I am forced to brine all the birds that comes into the house.  This is for all cooking methods, whether grilled, smoked, baked or rotisserie. This includes turkey, whole chicken, split breasts, wings, pheasant, quail, dove and an occasional emu.  I have backed off the salt as the years have gone by and increased the brine time considerably.  I use a vegetable, spice, brown sugar and herb flavor brine with a ratio of 2 gallons water to 1 1/3 cups course sea salt or course kosher salt or I mix them (never use iodized salt unless you consider iodine a spice).  In brining recipes, always pay particular attention to the size of the salt granules.  Fine salt in place of a course salt can elevate your salt content drastically and contribute to a dismal failure.

Using the above ratios, I will brine a 20 lb. turkey for four days, whole chickens two days and the smaller birds and cuts for twenty-four hours ( all refrigerated of course).  I have experimented with split chicken breasts for forty-eight hours and as opposed to twenty four hours in the same batch of chicken.  I could tell no difference between the two.  They were not salty, just seasoned. The flavor and, just as important, the moisture had penetrated all the way through the meat.  The texture does not seem to suffer and the meat is very tender.  The brine time window is opened a lot wider with a lower salt to water ratio. For someone like me, who is not very smart and sometimes forgetful, my experience tells me that lowering the salt and increasing the brine time is a safe way to get excellent results every time.

All that said, don’t argue with success.  Those birds look great.  Apple cider (it was cider or was it juice?) just went on the grocery list.

Pachanga

[JohniusMaximus]

Thanks for that info! Good stuff.

This time I used apple juice.  Once fall gets here I'll go with apple cider.  I love cider but typically use it in recipes or just to drink in the Autumn.  Kind of a tradition.