While Legs and Thighs tend to stay juicy and tender, not needing those characteristics achieved Brining them...They DO benefit from the Salts flavor penetration into the Dark Meat.
The 1/2 Cup Kosher per Gallon Water in my Brine results in 3% Salt per gallon. Add 4 pounds of Chicken, a typical Family Pack of Thighs...
4oz Kosher Salt / 192 oz Chicken and Water × 100 = 2% Salt in equilibrium.
Been using my Family's Favorite Brine 30 Years, leaving Chicken soak up to 3 Days, with No mushy meat or overly salty meat...JJ
I totally agree. You will get better flavor with brining hands down on dark meat.
Also, yep your brine becomes a 2% equilibrium brine and I 100% believe in your family favorite brine really pleasing everyone. I've don't recall ever having to brine/cure chicken or turkey for more than 3 days (maybe a turkey to defrost faster but cant remember) and I have never had mushy poultry at all.
Once I learned about equilibrium brines I've never had a dry over salted piece of chicken or pork loin since hahaha.
Certainly a good way to get flavors into the meat. Thanks!
But if you do it with cure, I'd think you'd leave a colored trail of each path the needle took?
I've been known to put a little cure in my brine as well, which was in the back of my mind with the over-salting concern, and with liquid brine it certainly follows any fissures in the meat, coloring wise. Mumbling about smoke rings somewhat dismisses the issue but I think a couple dozen needle pokes would be a bit less excusable.
Feature, not bug?
I see where it would be easiy to think that the cure would leave streaks or migrate to the holes but the cure (curing salt) want's to distribute evenly like the regular salt. So when you inject and then submerge and leave for long enough the salt and cure distributes evenly throughout the meat and the water thereby leaving no streaks since it moves to be even!! C
Crazy how it all comes together aye hahaha.
Now if you don't brine it long enough then yeah you can get differences in coloration. I have seen this before where I rushed some cured smoked turkey drumsticks. I didnt inject these guys and they needed about 1/4 inch more penetration of the cure near the bone at the thickest part but it was fine since I hot smoked them and the cure is only for the flavor on poultry not for slow long smoking.
When injecting and brining for an adequate time I've never had an issue and brining time is greatly reduced since salt and cure is spreading from inside and out :)
I was looking for rules of thumb...better yet, Greg Blonder has calculators;
https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/saltbrinecalculator.html
Note there's 3 tabs there for 3 physical concepts.
Thighs are my "go to" chicken dinner too. The difference in saltiness between overnight brining and 1.5 days is considerable, both empirically and by the calculator. I'm liking the idea of shooting for the equilibrium approach....my problem has not been too much salt per chicken mass, but not enough water to keep the final percentage below 2%. I've transitioned to brining in zip lock bags but that greatly reduces the amount of water I use and I need to reduce salt accordingly and be consistent about brining for at least 1 full day.
It's always good to re-think one's assumptions. Great topic; thanks to all posters.
I've used that calculator and it is good to go for BRINE ONLY, NOT CURE #1.
If using cure #1 to cure something in an equilibrium brine then I recommend this calculator:
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So for clarity:
Yeah you had the right idea with the bags and salt for brine you just have to adjust the numbers. I would suggest going with a 1.75%-1.8% starting point and see if you want to bump up or down. When I do a cure #1 brine I use that range or when I do a fish brine. When I do all other brines I think I do 2%, need to check my notes.
Bill my friend you are on your way to brining heaven and nailing it EVERY time! :D