Brine or not to brine whole chickens

[chef jimmyj]

Every bird that does not say, " All Natural " is typically Enhanced. Perdue is one that advertises all natural prominently.
Enhanced with 8% solution of Broth and Salt IS a Brine. Of course, it Ain't Grandma's Chicken Broth! 1 or 2 Chickens, that got shredded by the processing machine, in a 100 Gallons of Water, can be called BROTH.
The purpose..." Enhanced " sounds Special, something Better than not enhanced. Good Marketing! The real reason for enhancing? Adding Weight, $$$$, and Plumping a skinny bird to make it pretty.
Years ago a Yellow Skinned Chicken was favored because the Color comes from Carotene, Vitamin A, found in Grass and leafy plant. Made folks think Free Range. Perdue got smart and fed Marigold Petals to their birds and even Advertised it...Nice Yellow Chickens!
They dont say how much,salt is added, but you could get an idea from the Sodium on the Nutrition Label. If you make your Brine to your taste, your salt and theirs, will average out...JJ

 

[browneyesvictim]

I keep hearing folks talking about being afraid of brining an already "brined" or "enhanced" bird. That is for fear of it being too salty. As I have come to understand it (from here of course) is that the salt does not compound from brining again. In other words, if you take an 8% or 10% enhanced bird and brine it in an equilibrium brine solution, it will not make it any more salty than the difference of the two. That's why its called an "equilibrium brine".

 

[phatbac]

last chicken I made I spatchcocked and injected with creole butter and then coated the outside in the butter and slow-smoked at 225 for 2 hours.

Happy Smoking,
phatbac (Aaron)

 

[tallbm]

Sounds good.

Like browneyesvictim mentions (and I was hinting at) an equilibrium brine would be the way to go.

To simply explain it, you will:

• pick a % number of salt that you want your brined meat to have. A good number to me is between 2% - 2.5%. We will use 2% for this example.

• You then weigh your meat/chicken and the amount of water you plan to use.
  
  
• Multiply that TOTAL weight (meat/chicken + water) times .02 (which is 2%) and that is how much salt you must dissolve and add. THIS is the magic. No matter what, you will NOT get more than 2% salt in your meat/chicken BECAUSE you calculated 2% salt for the amount of chicken AND water you have!

• Once all meat/chicken, water, and salt are added you just brine for a long enough period of time so that the salt distributes equally between the chicken and the water, hence "equilibrium"

In the case of an "enhanced bird" there may/can/will be a little bit of salt added to your chicken already BUT it shouldn't affect things too much as I believe it isn't even 1% of the bird weight much less 1% of the bird + your water weight. So using a number like 2% means you should be good to go.

To me using a number like 3% is just too salty so I stick in the 2-2.5% range.

Again, the magic is that you are adding salt that is equal to 2% the weight of your chicken and water therefore the chicken can at max have 2% salt absorbed after a long enough period of time brining. ON chickens I do overnight/12 hours for my minimum brining time to get pentration and 24 hours for full penetration. If you go longer you will be ok because again you can't exceed 2% of the salt in your bird!!! :)

For anyone wanting to get really detailed I'm purposely not covering the fact (the super technical mathematical details) that technically the amount of salt is not 2% of the overall brine solution weight (chicken + water + SALT weight). That is not needed for the practice of brining meat in this case :D

If anything is misstated in this post I'm sure the much more experienced and knowledgeable briners will add on and I will fix this post to ensure accurate info is posted :)

I hope this helps explain the mystery of an equilibrium brine :)

 

[browneyesvictim]

WELL DONE TALLBM! That's a very good explanation!

It should also be pointed out that if you INJECT you would directly increase the % of salt. That is why I prefer an equilibrium brine for previously enhanced birds.

 

[tallbm]

WELL DONE TALLBM! That's a very good explanation!

It should also be pointed out that if you INJECT you would directly increase the % of salt. That is why I prefer an equilibrium brine for previously enhanced birds.

Thanks!
I don't mind injecting but you are right about directly increasing the % of salt. I also have much better results in Turkey than in Chicken when injecting.
I prefer the brine approach but will inject if time is of the essence and I have an injectable ready to go.

Brine is so much more even and better in flavor for me :)

 

[dj mishima]

Like browneyesvictim mentions (and I was hinting at) an equilibrium brine would be the way to go.

To simply explain it, you will:

• pick a % number of salt that you want your brined meat to have. A good number to me is between 2% - 2.5%. We will use 2% for this example.

• You then weigh your meat/chicken and the amount of water you plan to use.
  
  
• Multiply that TOTAL weight (meat/chicken + water) times .02 (which is 2%) and that is how much salt you must dissolve and add. THIS is the magic. No matter what, you will NOT get more than 2% salt in your meat/chicken BECAUSE you calculated 2% salt for the amount of chicken AND water you have!

• Once all meat/chicken, water, and salt are added you just brine for a long enough period of time so that the salt distributes equally between the chicken and the water, hence "equilibrium"

In the case of an "enhanced bird" there may/can/will be a little bit of salt added to your chicken already BUT it shouldn't affect things too much as I believe it isn't even 1% of the bird weight much less 1% of the bird + your water weight. So using a number like 2% means you should be good to go.

To me using a number like 3% is just too salty so I stick in the 2-2.5% range.

Again, the magic is that you are adding salt that is equal to 2% the weight of your chicken and water therefore the chicken can at max have 2% salt absorbed after a long enough period of time brining. ON chickens I do overnight/12 hours for my minimum brining time to get pentration and 24 hours for full penetration. If you go longer you will be ok because again you can't exceed 2% of the salt in your bird!!! :)

For anyone wanting to get really detailed I'm purposely not covering the fact (the super technical mathematical details) that technically the amount of salt is not 2% of the overall brine solution weight (chicken + water + SALT weight). That is not needed for the practice of brining meat in this case :D

If anything is misstated in this post I'm sure the much more experienced and knowledgeable briners will add on and I will fix this post to ensure accurate info is posted :)

I hope this helps explain the mystery of an equilibrium brine :)

That's very interesting. So, do you actually add the chicken to the plain water and then weigh? Then, mix in the salt? Or do you estimate how much water you plan to use and then mix in the appropriate amount of salt?

I don't expect to use much brine solution because I will be using gallon bags to brine. My brining container for fish is much too large for something like this unless I was putting in multiple birds at a time.

Also, how long would the bird need to be in the brine if I am just doing a hot smoke 40-140 in 4 hours?

 

[tallbm]

That's very interesting. So, do you actually add the chicken to the plain water and then weigh? Then, mix in the salt? Or do you estimate how much water you plan to use and then mix in the appropriate amount of salt?

I don't expect to use much brine solution because I will be using gallon bags to brine. My brining container for fish is much too large for something like this unless I was putting in multiple birds at a time.

Also, how long would the bird need to be in the brine if I am just doing a hot smoke 40-140 in 4 hours?

An easy way to figure it out is that 1 gallon of water weighs 8 pounds or 3628.74 grams (converting to grams makes for easier math than pounds and ounces).

So if you use a gallon of water you always know that number.

What I usually do take the chicken weight (it's on the package) and convert to grams.
Then I put the chicken in my container (I have brining buckets/tubs, or gallon bags for boneless skinless breast).
I start adding water 1 liter at a time (4 liters make a gallon)until the chicken is pretty much covered. Then I put like a cup and a half or so of water into my magic bullet blender with the salt and run it to dissolve the salt and add it at the end to finish covering the chicken with water.
I stir/shake it all around and seal up.
Measurements don't have to be super precise hence my 2-2.5% solution

You can use the same process for water in a bag or any container and just get close or go a hair over on the salt %.

I would say for a whole bird you minimally want 2 hours in the brine for something to happen. For boneless skinless breast I've gone as little as 30 minutes and got good flavor and results.

It is best to pick up the chicken the day before you plan to eat it and just throw it in the brine and then whenever you are ready the next day you pull it out, season with everything but with NO SALT and then smoke away :)

The fact that it is a hot smoke makes no difference on the brining time.

Keep the questions coming, we'll get it clear as mud :)

 

[dj mishima]

I've bookmarked this thread. I'll give it a shot next time I do a chicken. Thanks!

 

[tallbm]

I've bookmarked this thread. I'll give it a shot next time I do a chicken. Thanks!

No problem!

This also works with chicken breast (bone in or boneless skinless) as well as pork loin chops (I cut mine like 2 inches thick), and pork tenderloin. Lot's of wild game meat cuts can benefit from this as well since those animals are usually very lean.

Hell it works for any cut of meat but those are the biggest offenders of being dry and flavorless.

I hope this helps! :)