Couple of poultry questions

[cseymour]

Hi all,
Been reading the posts on brining and want to make sure I am getting this right.

In one post it said if you don't have room in the fridge, you could add ice to your bird and brine. Is that correct? would you add enough for the 10-12 hour soak?

I am pretty sure a 5 gall bucket wouldn't fit in my fridge. So I am assuming I could have the bird(s) brine in the garage as long as they have enough ice to stay below 40[sup:b82a97f6f7]o[/sup:b82a97f6f7], is that correct?

Also, I have a Char-griller, when I want to smoke the chickens, can I just lay them on the grates, breast side up I would assume, or is a BCC rack the better way to go?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[up in smoke]

As long as the garage isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t too warm or your brine will be too diluted to do much good. Before you put em on, wipe dry (inside and out, and under the skin), and rub some EVOO on them and season well, inside too. Wipe down your rack with oil or grease before you put the yardbirds on, so when they are done you wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t tear off big pieces of meat where it stuck to the grill. Or some people just set them in a tinfoil lasagna pan. Whatever floats your boat!

 

[gunslinger]

Since we do a lot of poultry, I have a fridge in the shed with the bottom racks removed to fit a 5 gallon bucket.
Smoke breast side down.

 

[ultramag]

If your brining container won't fit in your fridge a cooler will help keep your brine cold much longer than a 5 gal. bucket if you have one big enough. To adjust for your ice melting back of your water a little that is in the brine recipe.

 

[gunslinger]

Or use ice packs or ziplocks filled with ice.

 

[zardnok]

I buy the big plastic bottles of Apple Juice at Sams Club to use when I spritz stuff and when I am done with them, I rinse them out, fill them up with water, and toss them in the freezer. That way I always have big blocks of ice whenever needed. Added bonus is that they do not dilute the brine since you can toss them into the cooler or bucket sealed up and they keep things just as cold.