Smoked Brined Chicken Breast

[dj mishima]

Patted down after 18 hour brine and seasoned with some no salt beef rub I have been using


Smoked at around 220F for 3 hours and 20 minutes until 130F IT and finished off on the grill


Sliced up


I tried brining a 2% solution. 5 lbs chicken plus 850 ml of water filled up my container. I then added about 62 grams of salt. I mixed it up as well as I could and left it in the fridge for 18 hours.

I found it to be overly salty in some slices I sampled. Some were ok. I don't know if the problem was that the salt wasn't mixed well enough or that I used too much salt. The ratio of salt to water seemed very high. But, the container I used was not much larger than the amount of chicken I had in it.

The chicken was very juicy and tender. I will be trying this out again soon. I think I will try using my larger and wider brining container next time with more water. I don't know if I should try to calculate by weight again or if I should try a water to salt ratio recipe such as pops brine minus cure. One thing I noticed was that my scale is not suited for precise lower weights. The marks were in 25 gram increments and I had to bounce it a bit to register weight.

Because of dietary changes, I will eating mostly chicken breast for awhile. So, I need to get this down.

In a side note, I did grill up some chicken breast a few weeks ago that I had brined(or marinated due to the acid?) in pickle juice that turned out great. But, I only have so much surplus pickle juice, lol.

 

[smokerjim]

looks good from here, I use pop's brine, it's just so easy no weighing involved. if you want the hammy taste for a little different taste use pop's with the cure comes out great.

 

[chef jimmyj]

2% Salt should be OK but, skip the salt in the Rub. It's not needed. That and get a new scale. At less than $20 they are worth it...JJ

 

[jcam222]

Is it possible the chicken was already injected with salt solution?

 

[Jabiru]

One thing I do is rinse the meat in cold water after brine otherwise it does get a salt taste.

 

[dj mishima]

2% Salt should be OK but, skip the salt in the Rub. It's not needed. That and get a new scale. At less than $20 they are worth it...JJ

I used some salt free rub that I made for dry brined beef.

 

[dj mishima]

Is it possible the chicken was already injected with salt solution?

I am pretty sure that it wasn't. I should have looked at the sodium content. But, I didn't see any mention of enhancement on the package that said all natural.

Also, since only some pieces were really salty, I suspect that I wasn't able to mix the salt in very well to the chicken packed container. In hindsight, it would have been better to dissolve the salt into at least some water to add to the water I was covering the chicken with. I expected to use at least a liter of water and when the water started approaching the brim I realized I was a little too late.

 

[dj mishima]

One thing I do is rinse the meat in cold water after brine otherwise it does get a salt taste.

I'll have to try that next time.

 

[Jabiru]

Yes, you should always rinse your meat in cold water after brine, makes a big difference. I forgot when brining wings once due to the amount of beer I consumed and the wings were salty compared to when rinsed.

When mixing the brine I use boiling water from the kettle, just enough to dissolve the salt & Sugar, mix it well, then add "cold" water from the fridge to make the brine cool for food safety.
Or if not cool enough pop the brine in the fridge for a few hours or until it is cold.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Brine is the way to go (Pop's works best for me) ... but I'm thinking 22 hrs in the brine is a bit to much... I brine a whole chicken for only 12 hrs (overnight) ... I just put 3-4 cups of hot tap water in the container... then put my salt/sugar in to dissolve... then add ice until cool... and finish with cold water from the fridge... Next time just try an overnight brine and then as said above... you must rinse after the brine ..