Chicken Brine Question

Brining 101 says to heat the water to a boil to make sure everything dissolves. If you're making a gallon of brine, I would take a quart of water to boil the ingredients then add ice to make the brine cold fast. That way you can put cold brine into your refrigerator. When the brine is below 40*, then put a refrigerated chicken into it. For food safety, don't put a chicken into a warm brine.

Take a gallon container, fill with water, pour into pot and note the water level. That way, when you're adding ice/water as you're making the brine you can estimate a gallon.

Here's Brining 101 if you need it.

Simple brine 1 will not have much flavor, but will add LOTS of moisture to the chicken, while #3 will do the same, BUT add a deep flavor also.

It is my understanding that the solution doesn't need to boil,BUT if you don't boil, it needs some time for all the flavors to dissolve..ie, 24-48hrs.

ALWAYS make sure the brine is below 40* before adding chicken and it stays below 40* the whole time that the chicken is brining.

When buying whole chickens, if the chicken has more than 12% enhancement, you may want to brine for a longer time or a at least I do.

You'll want to probe the inner thigh, it will be the last part of the chicken to get done.

Good luck!

so if i make the brine a day in advance and boil it and put it in the fridge it will be plenty cold enough to add the chicken and then let it set in the fridge with the chicken in it

Yep. Let the brine come to room temp before placing it in the fridge. No sense heating up the fridge inventory.

When I was just a pup...lol...well maybe I should say green, some of the forum PROs helped me with my 1st brined chicken. I would like to give you the same knowledge that was passed on to me. Please take the time to look at it and you may learn from my valuable lessons.

thanks for the info what should i try to get the chicken temp to for it to be ready to come out of the smoker?

Shoot for 160* in the breast and 175* in the dark meat. Nice thing about brining is you won't dry out the breast when you cook the dark meat to 175* and invariably cook the white meat higher than 160*. I take it out when the dark meat hits 170* and lightly foil letting it cook a few more degrees as it sits for 15-20 minutes.

what area of the chicken should the thermometer probe go? Also i just got my taylor thermometer in the mail will it be ok to run the cord down the top through the hole where the smoke comes out? Thanks

Your Taylor cord will be fine.

Follow Pags temp guides. For the breast, insert in the thickest part of the breast, just in front of the wishbone. Same goes for thigh...insert at the thickest part. You want the tip of the probe in the meat, not touching the bones.

ok thanks i know the probe is like 6 inches long or so. I figured it was suppose to be in the breast somewhere but had heard other people say diferent things. I went to the store and bought a whole chicken weight says 4.93 pounds what would be a good time to brine this bird in the brine III? Gonna mix the brine today and let it set in the fridge over night? How long will the brine stay good in the fridge? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks

Too much talking... time for cooking...how ya gonna learn, unless you EXPERIENCE. Some of the better cooks can tell by sight and cutting to see if the juices run clear, but how did they become better cooks?

To many different ways to smoke so sometimes a little practice helps, or least it does me.

Oh, as long as the brine hasn't been used it will stay quit sometime in the frig, but toss used brine.

I found the following brine recipe on the web that we really enjoy.

3 lemons, cut in half
1 cup Kosher salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup crushed garlic
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
5 jalapenos, split and seeded
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 gal water

For myself, I tend to brine 1 to 2 hours per pound. Good luck.

well im thinking im gonna brine it for around 8 hours thanks for the recipe though i might give that one a try

Thanks. Interesting looking brine recipe. I've bookmarked it for the next turkey breast.

I'm with you Pags, that looks like a fine brine recipe, I gotta try it. I would think that when doing a turkey, a person could add some sage to that recipe.

quote:

Oh, as long as the brine hasn't been used it will stay quit sometime in the frig, but toss used brine.

Weeks? If you don't use it? I'm curious as to the answer as well. Say you make up a batch of your favorite brine planning on doing a little smoking for the weekend but something comes up. You haven't used the brine yet but it's all dissolved nicely and sitting in the frige?

Depends on what you put in the brine. If it's salt, water, etc, it'll last a LONG time.

If it's something that won't spoil, I don't see why the brine wouldn't last a really long time.

But just throw it out if in doubt, it's cheap enough to make, not worth the risk if you're worried about it.

Thank you Smokin - A little common sense comes into play I guess ;-)