I brined for the first time in my life

sounds good Mango. I have never done game hens. I do boneless skinless breasts. they are GREAT! I use to call them boneless tastless breasts. Now try some new flavors in your brine. I like lemons, limes. and/or oranges in mine. Also molasses. If you run out of room in your fridg. I put them in a cooler with ice.
David

You say it like it was a bad thing?

Which brine did you use? Those are all relatively simple brines.

Too salty is easily solved, just cut "some" of the salt, but not all.

Now, combine some of those Hawaiian ingredients in the brine and see what happens.

Smokin'

Huummmmmm

Maybe it did not come out the way I had hoped to say it.

Bit of work was slight humor I had to go shopping first than make it. Warm it up to dissolve the contents let it cool etc before the immersion of the two little birdies.

I used the second brine.

I did say I had fun....

Also I did write they were not all that salty in fact salt taste was almost nil, which was pleasantly surprising seeing how they were soaking it in.

My wife commented how juicy they were�


Hope this helps with any confusion from my first post .

No confusion, it's just hard reading between the lines some times

I remember those skinless, boneless, and tasteless chicken breasts Italy, and since reading about brining here in the forum a few years ago...I've never gone back.
Next time you make your brine for chicken breast, try equal parts of salt and sugar in plenty of water and then add some "McCormicks Chicken Fajita seasoning"....delicious!!!!

Couple of questions for you, BH.

Did you add the fajita seasoning to the brine or as a rub? How long did you brine and where did you go from there? My wife wants me to do some more chicken for her. I wasn't too happy on the thighs I tried.

Also, still waiting for someone to remark on using frozen beef ribs, or frozen anything, I guess as opposed to fresh in cryo-vac.


Hook

What I do is........ take a 2gallon size ziplock bag and add 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of salt. I then, add about 2 cups of hot water and shake bag until sugar and salt are dissolved. Then add the McCormicks Fajita Seasoning..I usually use about half of the jar which is the 3oz. jar you find at most supermarkets. You may want to use more or less once you've tried the recipe a few times. Once all the seasonings are in the water add your boneless skinless chicken breasts and fill the bag with ice cold water until the chicken is completely covered.
Place the bag in the fridge for one to two hours.
When you are ready , take the chicken out of the fridge and rinse in cold water, pat dry with paper towels, and repeat the rinsing and drying two more times.
Now you are ready to cook.....I usually grill mine on my gas grill or you could smoke them in your CS.. just follow any of the cooking times here on the forum for " Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts"

hope you like it

I don't brine my boneless-skinless breasts--I marinate them overnight. I have a great marinade recipe I use, but there are a lot of good ones out there. They go great on the grill.

I just did about 100 of them a few weeks ago. Wish I'd of saved the leftover marinade for that turkey I smoked last weekend!!

They're both good methods and I do them both, they just do different things. There's a difference though in marinades and brining.

Brining will exchange the flavors inside the meat for moisture that is there.

Marinade will only flavor the outside. It won't "exchange"

Hey Dennis, if it's a homemade recipe, don't forget to post it in the recipe forum, always like tried and true recipes.