Chicken – Substituting table salt for kosher salt when brining chicken

I suggest reading this Cook's Illustrated - The Basics of Brining (PDF) article. I use their basic brine all the time.

This article taught me two cool things I didn't know about brining.

1. Adjust the amount of sugar & salt downward for high heat applications.
   • Decreasing the amount of sugar ensures that the exterior of the meat doesn't burn. Prior to learning this I had a few "issues" with this mishap
2. Air drying chicken and turkey in the fridge after brining allows the skin to dry out, enabling it to crisp nicely when cooked.

If you aren't familiar with Cook's Illustrated, they bill themselves as America's Test Kitchen. They will take a recipe and beat on it with dozens or more variations tweaking and analyzing it as they go, until they come up with the "ideal" something or other. In this case, it's brining.

With this as a base you have a lot of opportunity for experimentation. I usually add very hearty aromatic spices to mine. Some possible additions and substitutions:

• Whole peppercorns
• Ancho chiles
• Whole Allspice
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Candied Ginger
• Brown sugar in place of sugar
• Substituting some vegetable stock for water **Use the lowest sodium stock possible, and adjust salt accordingly. I don't have a hard-and-fast rule here, but I tend to go with about 20% less salt than the "basic", more or less.

Another thing addressed by this article is what meats should and shouldn't be brined. The short version is lean mild meats are suitable for brining, fatty meats or those often cooked rare/med-rare do not benefit.

Suitable

• Cornish Hen
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Pork
• Some seafood
  • Whole side of salmon (grill roasted or smoked)
  • Shrimp

Unsuitable

• Beef
• Lamb
• Goose
• Duck

I don't know how well a substitution will work in this case, because I don't know how the salt is being used in the recipe.

If you're mixing the salt into something where it will dissolve, then go ahead and substitute, using the chart that @ManiacZX linked to. If you're mixing it into cold things, and it doesn't sit for very long, I'd go with a finer salt if you have it.

If it's a recipe that calls for a salt rub, where you rub the bird down with salt, let it sit, then pat dry and roast, you're not going to have as good of results with a replacement. The issue is the size and shape of the crystals; kosher salt specifically sticks well to moist surfaces to draw out the liquid, and as a result, some of the salt is taken into the meat. You're not going to get the same behavior with other salts (or at least, not in the same amount of time).