Chicken – Traveling with 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

How do you 'notice' when the brine hasn't reached certain areas?

Its easy to see if the brine is working and you're possibly just overcooking - weigh the bird pre and post brine, before cooking. If it weighs more, you've got the liquid.

A properly brined bird shouldn't taste like 'omg, thats salty!'. I think two things are going on here:

• Your expectations may be off. Brining isn't magic. It just gives you more liquid in the bird so that when you cook some out there's more at the end. (It can enhance flavor if you add herbs & spices to the brine also).

• You may just be overcooking the chicken. If you overcook it enough, the brine will appear to have done nothing - you've just cooked out all the juiciness you put it. Use a meat thermometer and make sure its 'just right'.

Brining definitely works though, and it shouldn't be overly bird specific.