I have a chicken rub from a local restaurant. How much rub should I add to a brine? I plain on brine the whole bird.
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By "brine" do you mean a wet brine? If so that's a tough question. Usually we wouldn't recommend both due to "double salt jeopardy". Usually if you wet brine anything that's all the salt it needs, and then you'd use herbs or spices with no salt. If you were to mix up a wet brine I suppose you could get by using half the normal salt in the wet brine and for the other half use the rub. Or half the salt, then add a little bit of the rub to the chicken after you remove it form the brine.
If you mean dry brine- simply use that rub by itself as the dry brine. Do it the morning of the cook, or the night before, and if you have room in your fridge leave it uncovered until cook time. -
I use just salt and sugar in my brine.Comment
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Do you know the salt content of the rub? I generally dry brine, salt only, and then rub before cooking. And I ensure the rub has no salt. If it's salty, I'd apply instead of salt during the dry brine; how much depends on how salty the rub is. Keep in mind that if you add the rub to water, a lot of it will never come into contact with the bird.Comment
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Yeah, I am with everyone else on this. Most commercial rubs are salt-forward with it as the most prevalent ingredient by weight and probably volume, and you don't need salt on top of them. I would just use it AS your dry brine, or if doing a wet brine, use the rub sparingly when you take the chicken to the grill.
I wouldn't bother using a commercial rub as an ingredient in a wet brine, as the only thing that truly penetrates the meat much is salt, and those other ingredients are just a surface treatment that tastes good if eating the skin, etc.Comment
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Don't overthink this. But Some chickens are already brined in a package with a salt solution.
About scant 3/4 cup kosher salt to one gallon of water, then add seasonings.
If you have not already you may want to check out the following:
Salting And Wet Brining: Flavorize, Moisturize, Tenderize (amazingribs.com)
Last edited by bbqLuv; March 2, 2022, 02:00 PM.Comment
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Interesting. Agree with what was previously said. I’ve never wet brined a whole bird. Only breasts. Curious how this turns out.Comment
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My first smoked chicken, waaaay back in the way back, was wet brined. Only used salt and some sugar. It turned out so good, I just kept doing it for years. Years later for some reason I smoked a bird that I had only dry brined, and assumed it wouldn't be as good. I assumed wrong, and haven't wet brined a bird since then.
So in other words, I would recommend a simple salt or salty rub application a few hours before it hits the cooker.Comment
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Seen enough. No wet brineComment
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If I wet brine a bird I will add a tablespoon or so of dry rub to my wet brine mixture, hey, why not....
As mentioned be careful with the kosher salt you add to a wet brine....ask me how I know....if it was packaged with a brine solution. I cut the kosher salt in the recipe I use back to less than a quarter cup.
I only wet brine over night and dry rub out of the fridge and onto the grate.Comment
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