Second attempt: wet-brined half birds, 2-zone

[DaveD]

Hey friends, I'm following my first attempt at 2-zone chicken grilling from about 8 weeks ago with another variation. Having had success last time with an indirect temp of about 375F/190C and leaving it on the indirect side for the duration (no sear step), going to try that same approach but with a buttermilk brine this time. I'm following, more or less, the brining approach of Samin Nosrat in her great book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.

After first spatchcocking to remove the backbone, sliced the bird in two and dry brined with kosher salt for half an hour or so. Then each half bird into its own bag with a cup of buttermilk to which a tablespoon of kosher and teaspoon of ground black pepper is added. That will marinate overnight, and onto the grill tomorrow. Gonna do the same as before, with some pellets sprinkled into the GrillGrates to generate a little smoke.

I can't think of a reason why the buttermilk brining would change how the cook will go, but I'm all ears if anyone has some input... Here's the prep so far.

[rickgregory]

Buttermilk is slightly acidic so that can affect things. Not sure about how the dairy affects things though. Classic brine for fried chicken of course. I might try this as I'm smoking a chicken tomorrow.

[holehogg]

I just placed an order for 1.5 gallons of buttermilk on special. So your feedback tomorrow will possibly give me another use for some of the buttermilk.
Will be waiting in anticipation of your results.
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[FireMan]

Try callin someone that & see what yer response would be, you wet brined half bird you. 😎

[Dick Anderson]

Seems like I've heard wet brain, before

[realdocBBQ]

I'm in the mood for some smoked chicken. <sigh> No time, no time...

[Oak Smoke]

This reminds me of my jalapeño chicken recipe. I’ve not used it with skin on chicken before. Do just as you’ve described but add a half cup of hot sliced pickled jalapeños to the bag. After 24 hours the flavor is incredible. I also use it on wild turkey breast and pheasant breast. You can grill it or roll it in AP flour and fry it. If you choose to fry be sure and bread some of the jalapeños too, they are very good.

[DaveD]

Oooh, those sound like interesting variants! Will take note for future reference

[DaveD]

One thing I should have noted is that my lovely bride has used this buttermilk brine approach more than a few times with the roasting done in the kitchen oven, and it's been really good. Those were all whole birds though, and roasted at 425F/220C for 20-30 minutes before reducing the temp to 400F/204C until done, typically 40-45 min. It will be interesting to compare this against our recollections of those meals.

[DaveD]

And hey, maybe someone will make a movie about this cook. They could call it The Life of Brine.

[rickgregory]

DAVE.

[DaveD]

Thank you! Thankyouverymuch. I'm here all week.

[Finster]

Pellets on the grate in place of wood chips or chunks?

[DaveD]

Pellets are my only smoke source -- used them on my first chicken 2-zone and it worked great! I'll have the slotted sides up on the Grill Grates on the hot side for that. Ain't got no other wood.

[IowaGirl]

Geeze, I just read an article about experiments that someone did to test the various acids used for brining and marinading -- acetic (vinegar), lactic (buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, etc.), and citric (lemon, lime, orange, etc.) Aaaaack -- can't remember where I found that -- Serious Eats, maybe?

Phew. Found it -- https://www.seriouseats.com/the-scie...gurt-marinades

The author's conclusions (I added an edit in [ ] brackets)--

"...Of all the cooking acids, lactic acid is the gentlest acid when used in meat marinades, followed by citric acid, then acetic acid. Lactic acid’s [negative] effect on the texture of chicken and lamb was not as drastic as the effect of citric acid or vinegar, and it improved the outcomes in terms of weight gained during marination (more weight was gained) and weight lost during cooking (less weight was lost)....

"...there are few downsides to longer marinades with yogurt and significant benefits: more juicy, nicely textured meat, and, in the case of tougher meats like lamb leg, a significant reduction in the amount of time it takes to cook them until tender...."

[Troutman]

Good post 👍 My Filipina wife prefers the vinegar (acetic) because she was brought up with that, I prefer and will stick with citric, love the flavor profile.

[glitchy]

Why do you cook the on the gasser instead of the pellet grill? Pellet grills are great chicken cookers. The copperhead goes to at least 350° doesn’t it?

[DaveD]

Why do you cook the on the gasser instead of the pellet grill? Pellet grills are great chicken cookers. The copperhead goes to at least 350° doesn’t it?

It's billed as a vertical smoker, not a grill. Yeah, it can go even higher, it has knob settings for 400F and "High", neither of which I have tried to use. I wouldn't want to grill on the racks that are in there either, so I'd have to introduce some kind of pan, which would block a fair bit of smoke I reckon. 2-zone on the Weber gas grill is really easy, and chucking some pellets in the rails of the GrillGrates on the hot side ditto. We experimentalists are fundamentally lazy

And as it happens, it's about time to get that grill fired up and configured...!

[glitchy]

I doubt you’ll hurt the grates in the copperhead, I’ve run 400-450 on several pellet grills with porcelain coated grates and never had an issue. It takes direct heat and higher temp than that to hurt them or I’d be giving PitBoss support a lot of grief for using grates insufficient for their cooker. You should also get a lot more smoke from the PitBoss versus pellets on the GrillGrates. Though a lot more is still light smoke at those temps.

[DaveD]

Another reason to do it this way is to compare the outcome from the last time (same process, different starting material). I've done thighs in the smoker before, and they did come out very nicely - don't get me wrong, not ruling it out.

[DaveD]

And how is this for kismet? I just had a Facebook memory pop up showing that on this day two years ago, my lovely bride made this very chicken in the oven as I described above. What are the odds?? Here's what it looked like back in 2020:

[DaveD]

Just as I got the grill stable, a big blast of wind rolled in for a while -- actually blew out the grill, came in at just the right angle I guess. I was paying close attention so it didn't take me long to notice, but dayum.

Things are moving along, temps around 110F/43C, and I'll rotate the pieces here in a bit to even out exposure to the hot side. So far so good.

[Bad Hat BBQ]

Is there an advantage to splitting into 2 pieces?

I usually spatchcock my turkeys......It is still one piece though....

[DaveD]

Easier to manipulate, and you can pull one half if it gets done quicker...