Anyone else think wet brining poultry is a must?

[smokenoob]

Like Attjack I dry brine out of convenience because it tastes good enough for me. I have not tried wet brine.

[Dan Deter]

I dry brine whole chickens for the rotisserie and turkeys for the roaster at Thanksgiving. I'll do a marinade for 30 min - 1 hour for several grilled boneless chicken breast recipes, which doesn't really count as brining for that short a time. On the whole birds we find the dry brines easier to deal with and better tasting, but of course taste is a personal thing.

[Attjack]

Same. I usually marinate chicken parts and dry brine whole chickens.

[Jfrosty27]

The only time I wet brine a bird is with Stubb’s chicken marinade. It’s an onion and citrus marinade. Serves as a brine in effect. We like it a lot. It’s especially good with rotisserie chicken. Damn. Now I need to run to Costco tomorrow and get a couple whole chickens. I have the Stubb’s in stock already! 🤷‍♂️

[Northern lights smoke]

This is chicken brine I use, it is a quick brine that is great on wings and breasts. It will do 3-4 ponds of chicken.

2 cups of water.
1/4 cup of salt
2 Tbs of sugar
2 cups of ice cold water
2 tsp of black cracked pepper
2 tsp of minced garlic

optional mix and match
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp cilantro
1 tsp of thyme or oregano

Boil the 2 cups of water and dissolve the salt and sugar, add 2 cups of ice cold water to cool down. Add remaining Ingredients and mix. Once it is cooled down to 45f add chicken.

Boneless breasts let brine for 30 minutes at room temp or 1 hour in fridge
Bone in or whole bird brine 2-3 hours room temp or 4-6 hours in fridge.
Do not overbrine or chicken will be mushy. Once brined, rinse off and pat dry. Add rubs etc. And cook at 325 until Internal temp reaches 155 for breasts or 165 for whole chicken.

[glitchy]

This thread inspired me to wet brine thick cut pork chops today, best chops I’ve ever made.

[Richard Chrz]

I’ve never done it, but sure lot’s of good experience to help direct.

[LA Pork Butt]

We cook boneless skinless chicken thighs and we cook wings, but only occasionally cook boneless skinless chicken breasts. I never brine the two aforementioned and slice the chicken breast thin, so I don’t brine unless I am not slicing the breasts thin. I do wet brine whole turcky.

[FireMan]

Ya oughta try boneless, skinless chicken wings, a tasty delight. 🕶

[LA Pork Butt]

FireMan I am not sure where I would find them unless I debone them myself. I kinda like the crispy skin, so unless my wife wants them deboned to cut calories
(I am not telling her about this option), I am sticking with with the skin.

[Texas Larry]

Another vote here for only wet brining poultry breasts and pork chops.

Thinking I may wet brine a turkey this fall, which I haven’t done in a long time. Problem is to find one not already shot full of brine

[Thunder77]

Dry brine the dark meat, wet brine the breasts.

[realdocBBQ]

I want to do a chicken TONIGHT.

I have about 4-5 hours to get it on the smoker - gotta run to the store to buy one.

What's my best bet to get a crispy skin? Brine in a ziploc for 2 hours, then dry thoroughly externally and under the skin as well and let sit in the fridge a couple of hours to try to dry out the skin?

I always think of chikkin too late to brine it overnight. <sigh>

I think I can get my Smoke Vault up to about 350ºF, I'm not sure that's enough. I can get my Yoder pellet smoker up to higher temp, but the smoke profile is lower.



Looking to try something quick tonight I can experiment with my 2 new TempSpike wireless thermometers that just showed up. W00T!

[bmillin]

If time is short I would dry brine that bird - salt it up inside and out then set it on a rack in the fridge to dry the skin out. Personally I don't care that much about the skin being crisp all the time, more focused on the meat being juicy.

[realdocBBQ]

Allon, yes you can use more than one TempSpike with the app - they each show up individually though - not sure how many you can use, but you add devices and they monitor independently. I'd suspect you can do several more than the 2 I have. No way I have seen to display their results together, except on the summary page of the app. I wish you could customize the names of each.

[Allon]

Thanks for the information. I've decided to put off the TempSpike. My TP910 dual probe works just fine for my current hardware.
More of a MCS thing than necessity.

[realdocBBQ]

This is chicken brine I use, it is a quick brine that is great on wings and breasts. It will do 3-4 ponds of chicken.

2 cups of water.
1/4 cup of salt
2 Tbs of sugar
2 cups of ice cold water
2 tsp of black cracked pepper
2 tsp of minced garlic

optional mix and match
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp cilantro
1 tsp of thyme or oregano

Boil the 2 cups of water and dissolve the salt and sugar, add 2 cups of ice cold water to cool down. Add remaining Ingredients and mix. Once it is cooled down to 45f add chicken.

I used this brine, put it all in a giant Ziploc and it's brining in the sink - it's very cold, I used ice to mix with the hot brine instead of cold water, and it's still got a few good slivers in it so it's cold down to the low-to-mid 30s, I think. Should be plenty safe.

I'll take it out in a couple of hours and dry the skin out as best I can. I am still debating about the pellet smoker or the propane with wood chunks and slightly lower temp.

[Oak Smoke]

I understand burning propane produces moisture, I’d go with the pellet smoker.

[realdocBBQ]

Interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that - although I would expect the evaporation from the water pan would cause more moisture.

I did choose the pellet smoker, it is running right now at 425ºF, being monitored by my 2 new TempSpikes.

[realdocBBQ]

I wet brined about 2 hours. Then I took it out, dried the skin off as well as I could with paper towels, going over it twice and really pressing hard to try to get it dry. Then I sprinkled with Lowry's seasoning salt and put on an elevated rack in the fridge - gave it about an hour, that's all I could manage.

Pulled out, sprinkled a little sage on it (why not) and put it in the pellet smoker at 425ºF.

Two TempSpikes in - one in the breast seems to be reading fine. The one in the thigh was hard to get into a good spot - you have to insert it deeply enough to cover the majority of the probe (there is a line on it) and doing that in a thigh was hard to do without being too near the surface OR too near a bone. So, the thigh probe is reading over 30º higher than the breast probe. That's ok, I'll go with the breast probe numbers, I know the thigh will be pretty good when the breast is done, too. Got the alarm set at 155ºF for the breast, I'll pull it and foil tent it and let it ride a while. Gonna be good stuff, I hope.

I made a roast pan of veggies I set under the bird in the smoker - potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and halved baby portabellas. Covered 'em with some chicken stock (thank you Better Than Bouillon®!) fortified with S&P and chopped garlic. Hoping letting the bird drip down on them will help some. I meant to get some Stove Top stuffing mix at the store and I totally forgot. <sigh>

[Allon]

Fortified... I love that word.

[wag]

Dry brine only ----- Taste good enough for wife and me --- why change.

[Allon]

I believe I mentioned Wrights Chicken Farm in North Smithfield, RI wet brines their chicken (big secret is in what).
They are almost always full and it's a BIG place.