Any risks or downsides to brining?

[jjdbike]

Hello friends,

Planning a cook this Saturday for my wife’s birthday gathering. I’m going to do Nashville hot drums, Alabama thighs, & St. Louis (sweet & spicy sauced).

I’m new to brining.

I’m considering brining these chicken parts to retain moisture. I’m planning on using Meat Church bird baptism. On the other hand, I’m wondering if there are any potential downsides to brining. Does brining guarantee rubbery skin? Since I plan on seasoning, do I risk over salting? Are there any negative impacts on the texture of the meat?

Thanks in advance!
JD

[bbqLuv]

Italian Dressing--The cheap store brands work well, only need a few hours.
No downside that I can tell.

For bite through/crispier skin, I found cooking at 375*F works well. Remember to Completely Dry the skin before cooking.

My opinion only. Looking forward other replies.

[dpearce]

Was reading up on brining on the free side awhile back. The consensus as far as I can see, was if you're planning of using seasoning with salt already added, don't wet or dry brine with salt first. Just coat the meat with the rub and dry brine in the fridge overnight, or a few hours before cooking.

If wet brining, then you'll definitely be using salt for that, so you'll want a seasoning mix without added salt. Or if you really want to wet brine and you're planning on adding a sauce with salt in it, perhaps make a marinade with the sauce/coating and let that wet brine?

As far as rubbery skin, if you're worried about that, I'd add some oil or fat to the meat, then the seasoning, close to the time of the cook. There's always the case when smoking lower and slower that the skin may not crisp up, so perhaps when it gets within 5 or so degrees of being properly cooked, hit the chicken with direct heat. Or an air fryer.

I'm sure others here might have good ideas for this.

[Ace]

+1 above.
I dry brine 24-48 hours before the cook and I make sure that the rub I use has no salt in it. As mentioned above, you can skip the salt brine and brine with the rub if it has salt added. Also, after the brine, I dry the skin with a paper towel and uncover the chicken 24 hours before the cook and rotate them to dry both sides. Crank up the heat towards the end of the cook to get crispy skin or finish in hot oil. As always... YMMV 😊

[jfmorris]

To me, there is a big downside with marinating skin-on chicken parts, and that will be soggy/rubbery skin that won't crisp. This is why I only dry brine chicken or turkey anymore.

Personally, I would dry brine, with the seasonings you plan to use if they contain salt, several hours or overnight, and cook hot and fast. The tip above about oil is helpful too - I sometimes use spray oil (olive oil usually) on chicken to help with crisp skin, and to hold onto the dry rub.

[RichieB]

I use baking powder. Applied a few hours prior to cooking. I also use avocado oil as a binder for the baking powder. I do chicken parts on the Kettle with Vortex. I sauce or season the last 5 minutes of the cook. Never been disappointed with the results for crisp chicken.

[Stuey1515]

This, baking powder turns wings into sunshine, I let people sauce as they wish after the cook

[RonB]

Separating the skin from the meat also helps crisp the skin.

[bbqLuv]

I have watched that in many YouTube videos.
Seems like more work than I want to do for chicken.

[captainlee]

Brining is just too salty for my taste even with a non salt rub. As mentioned Italian dressing works well.

[JCBBQ]

I’ve only ever wet brined whole turkeys. When I do that I finish the brine the night before and air dry the bird in the fridge overnight. It’s a great strategy and bc of the air drying the skin gets nice and crispy. The real advantage is that bc you’re cooking a whole bird with white and dark meat that cook at different speeds, you can cook the white meat longer than you would if cooking separate parts and it won’t dry out.

I’ve never tried to brine a chicken or chicken parts. I would guess that the theory holds true. But it sounds like you’re cooking all dark meat so I don’t know how important it’ll be. These parts should all cook at the same speed.

[DaveD]

We experimented with wet brine vs dry brine on chicken, and have basically abandoned wet brining. It's much more work and mess, and for my money confers zero benefit that you can't achieve by dry brining. I do the same as Ace - dry brine virtually everything a day ahead, then season strictly with salt-free rubs. And the good news is that chicken skin is transparent to pure salt, as documented in Meathead's first book and elsewhere - you don't have to peel the skin back for the salt, just sprinkle it on. Not so for the rub compounds, their molecules are much larger and won't diffuse the way NaCl will. So I will mildly disagree that seasoning with a salt-bearing rub qualifies as "brining", because the salt in the rub will almost certainly quickly combine with the other compounds once moisture from the meat provides an aqueous medium for them to mix in, and will remain largely at the surface instead of permeating the meat.

Please let us know how you chose to do the cook and how it turned out!

[jjdbike]

Thanks everyone,

I've read your responses, thought about it, and decided to "dry brine" with my intended rubs the night before. I'm using Diter Wolf Spicology Nashville hot rub for the drums, Meat Co Lab Winner Winner Chicken Dinner for the though, and Meat Church Gospel rub for the breasts. All parts are ski on bone in.

I'll cook on my SnS grill w/ a 2 zone approach. I'll use a couple of chunks of cherry for color and flavor. I'll start on hot side, reverse sear to get some marks, then to the indirect to cook and render, then sauce and caramelize. Caramelizing the sauce is the tricky part. It can go from tacky to bitter in heart beat.

After the chicken of off and resting, I'll toss some sweet peppers, sweet onions, and fresh sliced pineapple rings on the grill.

I'm also smoking some bonito I caught. It's seasoned w/ red hatch chili powder and lime pepper. I'm using it for a spread w/ cream cheese, Jalapeños, and diced red opinion.

Someone is bringing pasta and veggies salad and someone is bring corn on the cob. The only hing that's missing is some nice sliced garden tomatoes. I'll work on that : )

Cheers!
JD

[jfmorris]

Sounds like a plan!

I will say this about resting chicken. It is crispiest the first few minutes off the grill, and if you cover it to keep it warm, the skin goes downhill pretty quick. I would get those veggies and pineapple cooked quickly if you are having to cycle them through the same grill. Alternatively, if you have another grill, even a gasser, I would think about tossing those items on it a few minutes before the chicken is done, so that you can bring everything in at the same time...

[DaveD]

Sounds fantastic! What time should we be there??

[SheilaAnn]

Sounds like a great feast! And happiest birthday to Mrs jjdbike

[jjdbike]

Thanks all!

I'll post pics and results for sure!

I'm going to start another thread about cooking ahead, resting, reheating and saucing.

JD