Dry brine chicken

[mad mike]

Do you salt under the skin or just all over the bird? Same ratio (1/2 teaspoon per pound) as beef?

[CaptainMike]

Hey there fellow Mike, I just sprinkle all over the outside with good results. 1/2 tsp per lb seems like a lot, I sprinkle about as much as I would if I were seasoning it to eat, and occasionally that's too much.

[grantgallagher]

^^ this. salt will penetrate the skin. perfect if you can do it the night before...

Any kind of herb based (simon and garfunkel) you want to get under the skin imo

[Troutman]

Actually I’m going to disagree, salt will certainly help cure poultry skin but it doesn’t allow good penetration. It’s better if you get salt under the skin as much as possible for good meat penetration.

Personally that’s why I still wet brine poultry, I feel it does a much better job then dry.

[Henrik]

I'm with Troutman on this one. We brining works way better for poultry.

[Frozen Smoke]

Same here. I wet brine all poultry as well as pork chops or loins, Pork butts I do not wet brine.

[Jerod Broussard]

I like to get under the skin of the breasts due to thickness. Even if I am going a couple days.

[smokenoob]

I’m not touchin’ this one.....

[Stevo]

I salt with 1/2tsp kosher per lb. I do salt under the skin and on top. Just because I wanna. I also later do the salt-free rub both under and on top of the skin...

[shify]

Get as much as you can under the skin and then put more on top of skin. I don’t measure, just eyeball it and use as much as I normally would if I was cooking right away

[CaptainMike]

And there you have it! Ask 4 lawyers the same question and you will get 5 or 6 different opinions.

[CaptainMike]

For my own personal interest I think I'll do a side-by-side comparison of the 3 main ways mentioned here to brine chicken.

[ecowper]

I like to rub salt on the breasts, under the skin and then salt the bird on the skin for the rest of it. Plus salt on the cavity of the bird (which I spatchcock) .... this results, in my experience, in a great dry brine and very well dessicated skin .... if you want it seriously crispy, which I do.

[jecucolo]

I use PBC AP rub. I put it on both the skin and the flesh. I believe read somewhere on AR that the salt does penetrate the skin.

[EdF]

As far as I know, it does.

[mad mike]

Thanks guys.