Pre-brined Chicken

[JackJ]

I'm wondering how folks here feel about the chicken that's got 5 - 12% added sodium water and/or chicken broth. Pork too, for that matter. I've been avoiding it at Kroger, my usual supermarket, feeling that they're charging me extra for the weight of water and a little salt, and feeling that I'll decide how I want to brine my poultry and swine. Some of the solutions also contains preservatives that I'd prefer to avoid.

I recently started shopping at Aldi for some things, and while the selection is small, their beef and salmon offerings look like better quality and value than what I can get at Kroger. But ALL of their chicken and pork appears to be injected/soaked in some kind of brine/preservative solution.

Curious who else avoids this extra processing, or if my bias against it isn't as reasonable as I feel it is.

[RonB]

I don't buy injected meats or fowl.

[Jfrosty27]

Negative.

[MBMorgan]

If it’s possible to do so, I always try to avoid pre-brined.

[HouseHomey]

Honestly I have no idea. I usually buy Foster Farms. Do they brine??

just about every piece I make is FF so when you see it... that’s what it is. Mostly

This is contrary to how I feel these days.

Now I find that I pay more attention to quality as I eat less these days so I spend more on protein.

i intentionally pay up for Organic pasture birds, air chilled etc.. Or sprouts Organic "free" range etc.. depends on what I’m making and for whom. I have never regretted that quality.

I will check next time I’m at the store.

but yup. FF for me otherwise.

[rickgregory]

All large national brands are crap. But the ones who brine and inject... double crap.

Sometimes you have to buy national brands - maybe for cost, maybe because it's all there is right now. But never but pre-brined etc. I have relatively few dogmas about cooking but "use the best ingredients you can and build from scratch" is one and you can't really build from scratch when meat's been brined/injected.

[BFlynn]

I've toured the plants and they say "injected for flavor" but really it's to get the weight up to charge more.

I prefer not pre brined, but I've cooked those too. They come out tasty but just check which one you have so you don't double brine

[Jerod Broussard]

I've toured the plants and they say "injected for flavor" but really it's to get the weight up to charge more.

Exactly, our breed of chickens lack that "chicken flavor," ONLY reason we inject.

Chicken plants inject chicken with chicken broth

Brisket cooks inject brisket with beef broth, makes me wonder if we'd avoid buying briskets if they had beef broth already injected

[BFlynn]

I'm not against pre brined chicken. I just want 15% injected chicken to cost 15% less.

[Bkhuna]

If I'm going to cook anything that's brined, I'd like to be the one doing the brining.