Moist Chicken!

[Mezzaluna]

It's a soak (the timing depends on the meat/poultry and the ingredients in your brine) that tenderizes and allows the meat to hold the moisture. Salt, sugar and spices are combined in a liquid (water, fruit juice, etc.), and the meat or poultry are submerged in it for a period of time (1 hour for small items, up to a day for a turkey). The salt enables the flesh to take up moisture (think of how you "retain water" when you eat salty food!) but the balance of salt and other flavors should keep the meat from tasting too salty.

When commercial operations do this (Purdue, etc.) they use chemicals and funky salts that are supposed to keep the flesh from becoming rubbery, but to my palate they fail miserably. The meat is overy salty in flavor and mushy in consistency. But a well-prepared home brine doesn't cause those problems.

There have been discussions about brining; use the search button to locate these older threads. Good luck!

[redace1960]

hope you had a good time
brining is one of the secrets behind 'colonel fried chicken'. this technique alone will put you a long way towards your goal of making a nice, moist chicken. mezzaluna has the 411; also search the forums. gonefishin' also makes a good point about cooking times, temps and using only UN -iodozed salt.

[bc89]

when brining, do you have to use water? could i use a broth or something else. i was just curious to know if i have to be limited by water only.

[panini]

Ya know, if your doing home chicken, The grocery stores are basically doing this for you. Almost everything I see out there has 10-15% liquid added. Of course this is salt, stock and whoi knows what?
I have to tell you, there is no such thing as dry chicken with this stuff. Look closely though, they try to hide it on the package.

[Suzanne]

(Oops, I didn't see everyone else's answers on the second page. But we all agree )

Brining at its simplest is soaking the chicken (or pork chops, or turkey -- you get the idea: whatever meat you are going to cook) in a solution of salt and water. (You can add other flavorings, like sugar or herbs or hot sauce, but salt + water = brine.) The idea is to allow the meat or whatever to absorb some of the salt and water (and other flavoring), to gain moisture and flavor. That way, when you cook it, it will not lose as much moisture -- and we all know how awful dry chicken is!

As Panini says, when you buy some meats in the supermarket, if you look closely you'll see from the label that they have water and salt added: that's the same as brining. But it's much better if you do it yourself at home, because you can control the amount of salt, and you won't end up paying for the water they've added. Besides, you can add other flavor (not much, but a little).

If you look on the Food TV website for Alton Brown's show on brining, you'll find just about everything you want to know. (I haven't seen him talk about it, but I'm pretty sure he did.)

You don't really gain anything by using broth: you're going to discard the liquid after you take the chicken out. Salt plus water (plus maybe some herbs) is really all you need. For any other flavors, add those during the cooking when you'll keep the juices.

[Rblum]

as far as grilling goes.... turn turn flip flip .. when you see the juices rising to the surface.... its time to turn the meat regardless of what it is. watch it constantly. this works well at home. it does become a bit impractical in the workplace however.

[chefpeter]

can some one tell me exaclty how this brining works as it does not appear to make sense to me. If you put any meat in a salt, or salt sugar solution the moisture is surely drawn out through osmosis as the thinner solution is drawn into the thicker solution and if anything the longer the soak the tougher the meat gets. I only ever use brining if I want to purge meats of excess blood; ie prior to blanching. If any one can explain thr brining process from a scientific perspective I would appreciate it

[mudbug]

chefpeter,

It is actually the opposite, moisture is drawn in thru osmosis.The brining process breaks down complex proteins in the meat, allowing liquid to be absorbed.

When we cut up a whole chicken to the basic smaller divisions, we brine for no more than 15 minutes with a salt & sugar solution, any more and the meat is too salty to eat. But you will definitely be able to notice the difference a few minutes makes. The chicken will be moist and flavorfull, you don't even need to season afterwards.

For the science behing brining, go here:
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache...ltBrining.html

From Alton Brown episode:
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/FAQ/FAQ500s.htm

[jenni belle]

Here's a question for you...Could one brine a turkey as well?

I tend to dislike turkey as it is always so dry. I've found turkey frying to be incredibly tasty and keeps the bird moist, but isn't the healthiest way to serve! Thanksgiving's okay, but I don't think fried bird every day is the way to go!

[mudbug]

Originally Posted by jenni belle

Here's a question for you...Could one brine a turkey as well?

I tend to dislike turkey as it is always so dry. I've found turkey frying to be incredibly tasty and keeps the bird moist, but isn't the healthiest way to serve! Thanksgiving's okay, but I don't think fried bird every day is the way to go!

Certainly. You can brine any meat. Are you kidding? I know many people who use Thanksgiving as an excuse to make deep fried turkey. Often people will do one of each, traditional and deep fried. If cooked properly, deep fried turkey actually does not soak in as much oil as you might think. I'm going to guess a MacDonalds Cheeseburger is going to be worse for you per serving.

Brining meat:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

[amcardon]

Not to be redundant, but I agree with everybody on the brine theory. I will just about always brine my chicken before cooking. I am new to this site so I'm really not sure if we're allowed to post actual recipes as I haven't seen any in the forum section, but I will post one anyway. I really like the following brine and we have used it to brine an entire thanksgiving turkey. My chicken always gets rave reviews and is always tender and very moist. I also will agree on searing the chicken. If I'm cooking breasts I will sear both sides and finish the chicken off in the oven. I also only buy my chicken from a local organic farm, the taste is so much better I could never go back to that tastless cardboard they sell at the grocery store... Here's the brine recipe:

¼ C coarse salt
¼ C drk brn sugar
20 whole black peppercorns
1 red chile, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1 C hot water

Combine in glass bowl. Add the following:

1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 C cold water

Add 2-4 boneless skinless organic chicken breasts and soak for an hour or so, turning once. Even if the breasts are completely covered I find that turning them distributes the flavor more evenly.

I hope this helps! You've gotten a lot of great responses so put them to the test and see what works for you!

[phatch]

Well, actually osmosis in a brine works both ways. The salt water draws water out of the cells; the sugar draws water into the cells. The water is free to move in the brine and meat, but not all the salt/sugar. In the case of the salt, the concentration is higher outside the cells. So cell water flows OUT drying the cell until the salt concentration is equal on both sides. The sugar concentration is usually higher in the cells, so water is drawn IN trying to balance the concentrations. Remember the cell wall is SEMI-PERMEABLE. The water moves, the salt/sugar doesn't.

But there's more than just osmosis at work. The meat is full of interstitial space between cells surrounded by free proteins and such. The brine enters these places through diffusion. The brine denatures the free proteins a bit so some brine is trapped in the meat providing flavor and moistness.

Phil