We brined our Thanksgiving turkey and liked it a lot. So, we decided to
try a chicken. They were on sale at the supermarket, so my wife got
two. My son made chicken pot pie with the first. I put some water in a
one gallon ziplock bag and added a handful of salt and sugar, a hot
dried red pepper, some peppercorns, a couple of crushed allspice
berries, a couple of crushed dried juniper berries, and a bay leaf. I
mushed it around until the salt and sugar looked dissolved. I added the
chicken and left it in the fridge overnight. I roasted it in a 350 oven
for 1 1/2 hours, along with some turnips, potatoes, carrots and onions
drizzled with olive oil. It was wonderful. We'll be trying this again.

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA

"Dan Abel" > wrote in message
...
> We brined our Thanksgiving turkey and liked it a lot. So, we decided to
> try a chicken. They were on sale at the supermarket, so my wife got
> two. My son made chicken pot pie with the first. I put some water in a
> one gallon ziplock bag and added a handful of salt and sugar, a hot
> dried red pepper, some peppercorns, a couple of crushed allspice
> berries, a couple of crushed dried juniper berries, and a bay leaf. I
> mushed it around until the salt and sugar looked dissolved. I added the
> chicken and left it in the fridge overnight. I roasted it in a 350 oven
> for 1 1/2 hours, along with some turnips, potatoes, carrots and onions
> drizzled with olive oil. It was wonderful. We'll be trying this again.
>
> --
> Dan Abel
>
> Petaluma, California, USA

Sounds great. I'll keep this information -- but the chicken I buy I don't
think would fit in a one-gallon ziplock bag. Even if it did, I'll have to
place it in another pan for security's sake (don't want a chicken leak in my
frig to clean up), so I might as well put it in a straight-top pan
instead -- the washup would be the same.

BTW how big was your chicken!
Thanks a lot.
Dee Dee

In article >,
"Michael \"Dog3\" Lonergan" > wrote:

> "Dee Randall" > hitched up their panties and posted
> :
>
> >
> > "Dan Abel" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> We brined our Thanksgiving turkey and liked it a lot. So, we decided
> >> to try a chicken. They were on sale at the supermarket, so my wife
> >> got two. My son made chicken pot pie with the first. I put some
> >> water in a one gallon ziplock bag and added a handful of salt and
> >> sugar, a hot dried red pepper, some peppercorns, a couple of crushed
> >> allspice berries, a couple of crushed dried juniper berries, and a
> >> bay leaf. I mushed it around until the salt and sugar looked
> >> dissolved. I added the chicken and left it in the fridge overnight.
> >> I roasted it in a 350 oven for 1 1/2 hours, along with some turnips,
> >> potatoes, carrots and onions drizzled with olive oil. It was
> >> wonderful. We'll be trying this again.

> > Sounds great. I'll keep this information -- but the chicken I buy I
> > don't think would fit in a one-gallon ziplock bag. Even if it did,
> > I'll have to place it in another pan for security's sake (don't want a
> > chicken leak in my frig to clean up), so I might as well put it in a
> > straight-top pan instead -- the washup would be the same.
> >
> > BTW how big was your chicken!
> > Thanks a lot.
> > Dee Dee
>
> I usually buy a large baking hen when I buy whole chicken. I don't think
> it would fit in a ziploc bag either. I buy large chickens for leftovers
> and to make stock with. Dan's brine sounds terrific but when brining meat
> is it not customary to add vinegar? I might be wrong. I haven't brined
> anything in a long time and I use a brine that someone posted on rfc a long
> time ago. Seems to me it had vinegar. I'm keeping Dan's too. I like his
> spice combination.

The chicken was pretty big. I split the first bag trying to get it in.
I didn't notice how many pounds, though.

The advantage of the bag is that you don't need as much brine, and that
it is a little easier to turn (actually, I just put it on its side every
few hours).

I forgot to list the garlic, several cloves, peeled and cut in half.

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA

I brine chickens fairly often... brine is cheap and it's just as easy
to put the whole bird in a bucket or big bowl and then you don't have
to turn it... as long as you have room in your fridge.

I brined a pheasant for Christmas this year. The brining was a big help
because it's so easy to over-cook pheasant and dry it out... this way
it was pretty fool-proof. It turned out beautifully.

Whenever I brine something I refer to Alton Brown's recipes in "I'm
just here for the food" (I think he also posts his recipes online) but
I'm very sloppy about quantities and it never seems to matter. I'm
careful to use kosher or sea salt, though, in case the iodine in
iodized gives it a bad taste.

I keep meaning to try brining large shrimp. I know some people who
swear by them. I think you only brine them for about 30 minutes.

Yappa
http://yappadingding.blogspot.com/

FYI: Some tips on brining:

There is a brine for chicken that includes strong coffee (never tried it but
the result is not supposed to taste like coffee).

When brining with skin-on, after rinsing and towel-drying inside and out,
let the bird dry for an hour in the fridge in a tall-sided pan uncovered.
This improves the crisping of the skin when roasted.

You can brine in other liquids besides water: brine pork chops in a solution
of water, beer, salt and brown sugar; turkey breasts in apple cider, water
and host of spices and herbs.

Make sure your brine does not contain too much salt. The salty flavor of a
brine is typically offset by using some kind of sweetening agent such as
sugar, honey, maple syrup etc.

Do not leave the chicken in the brine for too long or you will end up with a
very mushy and salty end product.

Make sure you wash the chicken in fresh water for 30 seconds, at least twice
after you remove it from the brine.

Don't use acidic products (vinegar) in your brines as these will begin to
‘cook’ the meat and result in a mushy end product.

Brining must take place at temperatures of 40 degrees or below. Only place
your chicken into the brining solution once it is cold. You can cool the
brining solution in the refrigerator or by using ziploc bags filled with ice
cubes.

Ensure that the brine solution completely covers the chicken during the
brining process.

Some guidelines:

Chicken parts: 1 1/2 hours

Chicken breasts: 1 hour

cornish game hen 2 hours

Whole chicken or turkey 8 hours - Overnight

Lefty
--
Life is for learning

"Dan Abel" > wrote in message
...
> We brined our Thanksgiving turkey and liked it a lot. So, we decided to
> try a chicken. They were on sale at the supermarket, so my wife got
> two. My son made chicken pot pie with the first. I put some water in a
> one gallon ziplock bag and added a handful of salt and sugar, a hot
> dried red pepper, some peppercorns, a couple of crushed allspice
> berries, a couple of crushed dried juniper berries, and a bay leaf. I
> mushed it around until the salt and sugar looked dissolved. I added the
> chicken and left it in the fridge overnight. I roasted it in a 350 oven
> for 1 1/2 hours, along with some turnips, potatoes, carrots and onions
> drizzled with olive oil. It was wonderful. We'll be trying this again.
>
> --
> Dan Abel
>
> Petaluma, California, USA

One time on Usenet, Dan Abel > said:

> We brined our Thanksgiving turkey and liked it a lot. So, we decided to
> try a chicken. They were on sale at the supermarket, so my wife got
> two. My son made chicken pot pie with the first. I put some water in a
> one gallon ziplock bag and added a handful of salt and sugar, a hot
> dried red pepper, some peppercorns, a couple of crushed allspice
> berries, a couple of crushed dried juniper berries, and a bay leaf. I
> mushed it around until the salt and sugar looked dissolved. I added the
> chicken and left it in the fridge overnight. I roasted it in a 350 oven
> for 1 1/2 hours, along with some turnips, potatoes, carrots and onions
> drizzled with olive oil. It was wonderful. We'll be trying this again.

I've brined chicken parts for fried chicken, but never thought to
try a whole bird. Sounds really good! Thanks, Dan...

--
jj - rfc (Jani) in WA
~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~

Yappa wrote:
> I keep meaning to try brining large shrimp. I know some people who
> swear by them. I think you only brine them for about 30 minutes.

I can swear by this, and I use Alton Brown's method too! Just don't
make the mistake I did one time -- thinking I'd be clever by defrosting
frozen shrimp in brine. They ended up taking too long to thaw and were
far too salty to eat once cooked. I managed to salvage them by soaking
in fresh water until they gave up some of their salt.
--
Mark Warburton
Ottawa, Canada