Chef JJ’s poultry brine method — “Day one, Brine overnight. Next day, drain and pat dry. l place the bird on a rack over a drip pan then in the refer overnight. Day three smoke or cook however…JJ”

Families Favorite Brine by Chef JJ

1/2C Kosher Salt
2T Paprika
2T Gran. Garlic
2T Gran. Onion
2T Dry Thyme
2T Black Pepper
1C Vinegar (Any)
1 to 1-1/2 Gal Cold Water to cover bird

1/2C Brown Sugar, Optional
1T Red Pepper Flake Optional

Mix well and Soak the Bird overnight or up to 24 Hours.
Remove the Chix, rinse if desired and pat dry with paper towels.
Place in an open container in the refrigerator overnight or up to 24 hours for the Skin to dry.
This will give a crispier skin when Smoking or Roasting…

From Jeff’s pulled chicken recipe:

• 1/2 gallon of water,
• 1/2 cup of kosher salt,
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar,
• 3 tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce.

Rule of thumb for how long to brine – 1 hour per pound

For pork loin by FoamHeart at SMF. See post here.

Brine
2 cups apple juice
2/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C Canning salt
2 T Maple extract
2 C Ice

Rub
Ground Ancho pepper (perfect heat)
Kosher salt

That’s it, then light brown sugar to on top of a peach glaze to seal in all those good tastes and create a coating that helps hold in moisture.

From an article at SMF available here by 3Men With Nothing Better To Do.

“The following is a tried and tested chicken brine recipe;

1 gallon water
3/4 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon each of dried tarragon, thyme, black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Start by boiling the water and then adding the salt and sugar, so that it will dissolve easier. Then add the spices to the hot liquid so that the flavors are extracted. Cool the brine solution.

Place the brine solution into a non-reactive container and immerse the chicken in the brine, weighting it down if necessary. (Use a heavy plate or a brick inside a ziploc bag as a weight). Place the container into the refrigerator and leave for 10 hours. You can also brine the chicken in an ice chest, by pouring the brine solution into the ice chest, immersing the chicken and weighting down. (Use ziploc bags filled with ice cubes, or “blue ice” to keep the brining solution cool during the brining process.

Upon completion of the brining time remove the chicken from the brine and wash twice for at least 30 seconds in fresh water. Dry the chicken with paper towels.

A few things that you need to be remember when brining:

• 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.
• Be careful about using acidic products 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.

Brining by Dr. Jeff Bonder. Click here to see full article.

• For dry brining – “Or around 1/2 tsp of fine sea salt, or a tsp of kosher salt, per pound of meat. Adjusted to your own taste, of course.”

• “So when brining:

  • Wet-brining adds moisture and tenderness to meat when cooking hot and fast. Dry brining is nearly as effective, but the tie goes to wet for wings and small hunks of meat. The inconvenience of wet brining a 20 lb turkey for three days can tip the balance back to dry though…
  • Wet-brining does not add moisture or improve tenderness compared to dry when cooking low and slow.
  • Dry-brining produces a better smoked surface if you distribute the salt in isolated islands. Wet-brining often washes off smoke flavor prematurely, and yields a lighter colored crust. In between there is an optimal technique which balances smoke, flavor and bark.
    • Injecting brine is a faster version of wet-brining, and offers similar results in a shorter time. Injection can make sense in competition cooking where time is a factor, but I prefer dry brining at home. Still, if you inject a concentrated salt solution (only enough to average out to a 0.5% salt level), but not salt the surface, you may achieve the best of all worlds. On my list of future experiments.“

From Dr. Jeff’s page here. How to make brine that is the right concentration.

“First, take one cup of warm water in measuring cup. Then, pour in salt. Any salt will do, and keep on adding salt until the brine level is at 1 1/2 cups. If you pour in Kosher salt, you will have to keep pouring and pouring- it seems like you’re pouring into a black hole. Even a mixture of salts, scavenged from nearly empty containers, is fine.

Blend this concentrated salt slurry into a gallon of water, and you will have a 6% (by weight) brine, which is suited for most meats.”