Brining Chicken

southga

New member
I had never brined chicken before cooking so I thought I would give it a try. (yeah, I know the ole interweb deal of no pics, didnt' happen) I had a pack of a dozen drumsticks. I heated about 2.5 cups of water to near boiling & added 1.5 tbs of salt & 2 tbs of my chicken rub. Stirred until it all dissolved then added ice to cool it down. Ended up with about a gallon of brine. Put the chicken in a plastic container & poured in the brine making sure all the pieces were completely covered. Sealed the lid & put it in the fridge overnite. Next morning, poured off the brine, rinsed the chicken then patted it dry with paper towels. Placed chicken on a baking sheet & dusted with rub. Set the chicken uncovered back in the fridge to help dry the skin more. Fired up the drum with RO lump & some peach chunks. Got the drum settled in at 280* & with the thin, blue smoke & put the chicken on. When the IT read about 160* in the larger of the drumsticks, I brushed on my bbq sauce. Had the lid open for quite some time saucing the legs & the temp spiked over 320 but that was OK. Just helped set the sauce better. End result was the best chicken I even cooked. Tender & juicy with the spice rub infused in every bite.

BTW, I ran an experiement with a diffuser made from a disposable pizza pan. I poked 6 lines of 6 holes about the size of a pencil from the middle of the pan out to the edge. The difference between middle & edge temps was less than 10*.
 
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