Brining a chicken is not necessary, but it is delicious. To brine is the process of using wet or dry ingredients to preserve and season food while enhancing tenderness and flavor. You enhance the flavor through the additions of herbs and spices in the brining process.
Similar to marinating, you would take the ingredients, apply them to a meat and let rest for an extended period of time. The difference however, is the higher levels of salt and or vinegar in the process. This lowers the ph levels and effectually helps to seal flavors into the meat as well as start a form of the cooking process.
Brining can be similar to the process of ceviche for seafood. However with a lower level of citric acid as this can toughen non-seafood meats. So when brining, if you are to use a citrus fruit, be sure to only use the zest from it. Otherwise, you are going to create a very weird meat chewing gum.
Basics
At the base of describing a brine, it is a combination of water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. In the case of a dry brine, there is only a need for the salt and sugar. It is key when making a dry brine, to know the weight of all of the ingredients because of the risk of not doing enough rub, or honestly even worse, using too much. Too much and you are curing your meat. But that’s a whole other subject to cover.
A brine should be used on poultry and pork. It doesn’t have the same affect on beef. A brine also needs to be used for 8 to 24 hours and no longer or your meat will become too salty. And in the case of a dry brine, it should be on the meat for 8 hours max or you will be curing the meat just as if you were to use too much salt. This is why a dry brine needs to be watched and used properly.
The best part about using a wet brine is that it not only seasons the outside of your food but the inside as well. And there is very little risk of making something bad as long as you follow the rules.
A wet brine is an amazing thing to keep close to you for future use. It will never cease to impress others as to how you got so much flavor into he meat. Use it carefully though. Remember that the meat has already been salted when adding other ingredients to it like an added dry rub or sauce. We’re not trying to go blind from astounding levels of sodium here.
As long as you follow directions well for the base, the meat will never become too salty. Just juicy. Adding sugar to your brines will not change the texture but will definitely help with the flavor. once those sugars hit the heat they become caramel iced and more complex adding plenty more to the dish in the end.
Dry Brine
To do a dry brine properly you will need a scale. I already highly suggest owning a scale when cooking anyways because it makes things far easier and more consistent when cooking. Also, these days more and more cookbooks and recipes require the use of a scale and contain many measurements for ingredients in weight rather than in volume. I do this myself. So It can make doing these recipes more difficult for you when you can just buy a scale for a cheap investment in your cooking future.
For a very simple dry brine we use two ingredients. Sugar and salt. Now you need that scale and a calculator for this one. Start by weighing your protein. And were going to do a measurement of 2% salt and 1% sugar. So say it weighs 3000 grams. That would be 60 grams salt and 30 grams of sugar. All you need to do is multiply the weight by 0.02 for 2% and 0.01 for 1%. and that’s it.
Also, if you have never cooked like this before, you start to feel like a scientist very quickly. I remember the first time I ever did. I fell immediately in love with it. No more leveling things perfectly or getting different results every time I baked. Same result every time! It is a great feeling.
Now For A Wet Brine
This is a bit more traditional feeling but for my recipe you will still need a scale. You start by boiling half of your water with all ingredients but the iced water obviously. Once it has reached a full boil, continue boiling for 5 minutes so that everything comes together. now remove it from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes. add it to the ice water and stir until well cooled.
Now pour it over your meat and make sure that it is fully submerged in the brine. It will cover up to 10 pounds of meat so this recipe is sufficient for any everyday use i’m sure. All there is to do now is wait. Preferably overnight. Remember 8 to 24 hours but no more is your sweet spot for a wet brine. You can go for less time and it will still be a nice improvement to the meat but not nearly as drastic.
Side Note on Brine Types
When brining smaller things such as chicken thighs or wings, they can make do with a different type of brine. And I use a different wet brine for these. As with the dry brine, it goes by weight but with a bit of rough estimate fun!
Start by weighing the meat and then rubbing it down with 2% of its’ weight in salt. Then pour a favorite cooking wine over it until it is covered. I find that sherry works well but red wine works better if you are going with a more herb heavy finish on the flavor. Or maybe a white for a lighter flavor. Now i’m thinking about making a recipe by brining in white for an old bay rub finish… don’t tell anyone, I really think that could be good. My girlfriend and I are suckers for old bay wings.
Always be open to improvisation. It is the key to loving the process for me. And it shows who you are as a cook. Try out new ingredients sometimes just to see what happens. It may not work out. I’ve made many things that I wouldn’t even eat myself. And i’ll pretty much eat anything. But if you are just out there recreating recipes like a robot over and over then it’s not really showing you.
This isn’t always the case though. I do implore you to try recipes out to help develop your basic cooking skills. Like these brining techniques. Try them out and get an understanding of the methods and measurements. Then have some fun.