Brining chicken

[bc7683023]

Do you brine your chicken and if so for how long? Also do you use sugar as well as brine?

[pastafreak]

What is 'brining',and what purpose does it serve? I am only familiar with brine for tinned foods such as tuna or pickles-it serves as a preservative I assume.

[bc7683023]

Brining a chicken.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/439554

[Clanad]

Not chicken since it's not big enough to bother, but we do turkeys of various sizes. A small to medium, say 12 to 16 pounds takes 24 hours...

[boxtops]

No, never heard of it. We are trying to reduce salt in our diet!

[society]

I've heard that brining suppose to make meat tender and succulent.

[pastafreak]

that chow link did not work.. :-(

[Clanad]

Watch here:
http://video.about.co...w-to-Brine-Turkey.htm

There's lots of different recipes for the brine, but the big problem for most people is the bird has to be refrigerted while it's brining overnight. We do ours around Thanksgiving in late November so we can usually just leave it on the back porch. It has to be 40 degrees F or lower for safety. We use a food apporved 5 gallon bucket but it can be done in large plastic bags as well... It really does produce a more moist bird and everyone here believes they're more flavorful. They don't absorb the salt...