Cooking For Engineers

Guest · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:03 pm Post subject: reasons for brining

As previously stated, yes chicken in North America tends to be very lean and in general tends to be very neutral in taste. Most of the chicken you get is factory farmed, so it's not been exposed to alot of the normal things a normal chicken would have (ie: excercise and whatever it finds to eat) - hence the demand for free range birds.

I also believe, as stated before, there's a limit, by law to the "added moisture" you can put into meat.. (added weight means you pay for more meat than is actually there)

As to why it works - when you soak the meat in your salt solution, it will, via osmosis, move salt into the meat to achieve equilibrium with the surrounding water.

Now that salt is inside the meat, it causes the proteins to denature and interact with each other.. and allows the meat to retain more moisture when it cooks because the proteins/liquids are formed with each other and less likely to be released with cooking.

(paraphrased from an issue of Cook's Illustrated)

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:47 pm Post subject: Lathering or slathering?

In the first line, I think you want to replace the word "lathering" with "slathering."

Michael Chu · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)

Guest · Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:02 am Post subject: Great recipe

I prepared the chicken as described (omitted the optional spice rub) and the result was very good: succulent and tasty chicken!!!
As I don't have a charcoal grill, I cooked the chicken on a grill plate over high heat first and finished the cooking in a hot air oven.

easyeats · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

Neat cooking blog, you're kinda like Alton Brown, complete with the slight brining of the chicken. I love the way you present the recipes graphically? A was afraid from the title you'd be presenting it with C++ code or something. Anyways, thanks for your post on cutting up a whole chicken, I was just looking for something on that.

konigsberg · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

I made this for my friends tonight. I overdid the cooking time a little bit, breasts were 185 degrees! However, the meat was juicy and tasty! I am so impressed by your site and my friends are impressed with me!

dgnyhk · Guest

I'm a big fan of brined birds - This article describes it well and has saved my Christmas turkey three years in a row after many, many years of horrific dry birds. Your lime chicken sounds gorgeous - I normally just do a rub of chilli and garlic salt, but I suspect the marinade will make a nice change!

I suspect the difference between industrial salt adding and home *brining* is that when it happens at a factory it's gross, low quality salt and possibly includes other preservatives. A good brine with sea salt would make all the difference.

Guest · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 3:50 am Post subject:

I've tried a similar recipe to this, escept with about half a cup of Tequilla added to the marinade.

The Tequilla gave it a nice flavor that sat beneath the lime. Everyone liked the recipe that time (except the breasts weren't grilling right because they were a little too thick, so it took longer than expected).

BEG · Guest

Hmmm this sounds delicious. I think I'm going to try a variation of this on the rotisserie with a whole chicken. I have a recipe where I stuff such a chicken with chopped apple for the resulting juiciness...think I'll substitute at least some chopped lime in addiition to your lime rub on the outside of the chicken...

Guest · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:00 am Post subject:

Threshold here! Excellent recipe. I was forced by lack of a grill to bake this, but it was SOOOOO good. It's amazing what a 19-year old college student can make with a recipe. =)

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:29 am Post subject: Excellent Chicken

My wife and I prepared 16 lbs. of chicken with this recipe for about 15 people. After about 15 minutes the last piece almost started a fight. Excellent food for large parties.

dcx · Guest

You may want to try adding 1 egg yolk and 1/2 c oil to this recipe and marinating for 24 hours. The yolk/oil mix will prevent the acid from "cooking" the chicken and the extra marinating time will allow the marinade to permeate the chicken. Wink

ktexp2 · Joined: 03 Nov 2005 Posts: 34

I made delicious wings with this recipe...but since I'm lazy and don't feel like rinsing chicken (and I was using wings that were frozen in a salt solution) I reduced the salt to 1 teaspoon for 10 wings. I put them under the broiler at about 475 (not quite 500) on a wire rack, turining them over once, for 30 minutes. Yummy! The skin was crunchy and the meat inside was moist. Gives me something else to do with the 10 lbs of wings I bought!

Sherrick · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Blackwater, KY USA

Just a quick note to say "Thank You" for this wonderful recipe.

This was the first recipe I tried from this site and it was an unequivocal success. I made this chicken and the "Garlic Roasted Potatoes" from another recipe I located here. The preparation of both dishes was made very simple by the excellent and detailed instructions and both recipes were a big hit with the whole family.

Thanks Michael!

Sherrick

Guest · Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:11 am Post subject: Wonderful recipe!

Just wanted to say thanks for the great recipe! Of note: In a pinch I subsituted (unground) Cumin Seeds for ground coriander and I really liked the distinctive flavor.

Thanks,
Ben