Cooking For Engineers

[Howard]

Just wondering... you know, for that double-shot of goodness.

[Michael Chu]

Do you mean brine and tenderize with a salt dissolved in buttermilk or brine first then marinade in buttermilk?

[Howard]

[SirSpice]

I somehow doubt that will make it taste better.

[Michael Chu]

It will depend on how long the brining/marinating stages were. Too long or too much salt and you're chicken will taste pretty salty. I typically add a little salt to my buttermilk and let it soak for two days or so. Most people do a shorter soak, so more salt could be used - but anywhere in the 1/4 cup per gallon region would probably not be advised except for maximum 2 hour brines.

[Howard]

What about separate stages of brine and buttermilk? e.g. brine until the desired level of saltiness is reached, and then a soak in buttermilk.

Come to think of it, is there sufficient water in the buttermilk to "infuse" the chicken if it were salted?

[Michael Chu]

Yeah, that should work. I'd go easy on the brining stage thoguh because the buttermilk will add a lot of flavor.