Cooking For Engineers

[JDR]

I was wondering, can you safely defrost chicken (etc.) at room temperature if it is in a brine solution? It seems like the salt in the brine would prevent the growth of bacteria. I realize that the brining would have little to no effect until the meat thaws.

[Baboo]

When I was a teenager, I made some adult Jewish friends who always unthawed their chicken breasts in salted water. After tasting the end result, it was the best chicken I ever had. They POURED the salt on them too, in a ceramic sink filled with cold water, then literally dumping the salt, unceremoniously; over the breasts. They rinsed before cooking. Seems to me they'd be pretty wary of cooking something 'unkosher', so it must be OK?
Anyway, hope my experience helped you out

I forgot to add, I think they mentioned that it helped to pull the blood out of the meat too, which it did.