How do you make/use brine?

[LocoPollo]

I have heard lots of talk about brining chickens to make them taste better, and I am just wondering exactly what that entails. What recipe do people use, just salt and water? how long do you soak the chicken in the brine? Thanks! Tomorrow I am processing for the first time. They are 20 wk old game cockerels. I ahve no idea if they will have any meat, but I may just make soup with them!

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I just put acouple tablespoons of sea salt or reg. salt and water to cover into my big bowls I put the chickens down in to make my brine. Refridge for 24 or so hours, helps to get the rigor mortis out of the birds. Then I freeze mine. You might be surprised at how much meat there will be, I just did 12 orp cockerals and I was pleased. If they just make soup don't worry about it. They made something!

besides a feed bill!

 

[Recon]

I brined and smoked an 8 pound cornish x this past weekend. First time I have done this... It was out of this world delicious. My wife said it was the best chicken ever. Even my non-chicken-eater son liked it.

I used Google to find this page which I used as a very rough guide.

I didn't have half the stuff in his brine recipe so I used:

2 Gal Water
1 Cup Table Salt
3 Cups Brown Sugar
1 TBS J. Lee Roys Cookin Seasoning
4 TBS Black Pepper
1/4 Cup Molasses

Soaked it over night, then I put it in the smoker and kept it lightly smoking for about 6.5 hours. After that I finished it on the BBQ.

I wanted to brag to my friends at work about how good it was but I decided I had to keep my mouth shut or they will all want some! You can't tell people where you find gold, you know what I mean!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

We did ours the same as Recon and it was wonderful. I think DBF may have added more spices too but I'd highly recommend it, especially if you have a smoker.