Brine Question?

[John Bowen]

Does anyone have suggestions or a recipe for using liquid smoke in brine for chicken????

[code3rrt]

You may get some responses, not to sure what they may be.

Liquid smoke is pretty much considered poison in these parts, LOL.

Get your smoke the old fashioned way...WOOD.

[John Bowen]

I guess that was a real newb question, but it seems that chicken IMO does not stay on the smoker long enough to get a real rich smoke flavor. This weekend I am trying some smoked salt in my brine but my experiments with that so far makes me wonder if the results will not be consistent.

[fantomlord]

Originally Posted by John Bowen

I guess that was a real newb question, but it seems that chicken IMO does not stay on the smoker long enough to get a real rich smoke flavor. This weekend I am trying some smoked salt in my brine but my experiments with that so far makes me wonder if the results will not be consistent.

I've never had an issued getting a nice smoke flavor in my chicken...everything from boneless skinless breasts to whole birds (beer can style or spatched) come out with a nice flavor.

give some more details on your cooks, and you'll get plenty of good feedback and suggestions

[BigBellyBBQ]

Hi John, how have you been? Look at the wood you might be using..I only use apple, fruit wood or maple. The hard woods overpower the smoke, maybe try the hardwood to get that deeper wood smoke flavor and if anything I try to be under smoked with poultry. All honesty, good fresh chicken does not need a brine, however cant hurt, but I think it will go bitter with liq smoke. Even when the chicken is grilled on lump, it has a nice wood flavor...
For judging it's better to be safe....

[HankB]

Originally Posted by John Bowen

I guess that was a real newb question, but it seems that chicken IMO does not stay on the smoker long enough to get a real rich smoke flavor. This weekend I am trying some smoked salt in my brine but my experiments with that so far makes me wonder if the results will not be consistent.

No worries - you won't know if you don't ask.

As fantomlord said, tell us what you're doing and we can suggest improvements.

I do find that the smoke flavor in fowl tends to be subtle for the reasons you noted. To get more smoke flavor, try cooking at a lower temp like 225° to about 250°. The lower cooker temperature will mean that the birds are on the cooker longer and have more time to absorb smoke. You might also try different woods like cherry, apple or mesquite. (mesquite and hickory tend to produce stronger tasting smoke so use more of those with caution.)

I always rub the birds with some oil before they go on the cooker and I have no idea if that helps or hinders smoke flavor.

[John Bowen]

Well this past Sunday I smoked a Chuckie and some chicken breasts on the same smoker. The Chuckie went about 5+ hours until it hit 170 degrees and then I wrapped it until it was fall apart tender. I also put on the chicken breasts that I had brined about 3 hours – standard salt, brown sugar, soy sauce, onion powder and some lemon juice. The chicken was rubbed went about 2 hours until it hit 165 then I sauced it and put it on another 15 to 20 min.
The chicken was moist and good – everyone ate the stew out of it but to me the smoke flavor was not very pronounced and what I did taste I think came from the flavor of the sauce – it certainly was not into the meat.
The set up was the same for the Chuckie – the only difference was that the Chuckie stayed in the smoke an extra 3 hours.
I am not looking for a strong smoke flavor – just – well smoke flavor.

[John Bowen]

Oh – I also cook at 230 degrees. I use Chef Select charcoal (a mix of oak and hickory) and add 5 chunks of cherry wood. This was in my BWS party and the smoke on the chuckie was perfect.

[Partyof5]

If you're still interested in using liquid smoke, a good starting usage level for any solution you are using it in is at 1% by weight

[John Bowen]

Thanks for the tip - it is worth the experiment. Any excuse to fire up the smoker.

[shirknwrk]

I've never used it but I know a guy who has :) ... He says "Don't overdo it and it will work. He says he learned it was OK by running a Google search and reading non-bbq forums. He also says "Never admit it!"

[Toronto]

Hickory is supposed to be good for chicken.

You used fruit wood which is on the lighter side of smokey flavour profile.

[BayoustateBBQ]

Besides brining i will use a whole bottle of parkay to a couple tablespoons of tony chacheres sasoning. Heat and mix in a pot just till it's thin enough to go through an injector and you'll have some mouth watering chicken.

[funugy]

Did you put the chicken on at the beginning of the smoke? Or did you put it on the last couple of hours?

I ask because most of my smoke wood is spent within the first couple of hours of the burn. I hardly add any smoke wood to the cook, unless i am adding more meat later.

Usually I need to be a bit more careful with chicken as it seems to soak up the smoke flavor faster than most other meats. Then again, I've never tried just doing a chicken breast, it's normally hind quarters, or full chick's for me.