Brined Chicken

[RainMustFall]

I was watching an episode of Masterchef Australia on Prime earlier and Heston Blumenthal ended his week as guest chef by doing a masterclass.

He cooked roast chicken and said it was important to soak the chicken in brine (ie salted water) for three or four hours and then wash and dry before roasting. It apparently affects the proteins which enables it to hold more moisture.

I've never done this and wondered if anyone here had and if you noticed a difference to non-brined?

Would be interested to hear what you think.

I think that would be a lot of faff and, considering the advice is not to wash chicken to prevent spreading campylobacter bacteria, I think having a lot of raw chicken water that you then pour away- and potentially splash about -could be a recipe (see what I did there?) for serious illness.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/never-wash-raw-chicken/

We brine chicken quite often when we are using the BBQ.
There are some brine recipes (apart from the basic one) in a Weber cookbook that we use too, such as Italian brine, bourbon brine and a Normandy brine.
It makes the meat taste succulent and it’s worth doing. Just be careful about splashing the liquid around your sink though.

Yes, I wondered about the bacteria issue due to washing chicken, which I have never done. Will obviously have to be careful disposing of the brine.

I had no idea there are different brines, Heston just mentioned herbs could be added. I've been googling and a woman on youtube said she brines her for two days! I'm going to do this tomorrow but think I'll stick to the 3-4 hours for the first attempt as I'm just cooking a chicken breast.