Allotments 4 All

Seems a daft recipe to include a cup of Olive Oil in the brine - it just gels on the surface when in the fridge & can't affect the meat......??

Cant say I have ever tried (or even heard) of this so my interest is piqued..

One thing is that I am used to brining onions etc to draw out moisture so what does brining a chicken do..

I read this -
•Brining chicken not only adds moisture to the chicken, making it nice and plump, it also helps prevent it from drying out when you cook it. The result is a delicious, moist and juicy chicken.

This seems counter intuative to me!

Nigella did it to a turkey!
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/596587

Duke

There's another funny recipe - "keep bird in brine for up to a day or two in a cold place". In the summer? Not even in the fridge!!

I've had brined turkey in America. Certainly the American recipes emphasise the use of good quality salt AND keeping the turkey/chicken refrigerated during the brining process - good sense to me? - BUT it's the addition of oil that's a puzzle. Whose recipe, Tim? Are you supposed to incorporate the salt mixture slowly to the oil to make a sort of emulsion, or wot?

The Us turkey I ate had first been coated with maple syrup (ugh!) before brining - but a cup of OIL added to the brine mixture?  Doesn't equate, somehow...

I brine my chicken when I am doing fried chicken. I put the recipe on here about 2 weeks ago,but I don't do oil in it.

XX Jeannine

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-chicken-brine/detail.aspx

Having tried Nigella's brined/marinaded turkey about 6 years ago, it was voted such a success that I would never do it any other way now.  Also means that I can get the job of collecting the turkey over several days before Christmas.  And it sits happily in a bucket on the balcony for 2-3 days, so I don't have to find space for it in our small fridge.

We buy  local farm chickens here in France, not cheap but superb quality, with bones that are rock hard and show that they have run around outside for several months, unlike UK frozen ones for example.  I've just cooked the one we collected this week, in a large saucepan, in equal quantities of white wine and water, plus onion, carrot, garlic, fresh herbs, and two chicken stock cubes.  Result is delicious,  moist, and very tasty. I then take the meat off the bones and freeze it in small quantities to use later. And an excellent soup/stock to use as well.
Peanuts