Dri brining chicken ?


 

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
I'm smokin yardbird on the 18 WSM tomorrow, thinkin bout prepping the birds tonight and dri brining over night.

But I'm wondering about doubling up on the salt. If I use kosher salt to brine, then use a rub that has salt, I'm thinkin that can't be very good.

Or maybe just use the rub to dri brine ?

Or I could make my own rub, leave out the salt. But I really want to use Plowboy's Yardbird.

Any thoughts on this ?
 
I’d just dry brine using the rub and skip the salt step. If it doesn’t work you’ve learned something, if it’s fantastic, you saved a step.
Chicken is pretty cheap, an occasional flop once in a while isn’t going to break the bank.
If you have overnight for the brining why not simply wet brine it and dry before using the “Plowboys”?
I usually dry brine when time is shorter.
 
I usually find that a lot these rubs aren't salty enough. I usually use kosher salt and then put rub on anyway and it's not too salty. Think about all those HowtoBBQRight videos. He always puts down that AP rub first. I think you'll be okay. I tend to under salt stuff even with that. I can't stand over salted.
 
Thanks for the ideas. But I got unexpectedly side tracked this morning and did not get to the birds till after 1 pm, so I'm just doin the same cook I always do. I will try the dri brine next time.

And the weatherman told me I'd have 38* high right now, and its 23* ......... but the chimney is lit and the yardbird will be smoked .
 
Well, I'm gettin thin blue smoke from the cherry wood ...... and man, cherry sure smells good when its smoking ..... I'm just doin Chris's Hot and Fast from the Cookin topics page. My Old Country gauge and my new Smoke don't agree, but this is nothing new , and I just turned them at 30 minutes, looks like one side of my fire is hotter than the other

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Now check this out, after I opened it up to turn the birds, and it settled back in ............ I will never understand temps inside any smoker :confused:

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Chicks got done a lot faster than usual, I checked on them a little over an hour into the cook and the IT's were way high. I'd thought for sure, they would be dried out. And they looked burnt. But no, it was some of better chicken I've done hot and fast. These are darker than I'm accustomed to, the only thing I did diff was slather them with squeeze butter to use as a schmear. The breast was moist and the flavor was really good. Ya never know .............

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That's some good looking yardbird! I bought some leg quarters a couple of weeks ago and broke them open to realized most of the weight was the backbone still attached. I was pretty irritated. I don't know if that's normal or not. I cooked them with the Slow N Sear, but I think I like that WSM method better.
 
Chris's H&F on the WSM is the best cook I've found for chicken.

I had a hot spot on 18 WSM, not sure why. I took that pic when I turned the birds after I'd rotated them to opposite sides. The left side, with temp probe, was obviously much hotter, just looking at the birds. So my temp gauges were accurate, there was just a large variance inside the WSM.

But after I turned them , that evened out. I can't explain that.

To begin, I lit a full chimney and spread them out, then added a half chimney of unlit and spread them out . Then waited for all of them to ash over before adding three small chunks of cherry in the center.

There was no wind. And even if there was, my wood rack serves as a windbreak and the WSM is in the corner of my patio.
 
Now check this out, after I opened it up to turn the birds, and it settled back in ............ I will never understand temps inside any smoker :confused:

CSKaXcj.jpg
I also put a dome thermometer on an older WSM. When I put my Maverick probe at grate level, sometimes it matches the dome, sometimes it fluctuates +- 20 degrees while the dome thermometer remains rock steady. Probably because the digital probe is more sensitive and picks up the different temps of the swirling air and the slower dome thermometer doesn't react fast enough. I don't use the Maverick anymore for pit temps, I just cook by the dome thermometer. Great looking chicken btw.
 

 

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