Brine for a smoked Chicken?

I tried smoking a chicken last week and it went well, except the recipes for the brine I looked at called for Soy Sauce.

I wasn't a fan of the flavor in the meat.

Anyone got any tips on what to put in a brine that isn't Soy?

nothing.

garlic and onion perhaps, but SOY? too easy to use too much. Keep it simple and let the smoke do the work. Go with basics. I brine and cover in bacon for the first two hours or so. a few fresh sage leaves under the bacon. Remove bacon and leave sage. Turkey, pork and chicken all work well that way

Redlantern said:

nothing.

garlic and onion perhaps, but SOY? too easy to use too much. Keep it simple and let the smoke do the work. Go with basics. I brine and cover in bacon for the first two hours or so. a few fresh sage leaves under the bacon. Remove bacon and leave sage. Turkey, pork and chicken all work well that way

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That sounds like solid advice. I'm going to be playing with this for a while. The last one I did I used the cast iron smoking pan that came with the smoker I bought used. It seems to not make much smoke. After a few hours of smoking the chicken had very little smoke flavor and when I put the smoker away the chips barely had any char on them. Not sure why.

I bought a small SS pan at Goodwill for a dollar and will be trying that. Bacon on top should provide a bit of smoky goodness too!

Salt water + either Beer, Cherry Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, Root Beer. Peach, Apple, or Apricot nectar, Apple Cider or Juice, Sparkling Grape Juice, or Buttermilk.

I prefer 48 Oz of Brown Ale, 1 cup of coarse kosher salt to 1/2 gallon of cold water for four hours.

Italian Dressing works pretty good, too.

I also found a "Belgian Wit" spice pack at the store. I picked it up out of curiosity and I really like it on chicken. I didn't manage to get any on this last bird because my wife was making a different form of chicken the same day I smoked this and she used the last of it right before I could get my hands on it.

If you like Belgian Wit flavors you should give it a try. I like variety so I'm going to be mixing it up now and again.

brewbama said:

Salt water + either Beer, Cherry Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, Root Beer. Peach, Apple, or Apricot nectar, Apple Cider or Juice, Sparkling Grape Juice, or Buttermilk.

I prefer 48 Oz of Brown Ale, 1 cup of coarse kosher salt to 1/2 gallon of cold water for four hours.

Italian Dressing works pretty good, too.

Click to expand...

I have done it with sage and bacon (uncooked) as mentioned above. Instead of water for the brine, used apple juice like you said. Thumbs up on that for poultry for sure.

To brine and marinate chicken before smoking and/or grilling, mix two or three 11 ounce cans of Jumex fruit juice from concentrate, 1/2 cup kosher salt and water to cover in a covered glass bowl for 4-6 hours in the fridge. A subtle fruit brine that allows the smoke to be showcased.
You can find Jumex in the Mexican food aisle of your stores. Last week, we found some in Michigan when the Texans were asked to make fajitas at the last minute. Jumex comes in many flavors, I'm partial to the Mango or the Pineapple.

Pretty simple really. I start with a 4:1 ratio of water to salt and then add any spices, fruits, veggies, aromatics etc. as desired. Often when brining for the smoker I will just add my dry rub to the water and call it good!

Ever since I started bringing birds (chicken and turkeys) I will always do it. Love that moisture that you always get. Easy go to for me is a couple beers, 1/2 gallon water, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of kosher salt.
Come fall/winter time. I like to substitute out water and beer for apple juice and OJ. Keep the brown sugar and salt and add in some clove and allspice.

Ok, so this time I used a bottle of some very dry and overcarbed Saison I need to use up, plus some apple juice and salt. That's it.

I brined, but forgot to take it out of the brine overnight when smoking didn't happen on Saturday!

So Sunday we had amazingly tender salty chicken! I need to keep that brine time down to around 4 hours or so I think. Or reduce the salt content.

The flavors were good, but I think I still need to add some spice mix to the bird at smoke time. My smoker worked real good once I replaced the smoke box with a small SS pan.

Time to start actually keeping track of the brine mixtures and measurements. Maybe try some other meats as well, like turkey breast, fish, etc. I've been wanting to smoke fish for a while. Just need to find some fresh.

I like dark brown sugar and sea salt on white meats

I usually do a salt and brown sugar brine and then add a Memphis style dry rub before smoking. (Memphis dry rub doesn't have salt, so all your salt is from the brine.)

I used a brown sugar, kosher salt, peppercorn, ground mustard, vinegar & water brine on my thick pork chops. they turn out tender and full of flava! Limit it to about 2 hours though or your will have bacon pretty quick.