Is Brining Chicken Worth Doing? (Brine vs. Injection vs. None)

Is brining chicken worth the time, effort and fridge space? Let's put it to the test.

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I put a 24-hour wet-brined chicken against a marinade-injected chicken and a dry-rub only (control) chicken to see which tasted best and whether wet-brining made a small improvement or major improvement in taste.

This also got me thinking – does brine really get deep into the center of the meat? To test this, I brined a chicken thigh in blue copper sulfate (Do not try this at home!) and cut a cross-section to see how deep the brine penetrates.

*Question*
_What's your go-to method for preparing BBQ chicken?_

About BBQ Experiments
Hey 👋 I'm Marcus and each week I run an experiment testing something BBQ-related to help you level up your BBQ knowledge. From busting BBQ myths like _"If you're looking it ain't cooking"_ to injecting copper sulfate into chicken to learn whether dry brine outperforms wet brine, this show is unapologetically for the nerds of BBQ.

This video is NOT sponsored and all products I use or recommend are genuine (and paid for with my own money). Some of the links in the description may contain affiliate links, which means if you buy something we receive a commission which helps fund my butcher's mortgage.

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Table of contents:
00:00 Introduction
00:19 Experiment
00:35 Making chicken brine
01:11 Does brine reach the center?
02:03 Does brined chicken taste better?
02:15 Taste test: Dry rub (control)
02:28 Taste test: Brined chicken
02:50 Taste test: Marinade injected chicken
03:18 Is brining chicken worth it?

#bbqexperiments #bbq #bbqchicken

[danemman]

One idea possibly (If it hasn't been further explored yet on your channel) is possibly seeing how long of a duration the injected chicken needs to sit to furth distribute and be equivalent to the brined chicken (or if at all?), nevertheless great insight

[amandatm]

Really useful - the copper sulphate test was really interesting. Will definitely consider brining for future bbqs!

[BigAlsBBQ]

Great video & I liked the dye test, brining chicken definitely gives great results 👍🏻

[CoolJay]

Great experiment. I'd wet brined couple times, but I find overnight dry brine to be more convenient. That might be worth comparing. One advantage to dry brine in the fridge over a cooling rack, the chicken skin will be dry, ready to crisp up.

[maryvalentine]

There is no comparison between a brined chicken and just a dry rubbed chicken. None at all. brined chicken wins hands down forEVER. My son-in-law introduced me to this and he too indirect barbecued an entire fryer. His brine solution was

one cup of regular white sugar and one cup of Pickling salt,

but he said you could use regular table salt if you wanted to. He dissolved that in boiling water then add ice to it off and added whole fryer and then covered the whole thing with water to submerge the chicken. And added more ice. He brined in the refrigerator overnight… Or about eight hours. It was unbelievable. I don’t know how deep that brine penetrated, but it was the best chicken I have ever tasted off of barbecue. And I made it again myself for a couple of friends and they ate it like maniacs. Couldn’t stop eating. All that was left was a pile of bones at the end of dinner among four people.

I will tell you that if it’s something small like thighs or breasts or wings, if you brine that for more than about four hours it’s gonna be too salty. You won’t be able to eat it. I only brine entire whole chicken carcasses overnight. Right now I am actually brining 2 Cornish game hens and I’m only gonna let them brine for about 2 1/2 hours. I might go a little longer but no longer than four hours. You’re risking making it taste so salty that it’s just inedible if you go too long on a small piece of chicken carcass. That is the voice of experience speaking. I’ve screwed up some chicken by brining it for too long. It’s also, in my opinion critical to add the sugar component. I don’t know what it does chemically but the salt and the sugar combined is incredible. I’m not making this up.