chilefarmer
New member
Smoking Chickens: I have eaten a lot of smoked poultry, but never did it myself. So here is my story. I did add some black pepper and mango juice. Came out tender, juicy and tasty. Although kind of bland, needed some spice.CF
Recipe:
Simple curing brine: Wet Cure
For every 1 gallon of water, add:
1/3 - 1 cup sea salt (depending if you're on a lo-salt diet)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cure no. 1 pink salt
stir thoroughly until clear amber color, pour over meat, inject if necessary to cure from inside-out as well as outside-in
Weight down with a partially filled 1 qt or 1 gal. Ziploc bag or bags to keep meat immersed
Curing times vary with meat, but generally overnight to 2-3 days for chickens and turkeys, 8-10 days buckboard bacon, 10-14 days belly bacon, pork shoulder, whole butts, 3-4 weeks whole hams, 10-20 days corned beef (fresh beef roasts, briskets, rolled rib roasts, etc.) If whole muscle is more than 2" thick, then inject so it can cure I/O as well as o/i, and/or in and around bone structures, etc.
You can add any other flavorings you'd like, this is just the basic curing brine. 1 heaping tablespoon of cure is about 1 ounce. The maximum concentration allowed safely is 3.84 ounces per 1 gallon of brine (24 lbs. per 100 gallons: 16 oz. x 24 = 384 ounces, 1/100th is 3.84 ounces). You can experiment with different concentrations as long as you keep it between those parameters:
Chicken:
smokehouse temp would be around 225° - 235°, internal in the breast would be 160°, thigh would be 170° or thereabouts!
In the Smoker:
Nice Color:
Let's Eat:
Recipe:
Simple curing brine: Wet Cure
For every 1 gallon of water, add:
1/3 - 1 cup sea salt (depending if you're on a lo-salt diet)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cure no. 1 pink salt
stir thoroughly until clear amber color, pour over meat, inject if necessary to cure from inside-out as well as outside-in
Weight down with a partially filled 1 qt or 1 gal. Ziploc bag or bags to keep meat immersed
Curing times vary with meat, but generally overnight to 2-3 days for chickens and turkeys, 8-10 days buckboard bacon, 10-14 days belly bacon, pork shoulder, whole butts, 3-4 weeks whole hams, 10-20 days corned beef (fresh beef roasts, briskets, rolled rib roasts, etc.) If whole muscle is more than 2" thick, then inject so it can cure I/O as well as o/i, and/or in and around bone structures, etc.
You can add any other flavorings you'd like, this is just the basic curing brine. 1 heaping tablespoon of cure is about 1 ounce. The maximum concentration allowed safely is 3.84 ounces per 1 gallon of brine (24 lbs. per 100 gallons: 16 oz. x 24 = 384 ounces, 1/100th is 3.84 ounces). You can experiment with different concentrations as long as you keep it between those parameters:
Chicken:
smokehouse temp would be around 225° - 235°, internal in the breast would be 160°, thigh would be 170° or thereabouts!
In the Smoker:
Nice Color:
Let's Eat:
Nice birds and nice smoker! A whole chicken is the very first thing that I ever smoked in my life. After that, I was hooked.
Great job on the smokehouse, CF 