Pastured Chicken in Brine
Nutritionally, a pastured chicken is far superior to traditionally raised chicken. Chickens that are running around on pasture eating insects, worms, and forage have a great taste, but they also have muscle tone. And chickens with muscle tone are not tender. With a lot of trial and error, I have learned the secret to cooking a tender chicken. The answer is simple. Brining the chicken results in moist and tender meat. There are numerous scientific explanations available on the internet as to why this works. Whatever. I’m interested in how. To every gallon of water, I stir in 1 cup of kosher salt and 1/2 cup of sugar. You may use sea salt, but it’s pricey. And I use organic sugar. I find that a gallon of water is generally just enough to cover an average size chicken. Sometimes I add onion or bay leaves to the water. Sometimes I don’t. I don’t find that it makes a huge difference. I add the chicken to the brine and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. I then remove the chicken and pat it dry. I season according to the recipe I am using but I omit the salt in the recipe.
Before I learned this secret I was slow cooking the bird in order to tenderize it. Every meal tasted like chicken soup. I like chicken soup. When I’m eating chicken soup. But not every time I eat chicken. I find that I can now cook chicken a variety of ways with success. For roasting, it is generally best to cover your roasting pan. The dark meat lends itself beautifully to braising and the boneless breasts are wonderful for stir fry. Or I may cut the chicken into pieces and grill it or roast it covered in homemade barbecue sauce.
Let me know if you try this method and what you think. And if you have any tips, let me know. I’m always open to new ways of cooking pastured poultry.
Update: A reader, Diana, commented and provided some extremely helpful information that is worth adding directly to this post:
| We raise free-range, pastured poultry, and yes, they have more muscle tone. BUT they are still extremely tender. Not tough at all. One thing most people don’t know is that the chicken needs to “rest” in cold, but not freezing conditions, for 1-2 days before freezing. Many processors boast that their birds get frozen immediately after processing, and customers get the impression that this is a safer, better product. All it does is make for a tough bird that needs brining. The chemicals responsible for rigormortis have to break down a little before being frozen. That said, we usually roast ours whole. No brining, just some olive oil or butter, herbs, usually some lemon. Trick is to start with a HOT oven, (425) for 15-20 minutes, then push it down to 350 for the remaining 45 minutes. Thermometer in breast has to read 165, at least. THEN, let bird rest again for 10 minutes before carving, to keep more of the juice inside the meat. |
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That bird looks good jist in brine! Will be using this.
Ha Ha! Something about that photo that I like, too! I always disliked white meat because it was dry, but now it is my favorite.
Just bought a large organic bone-in turkey breast. Would you brine that also? How would you cook it? Thanks!
Hi Deb! Yes, I think brining the turkey breast would help to keep it moist and tender. I think it yells “roast me” don’t you? I probably would not cover it in this case. If the packaging does not say “pastured” I doubt that it is and so it would probably not be tough to begin with. How about some butter under the skin? Yum.
Thanks – yes, I figured roasting would be best, but wasn’t sure about brining. I’ve never done it. What happens to the sugar in the brining process? Is it like kombucha?
I don’t really know the answer to your question. Some say that very little of it is absorbed. I have tried it without the sugar and I did not feel that it was as moist and tender. Not all recipes use the sugar, so you can give it a try. I do understand that it helps the bird to brown.
I am always looking for great posts to share on my blog FB and I just linked to this. Thanks!
Well, thank you! I “liked” your page on FB!
We raise free-range, pastured poultry, and yes, they have more muscle tone. BUT they are still extremely tender. Not tough at all. One thing most people don’t know is that the chicken needs to “rest” in cold, but not freezing conditions, for 1-2 days before freezing. Many processors boast that their birds get frozen immediately after processing, and customers get the impression that this is a safer, better product. All it does is make for a tough bird that needs brining. The chemicals responsible for rigormortis have to break down a little before being frozen. That said, we usually roast ours whole. No brining, just some olive oil or butter, herbs, usually some lemon. Trick is to start with a HOT oven, (425) for 15-20 minutes, then push it down to 350 for the remaining 45 minutes. Thermometer in breast has to read 165, at least. THEN, let bird rest again for 10 minutes before carving, to keep more of the juice inside the meat.
This is the most helpful information I have received in a long time. Thank you!!!!! The birds we buy from a local farmer are not frozen when we purchase them, so we will just refrigerate for two days before freezing them. Sure wish the farmer had informed us.
Glad to be helpful! Just ask your farmer when the birds were processed. It’s likely they were 1 or 2 days before you bought them, unless you pick up on farm on slaughter day… If it’s been at least 24 hours, okay to go ahead and freeze.
I’m quite certain that they are slaughtered the day we pick them up at the farm. Also,wouldn’t the fact that they are tough suggest that the farmer has not let them sit?
Well, there may be such a thing as a tough bird, (I don’t know why that would happen except for old age or no resting time, but there may be other reasons) so it’s a good thing to find out if it’s rested.
Last summer I bought a (too?) large frozen pastured chicken from a local grower. It cost me $26.00 which just made me mad. That stupid thing was so tough I couldn’t even get my teeth into the flesh of the drumstick. Holy cats! I ended up making broth from it. That’s all it was good for. I felt like a fool for paying that much money for an inedible chicken.
Thank you for this post. Maybe I will try again with a smaller chicken and some different techniques.
It sure is frustrating when we pay more to eat healthy and it ends up ruined. I do think the brining will help. Did you see Diana’s comment above? If you have the opportunity to buy fresh poultry just refrigerate it for a day or two. Sure wish the processes did that for us before freezing.
Hi Susan! We are finally on board and have started purchasing pastured poultry from a local farmer. Just like you, we pick them up on slaughter day and from reading through this post, I now see that it is important to let them sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days before freezing. For those that I do have in the freezer, do you thaw them before brining or let them thaw in the brine?
Hi Laura! That’s great that you have been able to purchase pastured poultry. I thaw my frozen chicken right in the brine, but that is not necessary. Either way is fine. We just received a few chickens this past weekend and I did refrigerate them for 2 days before freezing, but haven’t cooked any of them yet. I plan to cook them w/o brining just to see how it works out. I’ll let you know.
Hi Susan, how did it turn out?
We love the birds, especially barbecued!
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