Letting meat rest before cooking? why?!
is this true?
why?
and does anyone have a recipe for "brine" to soak the chicken in?
Answers: I'm culling my first chicken on monday. I heard after my chickens is cleaned/plucked etc, I have to let the meat "rest" in the fridge for 24-48 hours in a salt brine or it will be tuff.
is this true?
why?
and does anyone have a recipe for "brine" to soak the chicken in?
You must let freshly slaughtered meat rest for a period of time in order to allow various chemical changes to occur that soften the meat. After something is killed, it gets rigor mortis; after a period of time, this passes.
The brine removes the last traces of blood, and it also improves the quality and juiciness of the meat. You will not be sorry you did this. In fact, I suggest you try brining all sorts of meats, like chicken pieces/breasts and pork chops.
Here's a simple recipe for brine:
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup regular salt (or 1 cup kosher salt)
1/2 cup sugar
Dissolve salt and sugar in water, in a large container. Submerge chicken completely. Allow to brine for 1-2 hours. Do not permit the chicken to spend the entire 24-48 hour resting period in the brine. The chicken should rest that long, but should brine for only 2 hours maximum, or it will get too salty. The only exception to this rule is if you have an old bird, over a year, in which case go ahead and brine for 4 hours. By the way, I recommend you brine after the resting period is over, not during.
You can also add herbs to the brine for more flavor, such as garlic, onions, lemon peel, springs of rosemary and thyme, and bay leaf. If you add bay or dry herbs, be sure to simmer them in a cup or two of water for 5 minutes before adding them to the brine, as you'll get more flavor out of them that way.
P.S. Rather than change anything I wrote above, I will add some more information/opinions I just got. Some people think brining a freshly culled chicken for more than a couple hours is okay. However, I still think that 24-48 hours is too long--I really think you run the risk of oversalting it, and making the meat mushy, especially a young bird. I would quickly chill the bird in ice water, then keep refrigerated for a day or 2 until it relaxes. Then I'd brine it for 4 hours tops.
I've never heard of meat resting before cooking...only after. After you cook a piece of meat, you should let it rest before slicing so that the juices can be absorbed in the meat. If you cut into it too soon, all of the delicious juices will run out and you will have a dry piece of meat.
I don't know about it being tough if you don't brine, but I find that brining improves the flavor. I always brine poultry. However, I usually just soak it for 4-6 hours.
If you ever had a kosher chicken, that's basically what the difference between kosher and non kosher (from a processing prospective, not the religious aspect). Kosher chickens are basically brined chickens that are blessed by a rabbi. Since I'm not Jewish, the rabbi thing is not important to me, but the chickens are great.
Here's how to do it
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Poultry/B...
How old is the chicken? Depends on the age of the chickens is to how you marinade, if you have naturally feed them on whole grains and house scraps you should have really delicious meat from the chicken, if abit older use a marinade of fresh fruit pulp, left for at least 24 hours, cook the older ones on lower heat or you could always boil them for a soup or stew, if at all worried rub some honey and Small amount of soy sauce and leave for 24 hours after cleaning chicken, or any other sauce eg plum, barbecue, etc, and enjoy.
Listen to CHUCK However i brine a whole bird (Roaster) overnite 6-8 hrs . Pieces i brine 1 hr.