I have talked about brining poultry and
pork but one thing I haven't written about much is dry brining.
Dry brining is just what it says,
brining without liquid. The salt in the rub induces the pores of
the meat to open up and draws out liquid that mixes with the
seasonings of the rub. After a while, the seasonings and liquid are
pulled back into the meat. With dry brining, you need to give it the
full length of recommended time, don't short change it. Otherwise
the moisture might not be reabsorbed and the meat can be dry.
I recently experimented with dry
brining using a recipe for Dry Brined Beer Can Chicken from the 2013
Southern Living book All Fired Up.
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| reprinted with permission from All Fired Up by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013 |
It took 24 hours to brine the two birds
but the wait was worth it. (click the link below for recipe)
Dry Brined Beer Can Chicken
by
Prep Time: 30 min + 24 hours for dry brining
Cook Time: 2 hours
Ingredients (8 servings)
- 1⁄4 cup kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp. light brown sugar
- 2 tsp. pimentón (sweet smoked Spanish paprika)
- 11⁄2 tsp. dried marjoram or oregano
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
- 3 bay leaves, finely crumbled
- 2 (31⁄2- to 4-lb.) whole chickens
- 1 large oven bag
- 2 (12-oz.) cans brown ale
Instructions
- Combine first 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle skin and cavities of chickens with salt mixture. Place chickens in oven bag; twist end of bag, and close with tie. Chill 24 hours.
- Light 1 side of grill, heating to 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat; leave other side unlit. Reserve 1⁄2 cup beer from each can for another use. Place each chicken upright onto a beer can, fitting into cavity. Pull legs forward to form a tripod, allowing chickens to stand upright.
- Place chickens upright on unlit side of grill. Grill, covered with grill lid, 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes or until golden and a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 170°. Let stand 10 minutes. Carefully remove chickens from cans; cut into quarters.
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I followed the recipe as written except I did one of the birds spatchcocked instead of beer can to see how the same recipe tasted with a different technique. I did these on the Big Green Egg, "raised direct" meaning the grill grate is up higher than usual which gives more of a buffer between the hot coals below and takes more advantage of the reflective heat from the closed grill lid. [Note: You don't have to do this for the beer can chicken on a regular grill, I was doing this for the spatchcocked bird.]
To raise the grid up like that, I used two fire rings instead of just one. I know not everyone has an extra Egg fire ring sitting around. Instead you can can used a couple of fire bricks like Kristy of Necessary Indulgences shows on her Big Green Egg in this picture.
Where's my beer can in the picture? I used a beer can throne instead. This one is from Craycort designed specifically to fit their insert system.
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| They both got a nice color. |
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| Not surprisingly, the spatchcock bird cooked about 30 minutes quicker. |
This comes from All Fired Up from the folks at Southern Living. I recently received a review copy of and I am impressed.
All Fired Up - Smokin' Hot BBQ Secrets from the
South's Best Pitmasters
by Troy Black and Southern Living, Oxmoor House 2013
$24.95
The Authors
Brought to you by the editors of
Southern Living and Troy Black. Troy Black is a championship winning
competitive BBQ cook and is currently the face of the Sam's Club
National BBQ Tour, the richest competition series on the BBQ
competition circuit. You might have seen him on The Food Network,
The Travel Channel, Fox and Friends, The CBS Early Show, or many
other media outlets.
The Book
All Fired Up is a full
size, 288 page softcover book. The cover is reinforced, tougher than
a paperback. The book makes a visual impact as soon as you pick it
up because the entire thing is in color, not just the pictures.
Before the recipes kick
in, Troy gives a primer for grilling and bbq, including demonstrative
photos on things like
- Set ups for gas grills, charcoal grills, and smokers
- Troy's top 10 bbq tools
- using charcoal
- direct and indirect cooking tips
- how to use wood
All Fired Up is also
laced with tips, stories, and nuggets of wisdom from some of the
South's best pitmasters.
The Recipes:
After the tips, the book
dives into the 175 recipes which are categorized into typical BBQ
book structure
- Sauced and slathered
- Authentic BBQ
- Beef It Up
- Pit Out
- Hot Chix
- Fresh Catch
- Special Extras
Just thumbing through the
recipes, I immediately seized on recipes that I wanted to try. The
titles, photos and recipes just kept pulling me in with each turn of
the page. The recipes range from traditional bbq pork, ribs, chicken
and brisket to great grilled fare like Vietnamese BBQ tacos, sweet
ginger chicken thighs, and pork tenderloin sliders with spicy
pickles.
In addition to the Dry
Brined Beer Can Chicken, I have tried several so other recipes,
including using the General Purpose BBQ Rub on some split chickens
that I smoked just to have on hand. Very good.
Whiskey Marinated Pork
Tenderloin – which Troy said was one of his favorites on the BBQ
Central Radio Show last week. Alexis picked this one out and we weren't disappointed.
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| Tip: birch syrup is awful on pancakes but works better than maple syrup for meats, IMO. |
Pineapple-Jalapeno
Burgers – the cilantro-jalapeno cream and grilled pineapple kicked
these burgers up.
There are tons of more recipes that I
want to try but I think the next thing will be the Sorghum Beef Ribs,
that recipe sounds fantastic.
The Photos:
The 400 photographs are drool worthy
and impressive. The food styling and photography capture the spirit
of these fantastic recipes, compelling you to want to try them.
Photos of BBQ joints mixed in help set the mood, you can almost smell
the smoke coming off of the pages. Overall, this has some of the
best photos I have seen in the numerous BBQ cookbooks sitting on my
shelf, except one.
Summary
All Fired Up is an
exceptional book and can put you on the track for inspired grilling
all summer long. Whether you only grill a handful of times a year or
grill several times a week like I do, All Fired Up has something for
you.
I give it 4 ½ stars and
recommend it.
Rating
5 stars – an absolute resource, will
refer to frequently
4+ stars – good cookbook with
value added tips, photos, guides, and other content
3 stars – Good, average cookbook,
glad to have it on my shelf
2 stars – a recipe collection if you
don't have internet
1 star – would give it away to
someone else to get rid of it, but only if I didn't like them very
much
For Knoxville area folks, you can see
Troy Black at the Sam's Club National BBQ Tour event on May 11th
at the Sam's Club at Gallaher View and I-40.