Picking up where we left off... ah yes, the magic of the brine.
So if you put sugar in your brine and you don't rinse it off before roasting, you get that icky burny blackness. Now, some amount of caramelization is good, in general. Roast peppers wouldn't be the same without the char, and just last night I had some out-of-the-world vegetables that had blackened beautifully at the bottom of a roasting pan with lamb at the center. But for chicken, you're not looking for black. You're looking for a gorgeous golden color. And if you can get it, golden and crisp is the goal.
Like this:
Mmmm, chicken porn.
(let's hope that none of you found this page by Googling "chicken porn"... dude, that's just wrong)
My basic brine for chicken involves 24 hours in the brine -- flipping over halfway through -- and then another 12 hours or so in the fridge uncovered. This air-dries the skin and helps it to get crisp during the roasting. Also helping the crisp factor: high-heat roasting, at 450 degrees.
And the basic brine?
- several cups hot water
- 1/2 c kosher salt
- 1 T peppercorns
- 1 t juniper berries
- 1 t allspice berries
- 6 cloves
- 6 cardamom pods
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 star anise
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 cinnamon stick
Like I said before, you can nudge the numbers all around on this. Tweak and see what happens. I was surprised, actually, with the dried habanero I added last time -- it didn't seem to have any effect at all in the flavor.
By the way, I apologize for the brine pun, and I promise to cut back on the puns, but hey -- that was pretty restrained when you consider that my brine recipe sometimes includes thyme.
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