Quick- how do you brine a chicken or turkey?
Ever used SOY SAUCE to brine with?
So you know what 'brining' is?
If you answered no to those 3 questions, you are in luck, as thanks to Kikkoman and Smiley360, I'm going to share HOW, WHY, and WHAT with you today!
I can not ever remember NOT having a VERY VERY large tin of Kikkoman Soy Sauce in our house- one of the advantages of shopping at the base commisary, Mom was able to get the large tins, and just refill the smaller, easier to handle bottle! Before the days of oven bags, brining was one of the many uses mom had for Kikkoman, in the kitchen. It really was one of her go-to cooking products (along with salt, pepper, flour, baking soda, sugar, rosemary, garlic, and taco seasoning (Cajun seasoning came along later)).
I know, I know you want the "what is brining?" question answered, don't you!
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (my old friend- remember when we used to look up words in it and NOT online, and find other cool words on the same page? Eek totally dated myself, right?), Brining is "water saturating or strongly impregnating with common salt". In the old old old days, this was to preserve and extend the life of foods, primarily fish and meat.Today it is a way to have a moist and delicious bird! I know you're saying, but Soy Sauce? Well soy sauce typically has 900 mg of sodium per 1 tablespoon of sauce. This is because it is made from fermented soy beans and brine (aha!).
Brining a chicken or turkey is really quite easy, as long as you a)have a big enough pot/bowl to put it in, and b0enough space in the fridge to put in the big bowl (if you are going to let it go overnight), and it really does given the bird an excellent taste! if you are looking for a different way to cook the turkey this year, you might want to consider this method!
Ready to start? First a time out- Kiddo confiscated my new kitchen mascot that Kikkoman sent with out blogger kit, and has a joke for you:
Here's the recipe for a chicken, as I did (turkey recipe to follow):
Soy Sauce Brined Chicken
3/4 cp Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce
3/4 cupkosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoons dried sage
1 tablespoons dried celery seed
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
2. In a largestock pot
or 5 gallon bucket (see I told you!), mix water with remaining ingredients. Stir
well until all the salt is dissolved. Place chicken in the pot
It will now look like this:
3. Cover with a lid and refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours (it's better overnight). We turned ours over every 2 hours til we went to bed, as the water didn't cover it completely.
4. The next day, remove turkey from the brine, rinsing well.
5. Follow your regular cooking instructions, for whichever way you intend to cook the bird. We baked ours on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.. And yes, we split it in half before cooking, as we were cooking biscuits in the oven too, and needed the room!
This is what it looked like when it came out:.
HUNGRY????
Can you see how the chicken LITERALLY fell apart? The bones were SO soft that when it came off the baking sheet, it just collapsed in hunks of goodness! An juicy, oh my!
I'm telling ya'll you HAVE to try this at least once, to appreciate the goodness of brining!
10 ounces Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce
1/2 cupkosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dried sage
2 tablespoons dried celery seed
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Kikkoman has a special coupon for you too, as part of their Make Haste Slowly Campaign!
I hope you enjoy these recipes, as much as we enjoyed the chicken!
Thanks Kikkoman and Smiley360!
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this review pack,free of charge, from the Smiley360Blogger program, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post aboutthe product or recipe.
Ever used SOY SAUCE to brine with?
So you know what 'brining' is?
If you answered no to those 3 questions, you are in luck, as thanks to Kikkoman and Smiley360, I'm going to share HOW, WHY, and WHAT with you today!
I can not ever remember NOT having a VERY VERY large tin of Kikkoman Soy Sauce in our house- one of the advantages of shopping at the base commisary, Mom was able to get the large tins, and just refill the smaller, easier to handle bottle! Before the days of oven bags, brining was one of the many uses mom had for Kikkoman, in the kitchen. It really was one of her go-to cooking products (along with salt, pepper, flour, baking soda, sugar, rosemary, garlic, and taco seasoning (Cajun seasoning came along later)).
I know, I know you want the "what is brining?" question answered, don't you!
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (my old friend- remember when we used to look up words in it and NOT online, and find other cool words on the same page? Eek totally dated myself, right?), Brining is "water saturating or strongly impregnating with common salt". In the old old old days, this was to preserve and extend the life of foods, primarily fish and meat.Today it is a way to have a moist and delicious bird! I know you're saying, but Soy Sauce? Well soy sauce typically has 900 mg of sodium per 1 tablespoon of sauce. This is because it is made from fermented soy beans and brine (aha!).
Brining a chicken or turkey is really quite easy, as long as you a)have a big enough pot/bowl to put it in, and b0enough space in the fridge to put in the big bowl (if you are going to let it go overnight), and it really does given the bird an excellent taste! if you are looking for a different way to cook the turkey this year, you might want to consider this method!
Ready to start? First a time out- Kiddo confiscated my new kitchen mascot that Kikkoman sent with out blogger kit, and has a joke for you:
Why did the chicken join the band?
Because he had the drumsticks!
Here's the recipe for a chicken, as I did (turkey recipe to follow):
Soy Sauce Brined Chicken
In case you were wondering- here is what it looked like before the good stuff got added ( I couldnt find the 'small' gumbo pot, so had to use the big one!):
(Sorry for the B&W- I had to play with Creative Kit a little)
Ingredients (Recipe for standard whole chicken)
1 gallons Cold Water3/4 cp Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce
3/4 cup
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoons dried sage
1 tablespoons dried celery seed
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
Instructions
1. The night before roasting, remove your chicken from it's bag, remove innards and neck; rinse chicken inside and out (remember to thoroughly wash your hands before doing this step!).2. In a large
well until all the salt is dissolved. Place chicken in the pot
It will now look like this:
3. Cover with a lid and refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours (it's better overnight). We turned ours over every 2 hours til we went to bed, as the water didn't cover it completely.
4. The next day, remove turkey from the brine, rinsing well.
5. Follow your regular cooking instructions, for whichever way you intend to cook the bird. We baked ours on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.. And yes, we split it in half before cooking, as we were cooking biscuits in the oven too, and needed the room!
This is what it looked like when it came out:.
HUNGRY????
Can you see how the chicken LITERALLY fell apart? The bones were SO soft that when it came off the baking sheet, it just collapsed in hunks of goodness! An juicy, oh my!
I'm telling ya'll you HAVE to try this at least once, to appreciate the goodness of brining!
Turkey Brining version:
Ingredients (Recipe for a 16-24 pound turkey)
2 gallons Cold Water10 ounces Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce
1/2 cup
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dried sage
2 tablespoons dried celery seed
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Instructions
Follow SAME instructions as above for the turkey, but needs to brine for at least 8 hours!Kikkoman has a special coupon for you too, as part of their Make Haste Slowly Campaign!
I hope you enjoy these recipes, as much as we enjoyed the chicken!
Thanks Kikkoman and Smiley360!
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this review pack,free of charge, from the Smiley360Blogger program, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post aboutthe product or recipe.
Hee-hee, going to use that joke on my 5-year old son. He will love it! Your bird turned out beautifully. Great job.
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