O'reilly's smoked and brined chicken

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 Whole chickens; (3 1/2 lb. each)
1 gallon Water
¾ cup Salt; (I use kosher salt)
⅔ cup Sugar
¾ cup Soy sauce
1 teaspoon Each dried tarragon; thyme, and black pepper
¼ cup Olive oil

Directions

Wash birds inside and out. Put water in a large non-aluminum container (I bought a new 5-gallon bucket from Home Depot for this), add salt and sugar and stir to dissolve. Add soy sauce, tarragon, thyme and pepper. Submerge birds and weigh them down with a heavy plate so they stay submerged.

Refrigerate overnight.

Remove birds from brine and wash inside and out. Pat dry. (They say you can reserve the brine for future use, but I have never tried this -- I just throw it out!)

Smoke birds according to the type of smoker you will be using. You can add additional seasoning to the birds before smoking them, just don't add any more salt. Baste birds with the olive oil during latter stages of smoking to give them a golden brown color! Posted to bbq-digest by wight@... on Oct 4, 1998, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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