Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Traeger smoke a chicken, need a Brine

Hey ya'll I could use some guidance, my Dad gave me his Traeger Grill, it's not big , might hold two Butts. it's a very clean unit.

I bought 2 whole chickens and I want to smoke them at 225 temp, I want to Brine them.

anybody want to share a Brine recipe.

I have a Big green egg and I never use it, I constantly have to touch it to keep the temp right. so I hope I like this unit. I want to start smoking more meats instead of Grilling.

Thanks in Advance - Jason

Wet Brine 20th Century

Dry Brine 21st Century

Dry brine & smoke them on cans of beer !



Moist & flavourful !

**Skin will be "rubbery" though.

I can't get crispy skin, when I smoke chickens !

I just like the basic.


Cup of kosher, cup of sugar and two gallons of water.


Thats what I use for turkeys anyway.

Rinse the chicken inside and out, and pat dry. Place in a deep pan and add 4 - Cups of chicken broth and a 2 oz packet of dry onion soup mix. Cover and place in the refrigerator over night.
When ready to cook, preheat smoker to 250 deg.. Use Apple or Pecan pellets.
Remove from fridge and discard marinade. Apply a rub of choice liberally to whole chicken. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a meat rack, so that the bird will be raised above the bottom of the pan. Set the bird and rack inside a deep alum. pan. Place on smoker for 3 hours or until breast meat reaches 165 deg. Remove from smoker and allow to rest for, at least, :15 minutes. Enjoy.

PS - You can Spritz with Apple Juice, in a spray bottle, after the 1st hour and subsequent hours.

Stop trying.

Leave uncovered in fridge for 24 hours

Thanks Phil, will try that !

OH, this is good!! Thank you guys , anything ya'll suggest, I will try! both wet and dry.

Thanks for the info

I never have time to brine chickens. Just season them and go to heat on the primo. I do grate temp a bit higher, 250-300. They turn out great. Never dried out.

My gripe too.

Picked up a CookShack recently, it goes to 300 degrees.
Hoping it does better.

This, but I also like to salt them a bit to help with drying them out. I did that last week with a spatchcock chicken.

Basic brine is 1 cup of kosher salt to one gallon of water. I like to add one large bottle of hot sauce to it. I normally use Louisiana, but most any will work. I have used Texas Pete but the bottles are smaller so I use 2-3.

Have done spatchcocked birds twice now in the Cook Shack.
Loosened the breast skin, put in some seasoning and a few pats of butter.
300 degrees.

First time they hit 190, whoops. A lot better on the plate than expected.

The second about 180. "Damnit! Again!" Really good. Won't call the skin
crispy, it doesn't crunch. But it's not rubbery. Both times it was the best smoked
chicken I've ever had. Actually, the only time I've ever had some I really enjoyed.

Now, I gotta get used to how fast this cooker gets them done.




PS.
Picked up some powdered chipotle at the Amish store.
It's milled like cayenne, super fine.

I really like this stuff, but it's a bit difficult. A good bit of heat, you have to blend it into a rub carefully, or you get HOT spots. We usually don't make rubs, just directly apply spices individually. That didn't work well with this stuff!

Try it if you find it.

Rotisserie chicken on the Weber is hard to beat. Butter, garlic salt and pepper as a baste . Especially if you like crispy skin.

That’s what I do. All you have to do is smoke them at the same time they are on the rotisserie

Buy a box of Morton coarse Kosher salt. Recipe on the box for poultry brine. Salt. Water. No need for anything fancy. After brining, put whatever flavorful rub on the bird. Smoke.