Chicken and butermilk

[jdiver]

Does a buttermilk over night soak take the place of a brine? Anyone here use Buttermilk for chicken or anything else? How long do you soak for, over night?

Thanks

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[slojoe]

Over here in north louisiana, we usually soak the chicken in buttermilk for 3-4 hrs, more might be better, don't know, but that time was for frying.

[Pork Belly]

You wont know what happens until you try it. Perhaps cut it with some wine or water then add you salt and sugar.

[jdiver]

You both are saying in replace of a Brine? Hence add some salt...

I've never had a problem with dry chicken. Most of the chicken I've cooked outdoors has been on my Big Green Egg. It's always been moist yet not burnt, and that's with skin ON.

I love what buttermilk does for fried chicken. So gonna try it for my smoked chicken.

[Pork Belly]

The reason a brine is absorbed is the salt. Long chemical explanation, but the salt makes it happen. I recommend following a basic poultry brine recipe. Replace the gallon of water with wine/buttermilk or water/buttermilk. Good luck with it. I imagine you wont have any issues getting rub to stick to your chicken.

[DivotMaker]

Brian hit the reason why buttermilk, alone, does not replace a brine.  Salt is essential to how a brine works.  My only concern about using buttermilk in the smoker is that it is a dairy product.  When you fry or grill chicken, the buttermilk in the batter goes from cold to cooked pretty darn fast.  In the smoker, you're going to have a dairy product sitting at an unsafe temp for quite awhile.  Maybe someone else has thoughts on this - I'm just kind of thinking out loud.  Not sure if it would be a problem, but seems it could be a great opportunity to grow some bacteria.  Something to think about.

[jdiver]

I don't believe the lower than deep fat frying temp is a concern. One I'll have the box set to 250f. And cooking time for chicken is much shorter than most meats.

Also we use dairy in Sous Vide cooking at much lower temps for long times. A low temp for a long enough time actually pasteurizes the product. Too short of a cook time at a low temp would be dangerous.

And yes understand about Salt and umm, Brine... Just wondering if other properties of buttermilk lead to much the same effect, acids, proteins??? Where is that food scientist?

And what bugs can survive in buttermilk, it's so blasted nasty:)

[DivotMaker]

I don't believe the lower than deep fat frying temp is a concern. One I'll have the box set to 250f. And cooking time for chicken is much shorter than most meats.

Also we use dairy in Sous Vide cooking at much lower temps for long times. A low temp for a long enough time actually pasteurizes the product. Too short of a cook time at a low temp would be dangerous.

And yes understand about Salt and umm, Brine... Just wondering if other properties of buttermilk lead to much the same effect, acids, proteins??? Where is that food scientist?

And what bugs can survive in buttermilk, it's so blasted nasty:)

Sounds reasonable.  Like I said, I wasn't sure - the thought just popped in my head. 

Here's something I put together on brining, and the difference between 2 distinct kinds.  It has some good references that may help you find an answer:

http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1504.0

[jdiver]

Your thinking process works like mine. See a potential problem then see if it holds true, or can be overcome.

I'm a Windows Server System Administrator on a very large network. Always looking at problems and potential problems.

[DivotMaker]

Thanks, JD.  Oh, and I agree about nothing growing in the nastiness of buttermilk!  Yikes.  My older brother used to drink it out of the carton!  Almost made me sick every time I saw him do it!