Jan: At its simplest, it's a salt and water
solution. However, it's also a perfect vehicle for imparting a lot of extra flavor into very
lean meats. Once you have your basic brine down, you can practice with all kinds of different
flavors. I'm going to show you one of my favorites, and one of the simplest things you can throw
together. You start out with . . . always, always, always,
½ cup of salt and 1 cup of sugar. To this, I'm going to add 1 bay leaf, a pinch of cracked
peppercorns, a little palm full of thyme; I guess I would say that's about 1 tablespoon,
and 2 cloves of garlic chopped up very fine. Boone: Mom, what's in our stockings? Jan: Not anything yet, buddy. That's Boone,
my youngest. This is how I cook all the time. That's why nothing I do is ever difficult
or requires a lot of time. I'm putting about 8 cups of water into this.
There really is no hard and fast rule. All we're going to do at this point is bring it
to a boil. Once you get the brine on the stove, all you really want to do is let it come up
to a boil. The reason you want it to come to a boil is all the sugar and all the salt
are going to become one with the water. That's going to let them later get into your chicken
so that when you bite into it, you've got automatic flavor and juiciness, and it's all
going to be luscious and lovely. The other things that we added in there; the bay leaf,
the thyme, the garlic and the peppercorns, are all going in too . . . can you see? Right
now, you can keep this on a boil, and the water and the salt are going to dissolve and
disappear, completely go away, and that's when you know that everything is ready. Now that your brine has come to a boil, you
can actually drag your spoon through it and you can feel if all the salt and the sugar
have dissolved. In this case, they have. You can also smell it. Actually, it smells really
good. At this point, you can get an idea of what the roast chicken is going to smell like
when it comes out. Since you don't want to put a bunch of boiling
hot liquid on uncooked poultry, which is an invitation to botulism, which is also not
a very lovely party favor; go ahead and dump your hot brine into a bunch of ice cubes.
There's plenty of salt and sugar in there. That will bring your brine down to the temperature
where it's safe enough to put your poultry in. Want to move back over here? If you want
to, you can also mix up your brine the night before and simply stick it in the refrigerator
overnight; it'll chill, it'll keep. It's full of preservatives anyway; that's what salt
and sugar are. The next step: Take your birds . . . and I've
got 2 because I cook for quite a crowd all the time. I also like 2 because I want lots
of leftovers. I also want both chicken carcasses. All I did was pull these out, I got rid of
the little cellophane baggy full of oddities that come in the middle. I toss those because
those are the giblets; they have a very distinct flavor. Frankly, I don't want to use it right
now. Boone: Are you making spaghetti, mom? Jan: No, baby. I'm going to make roast chicken.
Is that all right with you? Boone: No. Jan: No? That's what we're having this time.
I also save the necks, however. You'll see why I'm doing that next. Boone: Are you making pasta? Jan: I'm going to make pasta eventually. Here's
all you do: You've got both chickens sitting in brine under ice water with the necks. I'm
going to stick a top on.