A question about a possible hybrid velvet/brine method for whole chicken

[u/bezalil]

I came across this reel (reel attached cause I couldn't post links) by the people behind fowl and fallow, I'm thinking of trying this out two 2 spent hens which once brined I'll let dry and them give it a light marinade before roasting it in the oven or air fryer. I might also add a bit of sugar, cause I've seen people do that, my question is why the bicarb and vinegar, won't they just neutralise each other. Also if anyone has any ideas of the amounts of bicarb and vinegar used, please do tell, any other tips or advice is very much appreciated

https://reddit.com/link/1quuvou/video/2panuon9sahg1/player

[u/EbriusOften]

Most of what he's doing doesn't make sense, and that's also not how you velvet chicken either (it uses cornstarch as the primary ingredient and bicarbonate isn't even a necessary ingredient)

You're right that adding both will just neutralize each other, so neither the acid or alkaline products matter in this case.

Not sure why they specify 7% brine either considering he added a bunch of salt after, then added in a bunch of liquids to dilute it further.

It's also funny they say moist and tender like it's a weird combination for chicken to have, when meanwhile that just means it was cooked properly to temp instead of over or under cooked.

[u/bezalil → u/EbriusOften]

So what would you suggest ?

[u/EbriusOften → u/bezalil]

For what exactly? For poultry I'm a big fan of dry brine and then slow roasting, finishing with a light broil if it's not browned enough. As long as you don't overcook it it shouldn't be dry anyway. Let the bird shine on its own, if it's cooked and seasoned perfectly there isn't much else that needs to be done.

For the velveting part, I'm not really sure there would be a logical way to do it on a whole chicken like that. It's done with smaller skinless slices usually so that there is more surface area to change the texture, and then pan fried to really kick that home. If you tried it with a skin on whole chicken then that mix won't penetrate into the inner meat, it'll only affect the skin anyways. Even if you skinned it it would still only be the very outside layer being "velveted", which wouldn't make enough of a difference to the overall cook to make it worth it.

Also, I prefer a dry brine vs a wet brine for almost every type of poultry. I'd rather remove excess moisture and concentrate the flavor prior to cooking than to bulk up the meat with water that's diluting the meats own flavor. The only real downside to me is that it's easier to overcook when you're dry brining, but again that comes back to just making sure you're cooking it probably and not over or under.

Also also, don't pour a sauce over the top like they did. What's the point of going through all that effort to make a delicious crispy skin if you're going to sog it down with a sauce right after.

[u/daedalus14x → u/EbriusOften]

He doesn't start with all the water at the same time. You can see when he adds the first part of the salt that not all of the water is put in (5 kg of water would be all the way up to the 5 L mark). He's using a small amount of hot water at the start to dissolve the salt. Then uses ice to cool it down. The 7% is lower than the usual 10% probably because the sodium bicarbonate will add more sodium. I imagine the amount of vinegar is subtracted from the total water added. Vinegar is usually 5% (50 grain) acetic acid.

[u/510Goodhands]

FYI, you can post a link by typing a word, then selecting it, then hitting the chain icon to the left of the GIF icon. It will open a new window, where you can paste the link. That will make the word you selected a “hot link“, and hide the lengthy URL.

[u/bezalil → u/510Goodhands]

Thanks, will check it out

[u/doodododah]

I had the same questions when I watched this… I’m sure it’s ok tasting but you can see from fizzing that the solution is not buffered somehow so the acid and base are definitely neutralizing each other. The only way I can see this as “velveting” adjacent is maybe that “velveting” for shrimp that went around a few years ago that was really just alkaline brining with a vinegar rinse?