Its only a matter of brine

Yesterday Dave and I decided to do an Iron-Chicken cook off. Before I get to that, Wendy and I also made some chocolate Nutella rice krispie treats. I'm not a big rice krispie treat fan, but they're a jazzed up version. I reduced the amount of butter and added in copious amounts of Nutella and Guittard semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. Next time I'll add the chocolate chips when its cooled a bit so they don't end up melting so much.

So back to kitchen stadium, or rather, Dave and Wendy's house. We agreed on getting our chickens from Safeway, since it wouldn't be fair if one person had an organic free-range chicken from Whole Foods. I didn't stick to the true Iron Chef competition rules and began brining my chicken early yesterday morning. My brine solution consisted of salt, sugar, and steeped herbs.

According to Wikipedia, "brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked, via the process of denaturation." Sounded like a plan.

Dave decided to go with the beer can grill method. He dry rubbed his bird with seasonings and set it atop a beer can on the grill. The beer, when bubbling and evaporating, keeps the chicken moist from the inside out. I like how his chicken looks like its just chilling on the can. Ha ha.

For my chicken, I made a compound butter using garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, and thyme.

The compound butter was rubbed under the skin and the chicken was stuffed with lemons and herbs. Before tossing it into a 425F degree oven, I rubbed it down with oil and generously seasoned it with salt and pepper.

When the birds came out of the oven/grill they were browned to perfection. Dave's chicken sported a crispy flavorful skin and my chicken was succulent, bursting with juices. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the cooked chickens; to be honest we were a bit overzealous with the tasting due to our equally competitive natures, and ripped apart the birds before I remembered to snap a picture.

Though the beer can chicken had a nice crispy salty skin, I didn't find that the beer nor the rub lent much flavor to the meat, and neither did the judges. Though the skin on the oven roasted chicken wasn't as tasty, the meat tasted of citrus, herbs, and butter. To add insult to injury, the meat was very soft, tender, and juicy. I'll let you guess whose cuisine reigned supreme. All I'm saying is that the next time I roast a chicken, I'm definitely going to brine.