Meat thermometer

[sluggo72]

Don't put frozen chicken in. It won't brine correctly.

Brining isn't difficult. A simple and effective brine is water, kosher salt, brown sugar, rough chopped onion and garlic or granular substitutes. I use hot water so the sugar and salt dissolves. Rosemary or sage are good additives for chicken or pork. A dash of cayenne will add some heat. I try to brine at least overnight. Rinse and dry before cooking.

The salt-water ratio is critical. Look it up before making it. I can't remember off the top of my head.

thanks, hot water? do you cool it first before you put the meat in? and then of course you have to refrigerate, correct?

 

[PAgeologist]

thanks, hot water? do you cool it first before you put the meat in? and then of course you have to refrigerate, correct?

Yes. Let it cool before adding chicken. A hand full of ice would speed it up. Yes you must refrigerate it.

The best thing to do is to put chicken in a gallon zip lock bag, then add brine. You get more even brining. Flip the bag occasionally.

 

[Fac]

In practice, once you get experience with grilling you won't need a thermometer, you'll know the meat is done by feel, or by lifting it with your tongs and seeing how much it bends. (cooked means harder, less flexible)

Anyway there are two types of thermometers that are worth owning.

I) A decent Instant Read. Tons of brands, most of them are good. the more you pay, the more "instant" it is. $20 buys you something that will take 5-10 seconds. $50 is 3 seconds. $80-$100 is more or less instant. In practice the speed is cool but doesn't make much difference. No real need to spend a lot of money.

Two brands I own and like:

$20: CDN Pro-accurate instant-read.

$50: Lavatools Javelin Pro is faster, well built, longer probe. I own it but it's not really a big step up from the CDN for being twice as expensive.

2) Remote-probe thermometer. You stick the probe in your meat and you can monitor the temp real-time. These tend to wear out fast because the probe or wire is easily damaged. I have found the CDN brand to be long-lasting. But there are other brands that get good reviews so I assume they're good.

Note, if you want to use Amazon reviews, you HAVE to read them because so much is bogus.. A lof of time the stars are completely misleading or wrong -- because the reviews are for a different model or they're just plain fake. So.. use the reviews but with caution.

Agree with you. I used to cook for a steak house while in high school. One very busy Mother's Day I stopped and counted all the pieces of meat I had on my grill. There were 32. Seven different cuts all going to various degrees of cooking. Not a single piece came back. We weren't allowed to cut into them so we went with feel and as tboyer said with enough experience you just know when they are finished.

 

[PAgeologist]

Agree with you. I used to cook for a steak house while in high school. One very busy Mother's Day I stopped and counted all the pieces of meat I had on my grill. There were 32. Seven different cuts all going to various degrees of cooking. Not a single piece came back. We weren't allowed to cut into them so we went with feel and as tboyer said with enough experience you just know when they are finished.

I agree with you that you can do the feel method for steak. I certainly wouldn't do it for pork or chicken though. Or a large slow cooked piece of beef like prime rib or brisket.

 

[STPGopherfan]

Agree with you. I used to cook for a steak house while in high school. One very busy Mother's Day I stopped and counted all the pieces of meat I had on my grill. There were 32. Seven different cuts all going to various degrees of cooking. Not a single piece came back. We weren't allowed to cut into them so we went with feel and as tboyer said with enough experience you just know when they are finished.

Both techniques work obviously. What I like about having a good thermometer is it isn't just limited to meats.

I like reverse searing steaks myself when I have time. With a good grill that has a warming rack, you can do all of that on the grill.