Jamaican Jerk

Instructuons read to mix 1 oz (1/4 cup) of mixture per cup of water per lb of poultry. The instructions are intended for the brine mixture to be combined in a gallon ziploc-style bag along with the chicken parts. I, however, mixed the whole package (8 oz; about 2-1/4 cups) with 4 qts (1 gal) of water to wet brine 1- 5 lb whole chicken. Per the package instructions, the 8 oz pkg should have only made about 64 oz of brine solution, but I basically diluted by half by doubling the amount of liquid. This allowed me to fill up the empty space in the container I was soaking the whole chicken in.Warmed brine mixture in a quart of water on the stove to mix & melt solids (salt, sugar), then poured over ice (1-7 lb bag, which melts down to about 3-1/4 qts. An 8-1/2 lb bag melts down to about 4 qts)) to cool quickly & bring total liquid to 4 qts (enough to easily cover 1 whole chicken) Placed brine mixture into frig to chill to get it below 40 degrees before placing chicken into brine solution (you don't want to place your cold chicken in a warm brine because you will raise the temp over 40 deg, which will allow bacteria to grow). Held covered in frig for 5 hrs (1 hr/lb). Smoked for 2 hrs at 275. Extra juicy and a lot of good lemon & pepper pop. Maybe even a bit too strong. Next time I will dilute even more.Note: wet brining will make the skin soggy. On the smoker I could not crisp the skin even after raising the temp to 325 for the last 20 minutes (for any real chance at crisp skin, bake at 350-400 for at least the last 15-20 min, or broil for several minutes). Crisping the skin is a challenge without broiling at the end of the cook. A good fix for this is to let the chicken brine, then rinse off brine solution as usual, but then let the chicken air dry for 12-18 hrs on a drying rack (cookie rack, etc), which will dry out the skin and let it crisp more easily. Best of both worlds: juicy meat, crisp skin.

Delicious seasoning. We were heavy handed with pouring brine in our marinade. It was gooood, just really spicy, especially the day after. You can taste other spices as well. Just add a few teaspoons at a time, follow the directions on the label!

Definitely will buy again. Can’t wait to try others

Very good.

Love these brines! I use them on all of my meat and veggies.

Very good product...perfect.

Over-powering. I like jerk chicken spicy hot, but this has more aromaticity. Don’t soak over 6 hours whatever you do.

Great for chicken