By Dylan Clay
The best binders for chicken are:
Another common binder that people use in BBQ is mustard. However, not many people use this for chicken (myself included).
Rather, I will almost always use no binder or a neutral cooking oil.
Binders in general are used because they help to keep dry rub on meat – as apposed to falling off.
This is especially true with something like chicken which features parts that are less than homogeneous (like drums, thighs, wings, etc.).
The rub is apt to roll off – especially with larger granules like pepper or sugar.
In almost every case, the binder isn’t capable of being tasted. This is because most binders are either water or vinegar-based; In both cases this liquid is vaporized.
In most cases, I simply opt to just use water or no binder. If not water, I’ll use a thin coat of a cooking oil like EVOO.
If the chicken is skin-on, I’ll always use oil – for reasons I outline below.
Aside from these, hot sauce is popular and so is pickle juice.
When taking a whole chicken or chicken parts out of their vacuum packing, they’ll already feel “wet.”
This is because they’re surrounded by what’s called the “purge.”
Some people will mistaken this purge liquid for blood when it’s actually a combination of water (which is found in muscle tissue) and a protein called myoglobin (which is water soluble).
The protein that gives blood its color is hemoglobin.
Most recipes and articles will tell you to “pat the meat dry.” Which in essence removes this liquid.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to “wash” or “rinse” your meat in the sink prior to cooking it (or even pat it dry). This is because poultry is cleaned during processing.
Meaning any further washing is unnecessary.
There are reasons for patting dry though – like improving the sear; This way the pan doesn’t have to vaporize the water.
I like to air dry the chicken skin overnight with salt. The goal being to remove moisture from the skin so that it’ll crisp up easier.
You can simply take the chicken out of the packaging and use this purge to your advantage.
OR you could pat the meat dry and re-apply a spritz of water just to make the surface tacky.
In terms of binders, cooking oil is likely the most popular that’s used for chicken.
Chicken is typically cooked at a higher temperature as apposed to low and slow and the oil helps with browning and heat transfer.
Aside from these aspects, the oil can also function as a binder.
My only issue with cooking oils – like olive oil – is that it tends to be expensive.
If all I have on hand is say an expensive olive oil – I’ll opt to use a different binder.
For instance, while writing this I have two Olive Oils in my house:
Considering the amount of binder being used is so minimal and can’t really be tasted, I’d use the latter every time – simply because it’s cheaper.
As I sort of alluded to above – my goal with skin-on chicken is to have crispy skin and moist/tender meat. Meaning, I don’t want to re-add water and un-do this air-drying process I described above.
Instead, I use EVOO for the potential of browning the skin and making it crispy.
Hot sauce is a binder that’s pretty common with chicken too. Similar to something like mustard it’s cheap and vinegar based.
Where I’m from in New Hampshire, Frank’s Red Hot or Tabasco are popular.
A 12 fl.oz. bottle of Frank’s is around $2.98.
The ingredients in Frank’s Red Hot include:
In this case the water and the distilled vinegar are vaporized and you’re left with spicy and savory notes.
Keep in mind though – there really isn’t enough aged cayenne in the mixture to even be tasted.
This idea more-so comes from barbecue restaurants where not much goes to waste. A typical barbecue plate will come with your meats/sides, slices of white bread, and pickles.
Rather than disposing of the pickle juice, these places will repurpose it as their binder.
Usually rather than just pickle juice though they’ll combine pickle juice and mustard, just to help thin out the mustard.
I personally almost always have either bread and butter or dill pickle chips in my refrigerator. I’ve tested using Pickle juice several times and it works well.
Just for the sake of looking at ingredients, we can use Mt. Olive brand and look at their “Pickle Juicers.”
The ingredients are as follows:
So above we have water and vinegar which are vaporized. We’re left with sea salt, turmeric, and whatever natural flavors means.
Similar to hot sauce, these flavors aren’t capable of being tasted.
Keep in mind, this is totally different from something like a pickle juice brine – which is really common with fried chicken.
In this case you’re submerging the chicken in the brine for up to 24 hours.
This is completely different from a light spritz with pickle juice to apply your dry rub.
Very helpful! I just retired and want to concentrate on making better barbecue and smoked meats. I suspect I’ll be visiting your site a great deal. Thank you, Dylan!
Happy to help Patrick!