Michael Twitty's Sorghum-Brined Chicken

This last week, I tried out one of the recipe's from Michael Twitty's, The Cooking Gene. Sorghum-Brined Chicken sounded very "exotic" to me, because sorghum is something completely unavailable in Seattle. A previous blog post tells the tale of how I recently came to be the proud owner of my own adorable pint of sorghum syrup and finally had the chance to taste it. When my local grocery store had a great sale on whole chickens, and I got one for under $5, I knew my time had finally come. Here's a link to the recipe. The recipe for kitchen pepper, that isn't included in the link, is available in his book. Here are some pictures of the cooking process. It was surprisingly not difficult to make, and had more hands-off time than hands-on time. This is a great way to roast a chicken if you don't have a lot of time to devote to chopping and mincing.

This is the kitchen pepper that I made. I didn't have all the ingredients, but was happy with the results anyway.

 The brine is really simple, it's just salt, water, vegetable stock, and sorghum syrup. I used an oven roasting bag to put the brine and chicken in. I never use them in the oven, they're just lying around my kitchen, but I discovered that those bags are really great for brining. I highly recommend using one for this!

 Post-brined chicken with the kitchen pepper covering all of it. Under the chicken is a layer of green cabbage leaves. Under the cabbage are two pieces of kitchen twine. You can kind of see them on three sides. You definitely need kitchen twine for this recipe, so if you don't have any on-hand, buy some at the store beforehand.

 The chicken has been topped with another layer of cabbage leaves, and I have tied all the twine to hold everything together. The recipe calls for a Dutch oven, but I don't have one. I used a disposable roasting pan that I covered with foil, instead. It seems to have worked just fine.

This is the final result. I took the foil and top layer of cabbage off and let it sit in the oven for a while to brown on top more. Definitely test it with a thermometer to make sure it's at least 165 degrees. I think it had great color! The pepper blends well with the sweetness of the syrup and the salt from the brine. The cabbage cooks down and mixes with the flavors too. I made some garlic-flavored rice to eat with this and it was a perfect meal!

The next time you're looking for a new and simple way to roast a chicken, I recommend this recipe. If you can, try to find a chicken that doesn't have additional salt water added to it. This can be difficult to find because it's a cheap and easy way to make chicken stay moist while jacking up the price because it also makes the chicken weigh more than it really does. (Random capitalism-ruining-food rant.) I haven't checked lately, but in the past, Foster Farms chicken never added salt water to their chicken.

There are some other recipes in The Cooking Gene that I'd like to try some day. I'll make sure to write a report about them when I have a chance to make them! If anybody else out there has read or reads this book, I'd love to hear what you thought of it. If you try this recipe, let me know what you think of it! And if you do the Twitter thing, give Michael Twitty, aka, Kosher Soul, a follow. He's great!