Brining & Large Quantities Of Chicken

[DaHorns]

As my first paying gig for 100 guests quickly approaches the bride has now asked for chicken along with the brisket, pork loin, & sausage, I'm trying to figure out if it would be easiest to do whole chickens and split them prior to cooking then separate the wing & breast from the thigh & drumstick after cooking. Or would it be better to just buy leg quarters?

Also, I'm looking at brining the chicken overnight in a water, salt, brown sugar mixture. I have done this in 2.5 gal ziplocs for competitions, but I'm thinking about making this brine in a cooler and doing it like that and floating a couple bags of ice to keep it "sanitary". Am I on the right track here, or am I missing something? Just wanna be sure so I can make other plans if needed.

[OSD]

You could buy the leg or breast quarters, it would save the time of cutting them up to cook and then cutting to serve them, but I would think they would cost more than whole birds.
When I do large amounts of brining of meats I put the meat and brine in new clean and unscented black garbage bags, ( always double bag ) squeeze the air out of the bags and tie them shut tightly,( this saves space in cooler ) then put ice in bottom of cooler, put in the bags of brine and meat, cover with ice.
This also helps keep the cooler clean. It's real hard to get the brine taste and smell out of a cooler Don't ask me how I know.

[DaHorns]

Man, I knew somone could help. That is a great idea. Thank you so much!!!

[SoEzzy]

It does cost more to do it with portions, but at the end of the day what's your time worth, when portioning chickens it is not a long job to do one or two but if you are looking a 8 portions from a chicken and feeding 100 people you have 13 chickens to dissect, and that time will soon add up.

You would only be looking at 4 packs of thighs or 6 packs of chicken breasts. Or if you have a Sam’s club, look in the chiller cabinets for the 25 frozen chicken breasts in a bag.

[DaHorns]

I dont see everyone wanting chicken, but what Im concerned about is what happens if I run out of chicken. What my plan was is to split then quarter after its cooked (thigh/drum and wing/breast), after thinking on it today I was thinking 15 chickens. Do y'all think I'm off? Im also going to have brisket (4-5), pork loin (2), and sausage (20#). There is going to be plenty of meat, IMO. With that amount of meats do you think Im going to be OK with the chickens?

[OSD]

I think I would do 16 chickens. But I would have 3 or 4 cut into 8 pieces and use those pieces when serving a person that is also eating some of the other meats. Serve the quarters for people that ask for chicken only plates. Are you serving or is it self serve?? Portion control will be very important when figuring sides and meat for 100.

[DaHorns]

For the amount that I charged them, Im going to leave it at self serve. I think I will put the chicken on the serving line towards the end of the meat, just before the sausage, or maybe even last. Also, Im thinking about using an electice knife for carving all of this meat.

[antaean7]

Sorry but I have to ask a newby question. Will someone explain what brining is? It sounds like you are basicly soaking the chicken in a liquid to marinate the meat. How long do you soak it? Am I way off in my understanding?

[TX Sandman]

No, you're pretty close. Basically, brining is soaking meat, usually birds, in a salt-water solution to add liquid and seasoning to the meat. A link to more info can be found here:

http://texasbbqforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=146

Horns, if you're serving chicken as self-serve, I'd stay away from doing quarters in favor of pieces. I think people will be trying multiple meats, so quarters might lead to a lot of waste. Strictly MHO, but I don't cater meals, so I may be wrong.

[OSD]

I do 1 cook each month that we serve around 100 people at the club. The biggest problem I found is letting it be self serve. The guy that did it before always did self serve because he said it was easier for him. I watched the garbage cans for the 2 months before I took over the cooks and was shocked at how much food was being thrown away. When I started doing the cooks the first thing I did was to do the plating and to use portion control when plating. We now cook about 1/4 to 1/3 less food overall for the same amount of people. Waste is at a minimum and we have very little leftovers. We always cook some extra and tell people if you want, come back for seconds. We even send home plates with people for their wives that didn't come and still have plenty.
Portion control is key to having enough food for the cook and for making money on the job. JMHO

[J-Bar-H John]

A few thoughts:
I always brine and I always do "beer can" chickens because they cannot be beat for moistness and flavor. That said, using whole chickens is the way to go. In my mind all costs involved come out of the job profit so I try and save it where I can. Cooking whole chickens lets me portion quarters for a chicken only dinner and pieces for a mixed meat meal. (Jims advice is mirrored here) Also I brine in those gigantic 20 gallon zip lock bags. This allows me to not only brine the chickens but give a semi sanitary means of disposal. I just chunk a few of them in the big white coolers and throw a couple of bags of ice on them for the night.
Another comment on the genius of Jim is that portion control is king. If you are just dropping a job off then your profit is what it is and they have to deal with the short and long of it. If you are trying to feed a number of people and it is a thin job then it makes sense to put some volunteers/employees on the spoons and make sure everything works out. You can be a genius with a spreadsheet but if you run out of food you will never get another job there. If you do it on a regular basis invest in a few sets of measures spoons or "spoodles" so you KNOW that every portion of beans is 3 ounces and every portion of slaw is 2 ounces, etc. Portion control also allows you to handle "surprises". We had a job for a church that was baptising 150 people and invited the whole church to come out and witness it. They were expecting 1250 people and that is what I put into the spreadsheet. (Never underestimate the average baptists ability to sniff out a free meal.) Very early on we realized we were in trouble and put a man on every spoon with strict instructions on exactly how much to put on each plate. We were able to feed 2125 people on 65 briskets and no one went away hungry. (another piece of advice is that churches are notoriously bad at estimating how many peole will show up, always make sure you have extra.) Also, your thought on buffet placement was spot on. I always put the meat at the end so they fill their plates up with sides before taking 4 portions of beef.