What happens if you leave chicken in pickle juice too long?
A chicken breast or thigh taking a dip in pickle juice for less than two hours might not be exposed to a long enough denaturing process to do all that much. Chicken left to soak for longer than a night may break down too fully, retaining the texture of wet, uncooked chicken even after it hits the grill or oven.
We've been asked this a time or two, and the answer is simple. Because it's one of the easiest ways to ensure juicy and flavorful chicken without adding a bunch of additional seasonings. The pickle juice lends its slightly tangy flavor to the chicken while keeping it moist throughout the cooking process.
Dry brines can be as short as a few hours, but ideally at least 12 hours and up to 3 days. The longer you brine, the stronger the seasoning, the more robust the flavor, and more tender and juicy the meat will become. For small cuts of chicken, the times will vary.
Caption Options. You can leave your chicken in the wet brine for up to two days (a larger turkey can handle more without becoming overly salty), but the liquid will need at least 12 hours to work its magic.
Marinate in the pickle juice for 30 minutes to one hour (add a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce now for a spicy sandwich).
If you brine chicken on the counter, don't let it sit for more than a few hours. If the chicken is at room temperature, you should not brine it for more than two hours, and if it is still cold, you have about four hours before it goes bad.
Any exposed pickle or brine becomes a breeding ground for the bad microbes, which can spread to spoil the entire batch.
But don't just take it from me — this is the (not-so-secret) secret that's fueled the love affair so many people have with Chick-fil-A. It's the pickle brine! Well before being fried to perfection, the chicken breasts are brined with pickle juice for super-juicy, tender meat. People go wild for this chicken.
Drinking pickle juice from fermented pickles contains loads of lactobacillus bacteria-- this "good-guy" good bacteria is a really good source of bacteria to promote a healthy gut. A 1.5-ounce serving (that's a shot glass size) of our pickle juice contains 14 billion colony-forming units of live culture bacteria.
Most recipes for marinating meat and poultry recommend six hours up to 24 hours. It is safe to keep the food in the marinade longer, but after two days it is possible that the marinade can start to break down the fibers of the meat, causing it to become mushy.
Can you brine meat for 5 days?
Place the container in the refrigerator for the period of time specified in the recipe. The amount of time will depend on the type of brine you use; however, do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40°F or less). Remove turkey from brine after the recommended time.
Place the chicken pieces into the brine, cover and leave in the fridge for 72 hours. This allows the flavours to thoroughly permeate the flesh. After 72 hours and when you're ready to cook the chicken, take the raw chicken from the brine, throw the brine away and rinse the chicken thoroughly and pat dry.

After brining, take the chicken out, discard brine and rinse the chicken inside and out under cold water. Place it on a platter, pat it dry and place it back in the refrigerator for an hour to dry the skin. Take it out of the refrigerator an hour before roasting.
The high-salt concentration in brine causes water to be released from the food, thereby helping preserve it. Most of the pathogen-killing, spoilage-delaying properties associated with this form of food preservation are derived from the salt and acid conditions in brine.
Products in addition to stressing the importance of the two pickle system the packet included a
Every Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich is made with two dill pickle chips—an essential ingredient! To make the chips, cucumber slices are marinated for three days before ripening into crisp and delicious pickles. Obsessed with pickles?
Because Chick-fil-A nuggets arrive in the store as raw chicken, not as pre-cooked and pre-breaded frozen nuggets. Chick-fil-A nuggets are marinated, seasoned, breaded, and fried in the store. The last step, frying, takes place no longer than 20 minutes before you walked into the store and ordered.
It is relatively hard to hurt a chicken, but yes, you can brine for too long. The result will be a tougher and salty bird. I recommend only 24 hours or less for an average size chicken. If you are brining chicken parts, you need even less time, closer to 12 hours.
Brining too long can result in meat that tastes overly salty and has a spongy texture. If you're not ready to roast the bird after 18 hours, remove it from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry and refrigerate for up to two days. As for what to add to the brine? The minimum is salt and water, but many cooks don't stop there.
Marinating or brining meat does not reduce the number of pathogens contaminating the meat. Adding acid to such a marinade does not kill bacteria. If the meat has been brined or marinated before packaging, rinsing could make it less flavorful.
Can Salmonella survive pickling?
In the late 1990s, new strains of pathogenic Salmonella and E coli were discovered that could survive in an acidic medium such as that used for pickling. In addition, Listeria monocytogenes has been shown to survive the fermentation process, particularly during room-temperature fermentation.
Making sure enough vinegar is added to the cucumbers is important to make safe pickles; Clostridium botulinum can grow in improperly canned, pickled foods with a pH higher than 4.6. It is critical to use scientifically tested recipes for making pickles to ensure their safety.
Clostridium botulinum in canned and pickled foods may cause botulism, a deadly form of food poisoning. Botulinum spores are present on most fresh food surfaces but only produce deadly toxin in the right environment: moist, low-acid food; temperature between 40° and 120°F; and less than two percent oxygen.
McDonald's has a secret sauce, although the recipe is on its website; and Chick-fil-A has a secret recipe for its chicken sandwicH: a seasoned and juicy chicken breast. It's a chicken fillet dipped in an egg and milk wash, hand-breaded and cooked in a pressure cooker.
Ever since our founder Truett Cathy created the Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich, we've been cooking our hand-breaded chicken exclusively in fully refined, heat-processed peanut oil.