Brining Chicken and other Meats

Bought a nice Free-Range Corn fed chicken yesterday that I'm lining up for Sunday Lunch today. Having had some success with the technique of brining I thought I'd write up what I did to the bird yesterday..

First of all, I took the trussing string off the chicken as I wanted the brine to get right inside the body cavity and permeate the meat fully. Next I took a bowl large enough to hold the chicken and filled it about 2/3 with water. Next I added about a heaped dessert spoonful of ordinary granulated sugar and stirred for a while to dissolve it. Then I added some salt and tasted the liquor and kept on adding salt little by little until the water had about the salinity of sea water. I then added a tspn of black peppercorns, a pinch of fennel seeds, a couple of fresh bayleaves and some fresh thyme and oregano from my herb garden. I bunged the chicken in this and adjusted the water level so the chicken was submerged. I put a shallow bowl on top of the chicken with a bag of bulgar wheat in it to keep the chicken under the water and put it in the fridge overnight. I took it out of the fridge this morning and will let the whole thing sit and come to room temperature before retrieving the chicken, drying it off and then roasting it..