Sodium levels after brining

BrianMI

I often brine chicken parts or pork chops before cooking. Are there any general rules of thumb for how much salt (sodium) from the brine will have been retained in the meat after cooking?

I generally use a 5% to 10% brine solution.

If it's easier to talk about specific numbers, let's say I put 500g of raw chicken in 1 liter (~1kg) of water with 50g of kosher salt (5% solution). Any guidelines for how to create a recipe that includes the salt?

I could image a method in which the recipe includes:

1. raw weight of chicken
2. any additional weight of water & salt, with the relative proportions of water and salt being the same as the original brine. (Assumes chicken meat has no special affinity for either the water or salt.)
3. water loss from cooking

So, using the example above, if the chicken weighed 550 g after brining, i'd add 45g of water and 5g of kosher salt to the recipe, along with the 500g of raw chicken. (And then I'd probably weigh the chicken after cooking to calculate the water loss from cooking ...)

Karen_Cronometer

I'm not sure if your brine compares with that used in the food industry, but the USDA has some options for meats "with added solution" that might give you a place to start.