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Today we’re talking meat marinade injectors, food-grade syringes that enable you to inject flavorful liquid inside of meat instead of simply rubbing it on the exterior. That means greater control over flavor throughout food and less sticky seasoning on its surface, resulting in reduced grime on your grill grates that you’d otherwise have to spend precious time cleaning. Deciding what to put in your meat marinade injector — and, in turn, your meat — is a matter of personal preference, but you can use all types of herbs, spices, sauces, and seasonings to boost BBQ flavor from the inside out. So, let’s learn more about meat marinade injectors, how to use them, and what a good injection recipe looks like.
Why Use Meat Marinade Injectors?
Traditional meat marination works for thinner portions, but larger cuts with more substance can end up with flavorless centers if not injected. By injecting flavorful ingredients deep inside the meat, you can create more delicious meals in mere minutes (not to mention take a shortcut around the lengthy brining process). Meat marinade injectors are common sights around the holidays when turkeys and chickens need a tasty lift, but they work on every type of meat. You should still season the outside of your meat as usual; the injection’s there to ensure the food packs flavor in every bite.
How to Use a Meat Marinade Injector
Using meat marinade injectors is an extremely straightforward process, but it all starts with the marinade itself. We’ll detail how marinades are made — and provide a few injection recipes — below, but for now know that you’ll need to blend the marinade ingredients, then filter the cooled mixture so no chunks clog the needle point. Once you’ve assembled your meat marinade injector, stick the needle into the liquid marinade and draw up the plunger tube to fill the syringe.
Now comes the fun part — pick a starting spot and get to work injecting! After inserting the injector deep into the meat, slowly push the plunger to deliver flavorful marinade to those hard-to-reach spots. The amount of injection released in each area depends on the size of your meat, so use your best judgment to ensure there’s no shortage of delicious juices being distributed. As you draw the plunger back following an injection, be sure to do so slowly to prevent air from infiltrating the injector and messing with the mixture. Pull the needle out slowly, but don’t completely remove it from the meat; reposition the needle at a different angle, stick it back in, and give another injection. Reposition and repeat a few times before moving to another part of the meat.
Work your way across the meat, using the technique from the previous paragraph to create pockets of flavor at a variety of depths and in several areas. Make sure you’re not hitting bone and are instead filling the meat itself with the liquid marinade. When injecting a turkey or chicken with skin, try to puncture the skin as few times as possible — this is where that repositioning technique comes in handy. If you’re injecting thinner slices of meat (like pork chops or chicken breasts), inject horizontally so you can disperse more marinade throughout. It’s a good idea to complete your meat injection at least a few hours before cooking because the marinade will act as an internal brine; resting the food overnight is optimal.
How to Make a Meat-Injection Marinade
Your liquid marinade for meat injections can include virtually any ingredient you’d like, and the major players are usually butter, herbs, and seasonings. Worcestershire sauce is also a popular pick for its liquid umami flavoring. You can experiment based off your personal tastes or use any of the easy injection marinade recipes listed below, but the process for actually making the mixture is as follows:
- Mix the ingredients. If you need to do any prep work like mincing, now’s the time for that as well.
- Whisk, blend, or simmer to combine. This fully incorporates the flavors while also breaking down any non-liquid ingredients.
- Let the liquid marinade cool. It’s important to give the flavors time to meld at room temperature for a more robust mixture.
- Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Last time we checked, needles are quite narrow. You don’t want any remaining chunks or gel clogging the injector during use — that means unnecessary disassembly and cleaning — so don’t skip this step.
Easy Meat Marinade Injection Recipes
Why not try out one of these recipes with your meat marinade injector, then get creative based on your personal preferences. You can incorporate wine, salad dressing, hot sauce… if you can combine it and squeeze it through a meat injector, then let it ride!
