Review - Tony Chachere's Injectables Butter & Jalapeno Marinade Injection
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One HUGE facet of flavor enhancement I rarely get into in these reviews are marinade injections. There may be possible reasons for this, with a major one being that I tend to create my own injectable liquids whenever cooking large pieces of meat.
Still, it's nice to see what's commercially available out there, if not to use a couple of injections with any regularity, then I would borrow ideas from them which I concoct my own meat flavor brews.
Enter Tony Chachere's (surname pronounced SA-shuh-rees), a long-standing Cajun and Creole crusine company that's had some pretty admirable taste concepts over the years. One such product of theirs that recently caught my attention was the Tony Chachere's Injectables Butter & Jalapeno Marinade, and I was itching to see how it would enhance the juiciness and savoriness of my food, as well as adding a possible tinge of spiciness.
Ingredients:
Water, jalapeno pepper, salt, spice blend (salt, red pepper, black pepper, garlic and other spices), soybean oil, dehydrated garlic, xanthan gum, chili powder, citric acid, spices, natural butter flavor, sodium phosphate
Most people would visualize a marinade as a liquid soak for meats and other culinary accoutrements. Technically, injections are marinades as well, where the liquid is placed deeper inside the meat using a needle or syringe apparatus. It allows for the inner layers of flesh to receive both extra moisture and flavor when simple outer marination can't reach those layers.
Packaging:
This 17 oz bottle of Tony Chachere's Injectables Butter & Jalapeno Marinade Injection comes equipped with its own injection tool, just in case one doesn't have one handy. It's a very simple three-piece apparatus that you fit together. The needle section didn't fit snuggly with the tube piece, but I was able to keep it held together long enough without any excessive leakage in places it was not supposed to leak.
Initial Thoughts Before Eating:
This marinade injection takes on a golden brown appearance, highlighted with minuscule fragments of spices. It smells of a very unpalatable artificial buttery scent, the kind that inhabits sub-par sauce products like Frank's RedHot Wing Sauce.
A little taste on the fingertip mirrors my assessment of the aroma: loads of nasty, oily margarine tones, only coupled with a bit of spice to give it some depth. I detected a slight peeping of the jalapeno peppers' grassy, vegetable flavor. That part of the injection's flavor wasn't too bad, only I could have used more of that flavor along with a touch more heat.
Preparing the Bird:
I portioned some of the injection liquid into a plastic measuring cup and drew up the marinade into the barrel tub, and then proceeded to inject a whole chicken in spots specified on the label.
I placed the injected bird in my Weber Smokey Mountain with some applewood chips and let it do its magic for three-plus hours.
Taste:
The smoked chicken turned out very flavorful my itself, with the right amount of smokiness, bite-through skin and the proper moistness in most areas of the bird. Tony Chachere's Injectables Butter & Jalapeno Marinade unfortunately misses the mark on overall taste enhancement and even though it might have been masked somewhat by the natural poultry flavor, the butter was still too artificial-like in nature. Other components like garlic, jalapeno pepper, black pepper did a bit to scramble things up and make it interesting, but that oily, margarine taste was too dominant.
Personally, I think anyone could have melted some butter, thrown in a few teaspoons of spices into the mix, and concocted a better marinade. I love using butter or margarine in cooking but this stuff's just not close enough to the real thing.
What did I do with my chicken? Well, most bites with a minimal amount of injection liquid covering it were still excellent, so not all was lost. But if I had my druthers, I'd druther have not used Tony Chachere's product and used a homemade marinade. Oh well; you can't win 'em all.
Overall Rating: 
If you're looking for some worthwhile Tony Chachere's action, I'd recommend you try their original Creole Seasoning. For more info on the company's products, go to http://www.tonychachere.com.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2010-11-08 23:23:36
2010-11-09 04:45:18
2010-11-09 15:00:10
But looks aren't everything right? Ha ha.
2010-11-10 05:50:06
2010-11-10 19:50:10
2010-11-10 22:43:04
Good Review, Scott. Thanks for the warning.
2010-11-12 15:47:54
Have you ever done a negative review? You know, negative 2 starts? Next review please!
2010-11-17 23:11:54
2010-11-18 09:30:18
Conceited? Was that your word of the day?
Scott, I think you should challenge him to a spelling bee.....lol
2010-11-22 06:35:22
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