The BEST Chicken Brine (2024)

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Here’s BEST chicken brine recipe to make juicy tender chicken no matter how you cook it – roast it in oven, grill it or fry. This is complete guide on how to brine, with all the tips and tricks for best moist chicken you’ll ever cook.

What is brining?

Brining wasoriginally used to preserve food by pickling it in salty liquid.

It’s a process in which meat is soaked in salt water solution (“brine”) before cooking it. Meat is marinated in the salty liquid anywhere from 30 minutes for 12 hours (or more).

Brining tenderizes the meat by making it absorb moisture and flavors. When you cook chicken soaked in salty liquid for few hours, you’ll get most juiciest and tender chicken.

No more unpleasant dry, chewy, tasteless chicken breasts. Because now you can brine your way to the most amazing, moist, succulent and flavorful chicken breasts. The best chicken breast of your life! How? It’s the power of science!

Remember the word “osmosis” from your school books? Yes that’s how brining works! Chicken breast or whole chicken or any meat placed in a bath of salty flavorful liquid, the solution will travel through the meat in order to equalize the salt levels – through osmosis process!

This means the meat has more liquid before it starts to cook compared to meat that wasn’t brined. When you cook, heat will draw the same amount of moisture from the meat, but will still be juicier at the end of cooking.

Benefits of brining

Brining has many benefits. Some meats, especially lean meat like chicken and turkey benefit from it.

As lean meat don’t have fat to make meat moist and flavorful, brining it will help them retain moisture even after cooking. Brining ingredients like fresh aromatic herbs, lemon, bay leaves and pepper makes meat more flavorful.

Ingredients needed

A basic brinerecipe only needs water and salt. Other fancy ingredients that goes into thisbrine recipe is for adding flavors.

You’ll need:

• Water & Kosher Salt – the main ingredients, must use.
• Garlic – I like to crush garlic and add it to brine, will release all it’s flavors and oil into brine.
• Pepper Corns – For seasoning the brine
• Bay Leaves – added for flavor.
• Honey – can use sugar instead of honey. This aids in beautiful browning of the chicken skin.
• Fresh Herbs – Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley – again added for flavor.
• Fresh Lemon Slices & Lemon Juice – aids in tenderizing the chicken along with adding flavor to it.

How to make brine chicken

• Use a pot big enough to hold you meat. Dissolve kosher salt in water in the pot on slow simmer for about 2 minutes. The basic ratio is one tablespoon of salt for every one cup water.
• Now throw in all the fancy flavor enhancing ingredients into water. Add crushed garlic, pepper corns, bay leaves, lemon slices, honey and fresh herbs – rosemary, thyme and parsley.

• Bring water to boil for about a minute, stir to dissolve salt.
• Remove pan from stove. Allow water to cool completely.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT put chicken in the brine before it’s completely cool. Warm temperature of the brine will develop harmful bacteria. It can lead to serious health hazards!
• Cook’s Tip: To help brine cool down faster, allow the pot to cool down a bit and then place the pot in fridge to cool brine faster (if you are in a rush).
• NOTE: whole chicken should be fully immersed in brine.

• Cover pot with lid and place in refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours. Do not go past that. Chicken will begin to absorb salt and will turn overly salty.
• Note: if chicken isn’t fully immersed in water, go ahead and add 1 to 2 cups of extra water (room temperature water).
• After brining, remove chicken, rinse under tap water.
• IMPORTANT: Don’t skip rinsing brined chicken under tap water. This will wash off some of the salt over the chicken. I found when not rinsed, chicken after roasting turned a bit salty.
• DISCARD THE BRINE. Raw meat in the brine marinade can cause contamination if used. Discard brine after removing chicken from it.

How to roast brine chicken

• Remove chicken & rinse it under tap water.
• Pat dry chicken with paper towel to remove excess moisture.

• Rub softened butter (unsalted) all over the chicken.

• Sprinkle ground pepper on top.
• Note: Do not add salt.

• Tie the legs of the chicken with a string.
• Place the chicken over a rack lined over baking tray or any other heavy based baking pan like cast iron pan. Set aside in fridge uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes.

• Roast chicken in pre-heated oven at 400 degree F for 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven. Using tongs inserted into the chicken, flip chicken to breast side up. Continue roasting for about 30 to 40 minutes.
• Rotate the pan half way through if not browning evenly. And keep brushing the top with butter atleast 3 to 5 times in between roasting time.
• Stick a thermometer around the thighs and if it read 165 degree F chicken is cooked.
• Note: brined chicken cooks faster.

• Remove chicken from oven. Cover it with aluminum foil and rest it for 15 minutes. It’s important to let the chicken rest before carving.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use the liquid from the pan to drizzle over chicken. It’ll turn chicken salty.
• Serve juicy roast chicken as a meal with sautéed beans and mashed potatoes on sides.

FAQS

TRY SERVING THIS ROAST CHICKEN WITH THESE SIDES-

Sauteed Green Beans

Roasted Butternut Squash

Greek Lemon Potatoes

Grilled Potatoes in Foil Packs

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