Simple Chicken Brine
Isn’t this the coolest looking picture. It is the olive oil floating on top of the brine. This was the first time I have ever brined a chicken. I know, I know hard to believe I have been cooking this many years and I have never brined a chicken. After tasting the chicken from the brine I will do it from now on. The chicken transformed into the moistest, most flavorful and tender chicken I have ever made and I have made a lot! I look forward to experimenting with other brine recipes but for the first one, this was incredibly good!
Source: Allrecipes.com
Ingredients
In a large stock pot, pour in all of the ingredients.
Stir until the sugar and salt dissolve.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Carefully place the whole chicken into the brine,
submerging and getting the air out of the cavity.
Cover the pan and refrigerate two hours for skinless breasts, four hours for
bone in pieces and four hours to overnight for whole chickens like this one.
Drain the brine and rinse the chicken to get some of the
salt off (optional I didn’t rinse mine and it wasn’t too salty).
Pat the chicken dry with paper towel and fix the chicken according to your recipe.
Simple Chicken Brine
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
Ingredients
- 1 gallon warm water
- 3/4 cup kosher salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Directions
- Pour the warm water into a large pot that is twice the volume of the water.
- Pour in the rest of the ingredients. Stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Place the chicken into the brine making sure the brine gets into the cavity, cover and refrigerate.
- Refrigerate two hours for skinless breasts. Four hours for bone in pieces. Four hours to overnight for whole chicken.
- Drain and rinse the salt off of the chicken (optional). I did not rinse it and it wasn’t too salty to me.
- Pat the chicken dry and fix according to your chicken recipe.
***One gallon of brine is enough for 6 pounds of whole chicken or bone in pieces and up to 10 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts.***
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Categories: Marinades/Gravy
Wow! Just realized that though I brine my turkey every Thanksgiving, I have never even thought of doing a chicken. Thanks for the idea!!!!
You’re welcome and it is so worth it!
Looks good
Olive oil is a tasty idea ! 🙂 thank you ! amitiés
Thanks and you are very welcome!
Interesting. I’ve never brined a chicken either. I have cooked it Chinese style (your recipe kind of reminded me of it) in a re-usable concoction, sort of stock. I brought the chicken to the boil in the stock, then turned off the heat, covered the pan, and let it cook slowly in the heat of the stock. It was soooo good. Then I refrigerated the stock till next time. The idea was the stock kept building up flavour. It could be syphoned off for cooking rice in too, and then replenished with more water. I only used it a few times though as I got nervous of bacteria. Apparently though it’s quite safe.
That is so fascinating!!! I too would be worried about bacteria. My husband is a retired health inspector and he did restaurant inspections so we follow all the rules for bacteria because he knows what can happen.
I bet this would be very good with my butterflied brickie chickie I make on the Weber grill in the summer. The next warm day that I have a few hours to spare I will try it! Thank you for sharing!
Lol love the brickie Chickie name! Oh yes it would be great on the grill!