How to Brine Chicken (2024)

FAQs

How to properly brine chicken? ›

For a classic wet brine, use about 1 1/4 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water. Then just adjust the amounts to whatever is necessary to fully submerge your chicken. Again, it's okay to brine partially thawed meat. You can also add sugar; although it's not required, it does help brown the skin when cooking.

Basic Brine

Place that volume of water in a container large enough to hold the brine and the meat. Add 1 tablespoon of salt for every cup of water you used and mix until the salt is completely dissolved. For example, if you are using 1 gallon (16 cups) of water, add 16 tablespoons (1 cup) of salt.

What Is the Brine Ratio? The basic ratio of salt to water for a brine is 4 tablespoons of kosher salt per 1 quart (4 cups) of water. If you are using fine table salt, reduce the amount to 3 tablespoons.

A general rule of thumb is to leave your meat in its brine for roughly one hour per pound—never brine your meat more than the prescribed amount, lest the proteins break down too far, turning it into unappetizing mush.

What to Do After the Meat Is Brined. After waiting the appropriate amount of time, remove the meat from the brine and pat it dry with a paper towel. You won't need to rinse it with fresh water unless you accidentally brined it for too long.

Dry-brining is our preferred method for seasoning both large and small pieces of meat, poultry, and sometimes even seafood. Along with producing juicy, flavorful results, dry-brining also helps us get better Maillard browning and crispy skin.

As a general starting point, take one gallon of water and add 3/4 cup (preferable - but you can use up to a cup) of salt (Kosher is best), 1/2 cup of sugar and then the rest is up to you. Sliced onions are nice, a few cloves of crushed garlic add a nice flavor and then there's the spices and herbs.

Sugar: This is an optional ingredient and is typically used to balance the saltiness of a brine. Use about 2 tablespoons per quart of liquid. You can decrease that amount if desired, but I wouldn't recommend using any more or it could make the final cooked protein burn easier and taste too sweet.

Chicken can safely rest in its brining solution for anywhere from a few hours to two days, but generally, for a liquid based brine, you'll want to stick to about one hour of resting in the fridge per pound of meat you're preparing.

Does brining chicken make it salty? ›

Properly brined meat shouldn't taste salty, just very juicy with good flavor.

Brine Your Chicken Breast for Extra Moisture

That retaining-moisture part is key, as it provides some assurance that the meat will remain juicy even if it's a tad overdone, and it'll be even better if cooked correctly.

Overall process: 2 NaCl + 2 H ₂O → Cl ₂ + H ₂ + 2 NaOH.

Not only does this flavor the chicken, but it also helps the chicken retain juices while cooking, giving you a juicier final product. There is a word of caution with this trick. If you over-brine the chicken, you'll end up with some kind of cured chicken with an odd texture, which isn't great.

With a 10 percent brine, you up the salt content, and you only use half as much water when making the brine (that's a 20 percent brine, for those of you following at home), adding the second half of the liquid in ice form to make the final 10 percent brine and allow the brine to cool faster.

It's called a dry brine and doesn't use water. Instead, you sprinkle the meat with salt and leave it uncovered in the fridge.

Chicken can safely rest in its brining solution for anywhere from a few hours to two days, but generally, for a liquid based brine, you'll want to stick to about one hour of resting in the fridge per pound of meat you're preparing.

Mostly, this method helps if you don't have several hours to spare when marinating your poultry. Poking holes in your chicken can allow the marinade to penetrate better in a shorter period.