Once I learned how to create tender, flavorful and juicy chicken breasts with this one simple technique professional chefs all use, my life was changed! I know that sounds dramatic, but seriously, when you start brining chicken, you’ll actually look forward to putting it on the weekly dinner rotation. No more bland, boring, dry chicken that your family eats out of obligation!
I learned this trick for brining from an old neighbor of mine and it creates truly juicy chicken that packs flavor every time. He learned his chicken breast brine recipe from the book Ratio, written by esteemed professional chef Michael Ruhlman.
With just a bit of pre-planning on your part (brining does have to be done in advance), this technique will help you lock in juices so that you get more tender meat. It also infuses loads of flavor, so you don’t even have to mess with marinades or a ton of extra seasonings.
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What does brining chicken do?
Let’s be honest, chicken, if cooked incorrectly can be dry and flavorless. This technique avoids both dinnertime scenarios by doing a few things:
- Locks in juices by breaking down muscle fibers resulting in more tender and flavorful meat.
- Seasons and flavors the meat all the way through. Marinades tend to just sit on the surface of meat, lending the flavor to the first bite but not really much else. Brining actually infuses flavor all through the muscle fibers, so it tastes amazing with every bite.
- Creates a better texture that is less stringy and chewy. The salt begins to move into the meat and as it penetrates the muscle fibers, it changes the structure of the proteins.
Ingredients for Brining Chicken Breast
Kosher salt and water are the only true requirements for making a basic brine recipe. The ratio for a basic brine should be 20 parts water:1 part salt.
From there, you can customize to your liking. You can add dry herbs or fresh herbs, lemons, peppercorns, garlic or bay leaves. Some brine recipes call for salt and sugar, but I like the cleaner flavor of a simple salt brine. For this simple recipe I’m sharing today, you’ll use
- 2.5 cups of cold water
- 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon peppercorns
- Sprig of fresh rosemary and lemon quarters, optional
How to Brine Chicken
Gather ingredients
Start by gathering your ingredients and add them to a sauce pan or stock pot.
Warm water
Simply warm your water, kosher salt, peppercorns and herbs in a sauce pan over medium heat, till salt is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
Cool Water
Once your brine is to room temperature, add the chicken to the brine by either placing both in a Ziploc bag or in a deep bowl. You want to make sure your chicken is fully submerged in the brine.
Brine Chicken
Place the chicken in the fridge and allow to soak in the brine for as little as 2 hours or up to 8 to 12 hours. Just be mindful of not going over 24 hours, or else the chicken may become too salty.
If you are planning to make a large batch of brine, and you have enough room in your fridge, a stockpot makes for a convenient container. For larger batches of brine, for whole birds or multiple chicken breasts, you an use 80 ounces of water (10 cups) and 4 ounces of kosher salt (about ½ cup).
Is a wet brine better than a dry brine?
If given the choice, definitely opt for a wet brine rather than a dry brine. Salt must dissolve before it can truly work its magic, so using a dry salt brine is less controlled than using a wet brine. Dry salt brines also take longer to be effective.
Recipe Shortcut
If you’re in a hurry, you can place the warm brine in the refrigerator till the temperature cools. Or reduce the water by ½ cup, and add in a large handful of ice once the salt is dissolved. The ice method is super convenient, just make sure you are reducing the amount of water you’re using upfront, so your ratios stay in tact.
Marinating vs Brining Chicken
A salt brine touches 100% of the food’s surface in a uniform concentration. Marinades are more focused on imparting flavor, and typically lack enough salt to fully seep into the dense tissue of the meat.
However don’t be fooled, brines can indeed add flavor too! A simple 2 ingredient salt brine will make the chicken taste perfectly salted. But add aromatics to your brine and it can actually carry the flavor of the onion, garlic, lemon or rosemary into your chicken. Brining is a great way to have fun and be creative when cooking chicken.
Preparing the chicken to cook
When you’re ready to cook your chicken, simply remove the chicken from the brine. Rinse the chicken with cool water and pat dry. Prep it for cooking as you then normally would, being mindful to not add too much additional salt.
Be Mindful of Adding Seasoning
If you’re using an additional marinade like BBQ sauce or coating them with a breadcrumb mixture, you don’t need to add salt. If you’re planning to use a dry herb blend, check the salt content because you don’t want to over-salt your chicken. We recommend using a dry seasoning blend that is either salt-free or has very little added salt.
Tips for Brining Chicken Breast
- Brine concentration is critical, so use a kitchen scale to measure out your salt, or use the same measuring instruments each time you make a batch of brine.
- Your brine should taste like an over-salted soup, or like sea water. It should not feel acrid on the tongue.
- You can use this basic brine recipe for any cut of chicken, but it works especially well for white boneless chicken breasts. But feel free to use for pork, turkey, beef brisket and even vegetables.
FAQs on Brining Chicken
Forgetting about your chicken brining away in the fridge happens to the best of us. If this happens, remove the chicken from the brine, and place it in a cool water bath. Soaking the chicken in a plain water bath for a few hours will slowly remove the salt from the chicken and return it to the water.
More time is better than no time, so allow your chicken to soak in the brine for as long as possible. Even just a couple of hours works wonders than skipping the brine all together.
Absolutely! I brine before making my oven baked chicken cutlets as well as air-fried chicken cutlets. And even with a super flavorful topping, I still brine my hummus crusted chicken!
Properly brined chicken will be juicy and flavorful, as the brine penetrates the chicken. However it should not taste outright salty. If the brine solution is too salty to begin with, or if the chicken is left in the brine too long, it can become salty.
If you follow the ratios set in this recipe, your solution will not be too salty. However, if left in the solution too long, simply give the chicken a rinse with cool water and then adjust seasonings when cooking, making sure to limit the amount of salt used.
Technically, you don’t need to rinse your chicken with water after brining. However, it is recommended to rinse with water if you leave the chicken in the solution too long, or if there are clumps of spices stuck to the chicken. This could be the case with the peppercorns and rosemary in our recipe, which is why we recommend a quick rinse.
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Brine for Chicken
Ingredients
- 2.5 Cups Cold Water
- 2 tablespoon Kosher Salt
- 1 tablespoon Peppercorns
- Rosemary sprig
- 4 Chicken Breasts
Instructions
- Place water, salt, peppercorns and rosemary in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until salt is completely dissolved.Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Pour brine over chicken breasts in a deep bowl or Ziploc bag, and allow to soak in a refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours, up to 24 hours. 8 hours is recommended.
- Remove breasts from bag and rinse off with cool water. Pat dry and cook chicken as desired.
Notes
- Brine concentration is critical, so use a kitchen scale to measure out your salt, or use the same measuring instruments each time you make a batch of brine.
- Your brine should taste like an over-salted soup, or like sea water. It should not feel acrid on the tongue.
- You can use this basic brine recipe for any cut of chicken, but it works especially well for white boneless chicken breasts. But feel free to use for pork, turkey, beef brisket and even vegetables.
- For larger batches of brine, for whole birds or multiple chicken breasts, you an use 80 ounces of water (10 cups) and 4 ounces of kosher salt (about ½ cup).
Anita Kobza says
Very easy & moist chicken breasts! Smoked on my Traeger!
Andrea Howe says
Fantastic, glad to hear it!
Adrian Smith says
I Love brining Turkey and I have not tried it on other meats yet. So, you do the same brine on all meats?
Elaine says
I needed this simple brine recipe, can’t wait to try it out.