Chicken Brine
Using homemade Chicken Brine as part of cooking a whole chicken is the best way to ensure that your chicken is always tender, juicy, and flavorful as can be! With just a few simple, inexpensive ingredients and easy to follow steps, you’ll never skip out on this step again. When it comes to cooking a perfect whole chicken, this is my secret!
Chicken Brine
If you’re wondering what exactly chicken brine is, I can describe it as one thing – perfection. Any time you’ve ever had a perfectly flavored, juicy whole chicken at a friend’s house, I can almost guarantee they used a brine! It’s a simple combination of ingredients like lemons, fresh herbs, garlic, and more that infuse the best amount of aromatic flavor into the chicken meat before cooking.
Besides just infusing the entire chicken with flavor, the brine also helps make the meat tender and juicy! When I first started cooking whole birds, I would dry them out and not know what went wrong. It can be tricky to make sure the whole chicken is fully cooked, but not dried out. That’s where this brine is super helpful – it lends tons of flavor and keeps the chicken nice and juicy as it bakes.
Making the brine itself is also super quick and easy! It takes just a few minutes to prepare the brine, then 12 to 24 hours to let the chicken actually soak. That being said, this is a wonderful make ahead recipe! I like to brine my chicken the day before I know I’ll be roasting it, that way when it’s time to serve it up, it’s all ready to go and delicious as ever.
How to Make It
Here’s how to make the brine.
Mix all of the ingredients. Pour half the water into a large pot and stir in the salt, lemons, sugar, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, garlic and peppercorns.
Bring to a boil. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and stir to dissolve the salt/sugar.
Add water. Remove from the heat and add the remaining water.
Cool. Cool to room temperature, approximately 1 hour.
Soak the chicken. Once the brine is completely cool, add the chicken upside down and submerge completely. Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
And here’s how to roast the chicken.
Pat the chicken dry. Remove from the brine and pat dry.
Truss the chicken. Truss the chicken by tying the legs together with string. Tuck the wings under the back.
Roast the chicken. Roast the chicken at 425˚F for 1 hour or until an instant read thermometer registers 165˚F in the thickest part of the thigh.
Rest. Allow the chicken to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.
Tips for the Best Chicken Brine
- Wait at least 12 hours before patting the chicken dry and roasting it! You really want to give the brine enough time to really infuse the flavors into the meat. With that being said, I like to brine my chicken for about 20-24 hours if I can.
- You can use a frozen whole chicken for this recipe, but it’ll need to be fully thawed before you brine it, which makes for an even lengthier process.
- It’s very important for the flavor and potency of the brine to use kosher salt, not iodized table salt.
- Both the thyme and rosemary need to be fresh, not dried. The freshness of both herbs contribute immensely to the overall aromatic element of the brine that makes the chicken so incredible!
- If you have a particularly large chicken (over 5 lbs), you may need to invest in a brining bag, as the chicken will probably be too large for the pot.
Check out more of my favorite bone-in chicken recipes!
- The BEST Oven Fried Chicken
- Crispy Baked Cornish Hen
- Baked Garlic Parmesan Wings
- How to Make Rotisserie Chicken
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Get the Recipe: Chicken Brine
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 cup kosher salt, not table salt
- 3 lemons, sliced
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 10 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 5 bay leaves
- 8 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 1/2 tablespoons peppercorns
- 5 lb whole chicken
Equipment
- large stock pot
Instructions
- Pour half the water into a large pot and stir in the salt, lemons, sugar, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, garlic and peppercorns.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and stir to dissolve the salt/sugar.
- Remove from the heat and add the remaining water.
- Cool to room temperature, approximately 1 hour.
- Once the brine is completely cool, add the chicken upside down and submerge completely. Cover and refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
- To Roast:
- Remove from the brine and pat dry.
- Truss the chicken by tying the legs together with string. Tuck the wings under the back.
- Roast the chicken at 425˚F for 1 hour or until an instant read thermometer registers 165˚F in the thickest part of the thigh.
- Allow the chicken to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.
- Serve.