The Juiciest Brined Chicken

If you haven’t tried brining chicken yet, this is your sign to give it a go.

You’ll end up with the juiciest, tastiest chicken you’ve ever cooked and – brilliantly – it’s incredibly versatile. You can brine a whole chicken, you can brine chicken fillets, you can brine chicken legs, chicken thighs…anything!

What is brine?

Brine is, simply put, salt water. You can add other flavours too, like I have here. I’ve included bay leaves, rosemary, lemon, onion, peppercorns and fennel seeds to inject my chicken with flavour.

What does brining do?

Brining moisturises and tenderises your meat, so when you cook it it’s amazingly juicy. It also adds extra flavour and reduces the cooking time too!

It’s an extra step to preparing your meat, but the actual making of the brine takes just a minute or two and the time after that is simply letting the meat infuse in the fridge.

If I’m cooking a roast chicken on a Sunday, I’ll put the chicken in the brine on Saturday, leave it overnight in the fridge and cook it as normal on Sunday.

Why brine a whole chicken?

Until you try it, you won’t know quite how good this roast chicken is. When you do try it, I promise you’ll be brining all of your chickens from now on!

You can use this brined chicken to make a sensational one pan Mediterranean roast chicken dinner, and any leftovers can go in this leftover chicken, leek and mushroom filo pie.

The Juiciest Brined Chicken

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Harriet Young

Brine your chicken for the juiciest roast dinner ever

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Total Time 12 hours hrs

Ingredients

  

• 1 large chicken
• 50 g sea salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 lemons
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds

Instructions

 

• Put your chicken in a pot large enough to completely cover it with water. Pour in cold water until it is completely submerged.
• Half the lemons and onion (no need to peel). Add to the pot along with all of the other ingredients.
• Cover with a lid or tin foil and put in the fridge for at least 12 hours, but ideally 24 hours.
• When you are ready to roast, remove from the brine and cook as normal, minus 15 minutes (be sure to use a meat thermometer to make sure it is cooked through). Enjoy the tastiest, juiciest chicken!

Keyword chicken