Thread: Tired of dry chicken? Try this...

Most of us eat a lot of chicken. When learning to cook BBQ, I came across this method of prepping the chicken before cooking (I watch WAY too much Food Network Works great every time and you can customize the recipe to your particular tastes.

The trick to juicy chicken is to brine it first. A brine is a salt, water and sugar solution that you submerge the chicken in for a while before you cook it. This does a couple of things, first, the higher salt content in the water than in the chicken will allow salt to move into the chicken. Since the sugar will draw water in along with it, the water will move into the cells of the chicken and is binded to the salt. The result is that the water cannot be dislodged and results in juicy chicken. One thing about cooking with brined chicken is that it will take a little longer to cook (because of the higher water content). The good news is that it is almost impossible to overcook.

Here's my recipe:

To brine the chicken, dissolve 1-1/2 tablespoons of uniodized table salt (or 1/4 cup of kosher salt) with 1/4 cup of sugar in 8 cups of cold water. This will make enough brine for 4 chicken breasts. If you are making more or less, adjust the amount of brine accordingly. The sugar in the brine will caramelize on the surface of the chicken as it cooks, giving it a good, grilled coloring. To help dissolve the sugar and water you can add it to 1 cup of boiling water, stir until dissolved and add to the remaining water. Make sure the brine is cool before you add the chicken. You can brine in a shallow, covered baking dish or a large zip lock bag. Brine for 30 minutes. It is important that you give the brine enough time to work, but that you don't over do it.

You can add other things to the brine water as well. I like to substitute some garlic salt for some of the kosher salt, or crush some whole garlic cloves into the water. You can use some beer with the water if you like (don't use stouts or really dark beers as they tend to get bitter when you cook them at high temperatures).

Buy a meat thermometer and cook chicken breasts to between 160-165 degrees internal temperature.

I like to brine about 8 chicken breasts at once and cook them all at the same time. I refrigerate what I'm not going to eat right away and warm them up when I get ready for them. I have chicken cooked for most of the week.

Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by Stonewall

the amount of sugar that stays inside the chicken is negligible. A small amount moves into the cells of the chicken and it's primary purpose is to bind to and hold onto the water molecules.

You can leave the sugar out if you like and the results are very similar.

Okay. But just out of curiousity I wonder if there is something you could substitute for the sugar.

But probably not. I think I see how that works.