Brine Your Chicken Breasts Then Use That Same Piece Of Meat As A Starter to a Myriad Of Great Recipes

Brined Chicken Breasts

A brine is basically a salt solution and has historically been used to preserve food. Although the process of brining is rarely used to preserve foods anymore, you can still use the technique to aid in keeping your meat from drying out.

It’s super easy to dry out a chicken so, I use brining to keep my boneless skinless chicken breasts from drying out.

• 4 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves

• 1 cup hot water

• 3 cups cold water

• ¼ cup coarse salt

• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat one cup of water on the stove on med heat adding the coarse salt. Stir until salt is dissolved.

2. Add three cups of cold water and allow solution to cool to room temperature.

3. Salt & pepper chicken breasts to taste.

4. Put chicken breasts in a nonreactive dish and pour brine over them.

5. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for two to three hours turning once.

6. Remove chicken from the solution and grill (indoor or outdoor) until breasts are firm at the thickest portion or until a 165F reading is obtained with an instant thermometer.

Make it your own

This is a basic recipe for grilled brined chicken breasts. There are a ton of ways to make this basic recipe your own. In fact, I don’t believe I have ever prepared chicken breasts in the basic manner prepared above. I’ve always thrown some sort of twist on at least the brine. It is extremely common to add brown sugar to a basic brine (1/4 for this recipe). From there you can add spices as you wish. All spice, whole pepper corns, bay leaves and cloves are all common additions to a brine, but feel free to experiment as you wish. Some have been known to add bourbon or rum to their brine as an added flavor. You can also add fruits and vegetables to the brine. Lemons, onions, peppers… are all good candidates. As a rule of thumb, I add spices (and anything I want to dissolve into the solution) to the hot water and add fruits, vegetables and herbs to the cooled solution.The other way to make this recipe your own is to use the finished chicken breast as a base for another recipe. Top it with cheese and/or a sauce, make a sandwich out of it, cut it up and toss it over pasta with some vinaigrette. The options are nearly limitless. This recipe is a great spring board to start making your own creations!

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