A couple of years ago when we raised our first meat chickens, I was excited to cook the first one and serve it to my family. I turned to that tried and true source of chicken recipes, the internet, and googled how to cook a whole chicken in the crockpot. I seasoned it, carefully placed it in the crockpot on low and patiently waited four to six hours until it was done and falling off the bones. I served it to my family and eagerly awaited the sounds of satisfaction and comments of how wonderful the meal was.
Now it was a good chicken. It tasted like chicken. The texture was good. It wasn’t too dry. But at the end of the meal my darling son said these words that will forever echo in my mind, “Mom, next time can you make it taste like the rotisserie chickens from the grocery store?”
Here I had personally raised this chicken, fed it a special diet, kept it safe from all threats foreign and domestic and my son wished it could taste like a $7.99 rotisserie chicken from Walmart? This was not what I had in mind 6 hours prior when I carefully placed that bird in the crockpot!
As is the case with most things in life, greatness is a process. I’ve learned that cooking “knock their socks off” chicken is no different. You can have the finest of chickens, raised with care on pasture, fed the highest quality of feeds, fresh off the farm, but if you leave out this one step in the preparation and cooking process, the final result is likely to fall short of your expectations. So what is this process that unlocks the secret of moist, flavorful chicken?
Brining. That’s it. One word, but an essential part of the process that will take your chicken from good to great.
I’ll be honest with you. I had never brined a chicken or any part of a chicken until this year. You see, in my journey on the continuum from frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts to my own farm-raised, pastured chicken I have a lot to learn! In this post I’m going to share a little bit about brining. Hopefully it will be just enough to pique your interest and motivate you to give it a try with your next chicken recipe.
In the brining process you are essentially seasoning the inside of the chicken through osmosis. A brine is usually a salt water solution that can include other spices and flavors that you soak your chicken in before cooking. There are many brine recipes out there. Most recently I adapted a recipe I found online and it turned out great.
I needed to brine chicken leg quarters in a short amount of time, so I found a quick brine recipe that called for more salt to speed up the process. Here are the ingredients I used:
2 cups of water
3 tablespoons of kosher salt
3 cloves of garlic
Juice of one lemon
Course ground black pepper
Fresh rosemary
2 cups of ice cubes
I brought the water to a boil to dissolve the salt and stirred in the other ingredients. When the salt was dissolved I turned off the stove. After 10 minutes, I poured this mixture over ice cubes to cool it down. Once the brine was cool, I poured it into a large zipper bag with my chicken leg quarters. I made sure the bag was sealed tightly and placed it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. When I was ready to begin cooking the chicken, I drained the brine out of the bag, removed the chicken pieces, discarded the garlic and herbs, and used paper towels to pat the chicken dry.
Depending on what you are brining you may need more or less time in the brine; for instance, with this brine recipe, a whole bird will need 2-3 hours at room temperature or 4-6 hours in the fridge. Chicken breasts or meat off the bone will take 30 minutes at room temperature or an hour in the fridge. You will want to be aware of the time so you don’t leave the meat in the brine too long, which will cause your chicken to be too salty. Remember, the brine recipe I used has a higher salt content for quicker results. You may find a recipe with less salt that takes longer, and that is perfectly fine!
Many of you have Buckeye Ranch pasture-raised chicken in your freezers and this is the perfect opportunity for you to give brining a try! For those veteran briners out there, what is your go to chicken brine? I’d love to hear from you!