Simple Chicken Brine For Grilling

Name: Simple Chicken Brine For Grilling
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 3 cups water; 3 tbsp. Coarse Kosher salt, (approx. 50 grams); 2 cloves garlic, coarse chopped; 1 tbsp. dried thyme; 1 tbsp. dried basil; 1 tbsp. dried oregano; 1 tbsp. fennel seeds

May 22, 2024 By Joe Boyle 53 Comments

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Last Updated on April 15, 2025

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Chicken brine will bring out flavors and juiciness to the meat. Summer is approaching and grilling season is starting. Time to fire up the charcoal and soak some chicken in this simple chicken brine. You’ll be amazed at how flavorful, tender and juicy your chicken becomes.

Brining chicken serves a few purposes. Firstly, it enhances flavor by allowing the meat to absorb the salt and any other flavorings in the brine. Secondly, it helps retain moisture during cooking, resulting in juicier meat. Lastly, brining can also tenderize the breast of chicken, making it more palatable.

Overall, brining is a simple yet effective way to improve the taste and texture of chicken.

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Chicken Brine

You have probably read or heard that brining is good for chicken.

What brining does, is add moisture to the meat and, along with the salt, the water is absorbed into the flesh.

Well, what you can do is take this principle and add to it some additional seasonings that take the brine to a whole new level. And, as Guy Fieri would say, “straight to Flavortown.”

Ingredients For The Brine

For this flavoring, we used my traditional Italian-style seasonings: garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, fennel, along with Kosher salt, and sugar.

These ingredients get put into a small saucepan along with water, and get boiled and made into an herbal tea of sorts.

I recently saw a recipe from a blog that I follow for “Poultry Seasoning.” It is a more traditional blend of Thanksgiving-flavored spices and I thought that it would be something to try rather than the Italian blend that I use.

Preparing The Brine

Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a slow boil. Stir to dissolve the salt and let the pot boil for 5 minutes. Then, you will need to cool the brine to room temperature.

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and soak the pot in the cold water until it has cooled. This should take 15 minutes.

Then, place the chicken into a suitable-sized bowl or a good zip-lock bag and cover the chicken with the brine. Refrigerate the chicken covered or zipped in the bag for the time indicated below.

All the great flavors in the seasonings are infused into the water, and as the chicken soaks, all this goodness gets absorbed. It becomes a pot of flavor goodness.

Use Unprocessed Chicken

First off, make sure that the chicken you are using has not already been injected with saline.

If it has been, there will be a statement on the label that indicates this.

You want to start out with unprocessed or organic chicken. Brining a saline-injected chicken will result in too-salty chicken.

How Long Do You Brine Chicken?

These tasty chicken thighs were brined for 3 hours. If you’re brining skinless, boneless breasts, 1 to 2 hours is adequate.

Skin on, bone-in chicken, 2 to 3 hours. A whole chicken should be brined for 3 to 4 hours. Any longer than this, the chicken will get too salty.

Use the time you have…it all adds up to added flavor!

Brine Is Not A Marinade

A brine is unlike a marinade. Some meats are left in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, using an acid-based or oil-based marinade. This gives the meat lots of flavor.

If you leave the meat in a brine overnight it will…#1. get too salty and, #2. the watery brine will actually start to pull out some of the natural flavorings of the meat. You don’t want that.

Brining chicken adds moisture and flavor to ensure a tender and tasty piece of chicken.

Getting The Chicken Ready To Grill

To prep the chicken for the grill, remove them from the brine and pat dry. You can leave on any bits of herbs that stick to the chicken when you take it out of the brine.

Very lightly oil the skin with olive oil, then grill, skin side down 7 or 8 minutes to get a nice char.

Turn and let cook 10 or 12 more minutes until the internal temperature is around 160°F. Let the chicken rest for 5 or 10 minutes, then serve it. The chicken brine will have done its work!

Side Dish Ideas For Grilled Chicken

First of all would be a nice green salad.

Next would be a starch of some kind.

Then a vegetable side dish.

The flavor of the herbs in the meat is amazing. MaryJo even mentioned that this was the tastiest chicken I had ever made.

Simple chicken thigh brine…that’s good enough for me.