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How To Brine Chicken Breasts (Wet or Dry)

Brining is a super simple technique that will help your chicken breasts (or other cuts) be flavorful and moist, a crazy easy dinner. Here are both wet brine and dry brine techniques.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Main Dishes
Cuisine: American, Grilling

Ingredients

  • Chicken breasts or other cut
  • Olive oil other spices for cooking
  • For wet brine
  • Table salt see notes
  • Water
  • For dry brine
  • Salt I prefer sea salt or pint Himalayan salt

Instructions

  • <b>If wet brining:</b> Fill an appropriate-sized bowl with water and add the salt.  Using a spoon (or your hand, like I do), stir the salt in til it's mostly dissolved.  Make sure your chicken breasts are roughly even thickness (helps with the grilling or baking), then put them in the water. Once you're ready to cook them, pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  
  • <b>For dry brining:</b> Get a plate out and grind or sprinkle salt across it.  Place the chicken breasts (or tenderloins or whatever) on the salt and press down, then sprinkle or grind more salt on the top side as well.  Let rest for at least 15 minutes, though I've let it go more like 45 accidentally and it's fine.  You can also let it rest uncovered in the fridge overnight as well, particularly if you're cooking skin-on chicken and want crispy skin.
  • From here, it depends on how you're planning to use the chicken.  You can season, bake, grill, saute, whatever.  If you're grilling, put them on a plate and coat them with some olive oil, then sprinkle or pat on whichever spices or rub you're using.  
  • Grill on medium (350-450 F on my gas grill) for 3-4 minutes on each side, and then start checking with a digital thermometer.  Chicken breasts need to be between 145 F and 165 F...I go more like 150F to be safe, but if you're really paranoid you can go higher.  Let them sit for 5 minutes or so on a plate before cutting in, to let the juices settle and keep them moist.

Notes

  • Wet brining notes: I don't use an exact amount, but if you're only doing like 15-60 minutes then I'd say 4 tablespoons of salt for roughly 2 cups of water (I fit two small breasts in a bowl with that). You can scale that amount up or down based on the amount of chicken you need. If you're wanting to brine for longer, decrease the proportion of salt to water; you can do it up to overnight.
  • Dry brining notes: Different types of salt will work fine. I tend to prefer to just grind pink Himalayan sea salt, which is my everyday salt anyway. Make sure to really get these oiled if you're grilling, as they'll stick otherwise.
  • I've used a bunch of different spices and rubs, including some amazing chicken biryani spice I got in Istanbul and a combination of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute and their Everything Bagel seasoning.