Yesterday, I baked a chicken and it was full of flavor and juicy. The key to getting this right every time and not having your bird dry out in the oven is to brine it. Most brine recipes are super simple, combining water, sugar and salt. There’s nothing wrong with these recipes and I use that as the basis for my brine, but… why not kick it up a little? Below is a super quick and easy brine recipe that you allow you to have a tasty and moist bird any time you cook.

Ingredients

• 1 small baking chicken (3-5 lbs)
• 2 quarts of cool water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 T peppercorns
• 1 T fresh rosemary
• 1 T fresh thyme

Instructions

• In a large bowl or pot, add all ingredients except the chicken and stir until sugar and salt have dissolved.
• Add chicken (rinsed and cleaned out) to the brine.
• Cover with aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. I like to brine my chicken between 1 and 1.5 hours. Don’t leave it too long though.
• When finished brining, pour out all the liquid from the bird. Recipes will always tell you to rinse the bird off and pat it dry with paper towels. I skip the rinse step and just pat dry. Patting dry is important if you want to have a crispier skin after baking. I like to have the extra flavors from the rub, but if you have issues with salt, make sure you do rinse the chicken when removing from the brine.

    

Ideas

• Play around with the spices you add. If you like a spicier bird, add some red pepper to the brine. If you like a little more tang, add 1/2-3/4 cup of red wine vinegar.
• This is hard to mess up, so go ahead and experiment.