Red Deer Foodie

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Did you know there is a super easy to make your chicken more flavorful and juicy?   Soaking your chicken in a home-made brine is a simple and inexpensive step you can do with only a few ingredients!  I posted this on instagram a while back (follow me if you’re bored @shannonyac) for more ideas!!

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken, cut into pieces (free range is best, but this technique works well with the cheaper grocery store kind)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 bay leaves

6 cloves garlic, smashed

handful of fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme, parsley, whatever you have in the fridge

10-12 whole peppercorns, plus a few grinds of freshly ground pepper

2 tbsp sea salt

Method:

Butcher your chicken into about 10 pieces (2 wings, 2 drums, 2 breasts cut in half = 4, 2 thighs).  In a large ziplock bag combine the brine ingredients and smush together.  Add the chicken pieces and then slowly add water to the bag, filling it up so that you can still squeeze air out and also close the seal securely (you don’t want to overfill it b/c then you risk a blow out in the fridge!)

Place the bag in a large bowl and shove in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Time to cook: heat your BBQ to high and then cook the pieces in the normal way!!  Yep it’s that easy and absolutely no need to add any other sauces or seasonings.  I am normally totally grossed out by dark meat, but whenever I brine chicken in this way, I can totally eat the dark meat – such great flavour!

If you don’t want to BBQ, you can also roast your brined chicken in the oven at 425 degrees for about an hour.

Tags: brined chicken, easy; apple cider vinegar