The Best Dry-Brined Roast Chicken Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long should you dry brine a chicken? ›

No matter if your brine is wet or dry, the salt helps the chicken keep its moisture before cooking. Salt breaks down proteins in the meat, which means it will not contract while cooking. In other words, pieces of brined meat will lose less water in the cooking process, which leads to a juicier meal.

In proper roast chicken speak, showering the bird with salt and letting it chill, uncovered, in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours or up to 3 days, is referred to as air-drying or dry-brining—an easy technique that many cooks use to achieve a crispy-skinned bird.

A brine adds flavor and keeps the meat tender and juicy.

You can brine whole chickens or broken-down birds; those pan-roasted thighs would surely benefit from it. All it takes is a little planning (you'll need to devote at least a couple of hours to the process, but it's happily hands-off).

Don't Rinse It Off

Once the dry-brining waiting period is up, there is no need to rinse off the surface of your food. The meat will not be overly salty, and rinsing the surface with water will undo all of the surface-drying achieved by the dry-brine process. That, in turn, will prevent browning.

The best salt for dry brining is kosher salt because it sticks the best and distributes evenly. Coarse sea salt will also work, though, if you have it handy. Steer clear of fine sea salt or regular table salt — if it's all you have, it'll work, but you'll need to cut the recommended amount in half.

The soaking chicken in brine leads to the meat being wet and soggy. This then leads to the chicken skin being soft and not crispy, which can also make the skin rubbery. Alternatively, try dry brining. Applying salt the day before will enhance the chicken's flavor.

Brining is basically soaking meat in a salt water solution, but the flavour doesn't stop at just salt. You can add all kinds of aromatics such as juniper berries, garlic, thyme and pepper to the solution to impart a different flavour. There are no rules – just use flavours that go together well.

Basic Brine

Place that volume of water in a container large enough to hold the brine and the meat. Add 1 tablespoon of salt for every cup of water you used and mix until the salt is completely dissolved. For example, if you are using 1 gallon (16 cups) of water, add 16 tablespoons (1 cup) of salt.

Submerge chicken in brine, cover and refrigerate for 12 – 24 hours (Note 5).

Should you pound chicken before or after brining? ›

To even out the meat, pound it to about 1/2-inch thickness. This will give the breast a uniform thickness and break up the meat, which will allow the brine to permeate the meat quickly. You will find it best to place the chicken between plastic wrap before pounding it.

Chicken can safely rest in its brining solution for anywhere from a few hours to two days, but generally, for a liquid based brine, you'll want to stick to about one hour of resting in the fridge per pound of meat you're preparing.

As much time as you can allow for this process is what's important, but in order to really take advantage and for it to be considered a “dry brine”, you should aim for at least 3 hours, up to 2 days.

Dry brining seems to be a miracle of delicious proportions. Possible drawbacks would include the space needed to dry brine, which is still considerably less than wet brining. There is also the time factor. It can range from 45 minutes to 72 hours.