Brine chicken breast so it becomes moist, tender, and delicious!

Okay, I'm no professional cook or baker, though my Mom was. However, I see that most of this blog is turning out to be receipies I want to save for myself or give to others, so here we are with one of my more recent (2018/2019) favorites: Chicken breast.

Growing up the idea of eating white meat chicken was repugnant. To me, it was dry and tasteless unless it was 100% freshly roasted, and even then unless it was undercooked I wouldn't eat the stuff.

In recent years I learned how to brine chicken breast. My wife, who likes chicken salad (not the stuff with mayo, the stuff with actual salad and pieces of chicken) had looked up how to prepare it the way it's done in the better take-out places, and showed me the YouTube video of a very simple method, which I then applied. Now it's one of my favorite reasonably healthy dishes. The chicken that comes from this recipe is moist and tender and can keep in the refrigerator for at least a week.

What you'll need:

  • A pan or pot big enough to hold the chicken breasts lying flat on the pan surface, not piled up. There must be a lid that closes fairly tightly because there will be steam and you do not want it to escape.
  • A spatula.
  • Chicken breast. I'm not talking about shnitzel that has been pounded flat, I'm talking about the stuff that has had the bones and gristle removed but nothing else.
  • A container, preferably with a water-tight lid, for the brining process.
  • Water and kosher salt. You can use table salt if necessary.
  • Cooking oil. I use olive oil but anything should work.

Step 1: Brining the chicken

You will be preparing a saltwater solution with one tablespoon of salt per one cup of water. How much water you prepare will be dependent upon how much chicken you're brining and the container you'll use to soak the chicken.

I usually measure out the salt into the container, boil the water, and pour it over the salt. Then I stir until the salt dissolves. At this point, if you want to get fancy, put in whatever herbs or garlic or whatever to flavor the water.

You can put in the chicken right away if you like; I usually wait a few minutes so I don't get scalded if the water splashes as I put the chicken in the container. The idea here is that the water must completely cover the chicken.

Next, put the lid on and let it sit. If you're going to let it sit for more than an hour or so, put it into the refrigerator. I'd say you need a minimum of an hour of brining before moving on to the next step, but if you're in a rush you can probably get away with 30 minutes. You don't want to go too long, it starts getting yucky after too many hours of brining.

Step 2: Cooking the chicken

  • Put on an apron :-)
  • Wash your hands with soap and warm water; you'll be touching raw chicken!
  • Put enough oil into the pan to lightly coat the surface.
  • Put the pan on medium-to-high heat.
  • While the pan is heating up, spread out the chicken and flatten it out somewhat. Don't whack it to turn it into schnitzel, lean on it. I usually just put my weight on it somewhat. You don't want it to be completely flat, just ... flatter. If you don't want to touch it with your hands, use a bottle or something to press it down.
  • Test that the pan is hot enough by seeing if a couple of drops of water sizzle and disappear quickly.
  • Let the water drain off the chicken. Maybe pat it dry? But not VERY dry.
  • Carefully place the chicken into the pan so that each chicken is on the oil and not on another piece of chicken.
  • Let it sit on high heat for one minute, then turn the chicken over and immediately cover the pan with the lid.
  • DON'T REMOVE THE LID UNTIL WE'RE DONE.
  • Turn the heat down to low heat.
  • Set a timer for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, reset it for another 10 minutes and turn the heat off. DON'T REMOVE THE LID.
  • When the timer goes off the second time, you should remove the lid and remove the chicken from the heat source so it doesn't cook any further
  • You're done. Enjoy!
You can now cut it into chunks when you prepare a chicken salad, or just eat it as a meal with steamed mixed vegetables, or whatever. You can even add it to a stir fry, though you probably would do that only at the end, as it doesn't need more cooking.

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