Salt + Water = Brining Miracle!

Lean meats like pork, chicken and turkey can quickly dry out when cooked. I’m sure we’ve all been dealt a cardboard-like piece of turkey at Thanksgiving or a tough, rubbery pork chop at Grandma’s. Fortunately, there’s a super simple way to keep meat moist and tender.

Brining – or soaking meat in a salt (and usually sugar) solution – helps change the structure of meat proteins. There’s a nerdy, technical explanation for how all this works, but in a nutshell brining helps meat retain more moisture when cooked. It also sometimes helps give meat a firmer consistency. The best part is that you probably already have all the ingredients handy! All it takes is salt, sugar, water and a little soaking time to give your meat some life. You can also add other ingredients like spices, garlic, and herbs to enhance your brine and infuse your meat.

Here’s a basic brine recipe and how-to:

½ cup sugar
½ cup salt
1 quart of water
1 pound of chicken pieces (or meat you are using)

1. Dissolve sugar and salt into water in a large bowl or pot.
2. Either submerge chicken pieces into the bowl/pot or pour brine into a large plastic bag and add chicken.
3. Refrigerate for up to 8 hours.
4. Remove chicken pieces from brine and pat dry. If you don’t pat dry, you won’t be able to brown the chicken.
5. Cook chicken as desired (i.e. pan roasted).

Recipes for grilled brined shrimp, classic brined turkey, cider-brined pork chops all sound good. Check back in on Thursday whey I try out brined pork chops with a mustard-sage sauce!

Tagged as: brining, lean, salt