Basic Brine For Grilled Meat
Simple recipe for juicier, more tender, and more evenly seasoned barbecued meats
Equipment
- 1 stock pot 1 gallon size
- 1 Chef Knife
- 1 Large storage container 2 gallon or larger
- 1 Measuring Spoon Set
- 1 Measuring cup set
- 1 Scale
- 1 probe thermometer
Ingredients
- ½ cup salt
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
- 7 cup water
- 1 tbsp. chili flakes
- 1 each lemon approximately 8 ounces by weight
- 2 pound ice
- 4.5 pound meat chicken wings in this case
Instructions
- combine the first 6 ingredients in the stock pot, squeezing the lemon before dropping it in
- bring to a boil over high heat
- put ice into large storage container
- pour hot brine into the container with the ice
- place container into fridge until probe thermometer reads below 60 degrees
- add refrigerated meat to container and put back into the fridge
- allow to brine for 2 hours before removing meat to cook
Notes
This recipe can be scaled up or down depending on the relative size of the item to be brined.
The time that an item needs to be brined also will depend on the size and density of the item itself. If this is for a single piece of chicken as opposed to the smaller pieces that chicken wings represent, the brining time would be more like 6 hours.
After an item is removed from brine, rinsing is not necessary, but it should be patted dry with a paper towel to remove exterior moisture.