The Best Dry-Brined Roast Chicken Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long should you dry brine a chicken? ›

Add the chicken and rub the brine in really well, ensuring it is well covered inside and out. Put a cooling rack over a tray and sit the chicken on top. Chill uncovered in the fridge for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight, but no longer than 24 hours.

No, there is no need to rinse dry brined chicken! The salt will have penetrated the chicken, so it won't be too salty. Just make sure you don't salt it again before cooking!

Place salted chicken in the fridge uncovered for at least an hour, up to 24 hours. The longer it sits in the fridge with the salt brine on, the more the moisture is locked in and the crispier the skin becomes once cooked.

Birds: Turkey, Chicken

A dry brine can be simply sprinkled over the entire surface of a whole bird (including inside the cavity or on the underside of a spatchco*cked bird); you can also season under the skin, but it's a little messier and harder to achieve even seasoning.

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.

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.

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.

Remove chicken breasts from brine, discard brine, and dry chicken breasts with paper towels. Brush each breast with olive oil; season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Cook chicken on the preheated grill until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 5 minutes per side.

Once seasoned, you'll want to place your steak in the refrigerator uncovered on a baking rack for at least one hour and up to two days to allow the salt to work its magic. A baking rack or similar is necessary to allow airflow on both sides of the steak.

Do you season before or after dry brine? ›

Yes! You can choose to use a seasoning blend, make your own, or salt-then-season. Just remember to omit salt from the seasonings you are using after you pre-salt or dry brine. If you choose to add seasoning when you dry brine, start with the salt on your food.

We recommend a very simple dry brine that's made of just four simple ingredients -- kosher salt, ground black pepper, poultry seasoning, and olive oil. The type of salt is important here, as not all salts are created equal.

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.

We season our chicken well before cooking it, and yes, it makes chicken that much better. If there's a way to make chicken taste better than it already does, we'll do it. Which is why, whenever we've got time, we dry brine chicken with plenty of kosher salt before cooking it—and so should you.

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.