Flavorful Hen Brine – Match Foodie Finds

This straightforward, traditional entire rooster brine offers you the juiciest, most scrumptious entire rooster you’ve ever tasted.

We’re utilizing this rooster brine to brine our unbelievable grilled spatchcock rooster, however be at liberty to apply it to our smoked entire rooster or oven roasted spatchcock rooster.

Our Go-To Entire Hen Brine

Don’t let the phrases rooster brine intimidate you. It’s tremendous simple to make easy rooster brine for our grilled entire rooster recipe. Simply make sure you’ve the precise instruments and the precise chook and also you’ll be all set to go.

Why Brine a Hen?

There are 3 principal explanation why we love brining rooster, particularly whenever you’re working with an entire chook, together with:

1. Taste: brining your rooster goes to infuse your meat with salty deliciousness. You may consider it as an intense marinade or taste bathtub.
2. Texture: brining helps break down the toughness of your meat leaving the feel as easy as might be whenever you chew into it.
3. Moisture: the salt really helps the rooster retain moisture, which in flip makes the feel fairly dang scrumptious.

You’ll discover that usually solely leaner cuts of meat corresponding to rooster, turkey or pork chops and that is due to their low fats content material. Brining really does assist your lean cuts of meat come out good and moist!

Dry Brine vs. Moist Brine

You’ll discover that our rooster brine recipe requires water and that’s as a result of it’s a moist brine.

A dry brine solely makes use of salt and the pure moisture from the meat as an alternative of including in additional moisture from water.

Hen Brine Elements

• Water 
• Kosher salt 
• Smashed garlic cloves 
• Chopped white onion 
• Sliced oranges
• Sliced lemons
• Sprigs recent thyme 
• Entire rooster

Selecting a Entire Hen

This rooster brine recipe requires a 4 lb. entire rooster (thawed!). If you happen to’re utilizing a bigger chook, do not forget that your entire rooster must be submerged into the brine, so it’s possible you’ll have to double the brine recipe to have sufficient liquid.

Methods to Brine a Hen

Brining rooster is tremendous easy and 100% value the additional effort in the long run. Right here is the way to make a simple brine for an entire rooster:

1. Fill a big pot with 9 cups of water. 
2. Take away 1 cup of water from the pot and add it to a saucepan with the kosher salt.
3. Warmth the 2 substances over medium warmth and whisk till the salt has dissolved, however don’t deliver to a boil. Take away from warmth after the salt has dissolved, and add the salted water again into the big pot and whisk collectively. 
4. Subsequent, add the garlic, onion, orange slices, lemon slices, and thyme to the pot and stir. Lastly, add the entire rooster to the pot, ensuring the rooster is totally submerged within the water. 
5. Place the pot within the fridge for 12 hours or in a single day.

Hen Brine FAQs

Storage

Be sure to retailer your rooster within the brine within the fridge. Holding the rooster at a constant chilled temperature within the fridge will guarantee