Brining Questions

I have some Chicken Breast that i want to do on the grill later and i was thinking about Brining them first. So can someone tell me a Basic simple Small Batch brine that i can add my spices and seasonings too?

A basic brine is just water, salt, and sugar. I just kinda throw it together to taste. I'd say about twice as much salt as sugar, by volume. Start at 1 cup salt and 1/2c sugar per gallon and go from there.

Nateo said:

A basic brine is just water, salt, and sugar. I just kinda throw it together to taste. I'd say about twice as much salt as sugar, by volume. Start at 1 cup salt and 1/2c sugar per gallon and go from there.

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Awesome thanks!

If you're going to brine it for a long time throw some chopped onions and garlic in there too.

Yeah I didn't mention it, but I always add spices to the brine, depending on the kind of meat I'm brining. Bay leaves are usually a good spice to add.

You're going to start brining ANYTHING you grill after this!!

I like to use a 2 qt tupperware container and fill it about half way with water, add about 1/2 cup salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar, then about a tablespoon of black peppercorns, garlic powder, and whatever herbs you want to infuse with. I like rosemary and thyme for chicken!

Also, you can throw in chili powder, onion powder, curry powder...anything you have in the spice cabinet. Anything you put in the brine will be infused into the meat.

As a point of reference, I typically start with a salt to water ratio of 1 cup per gallon of water, it makes it easy to scale a brine batch up or down without having to make a full gallon, or use too much/little salt.

I'll have to say, Alton Brown's orange juice brine is awesome and my go to brine recipe whenever I buy a chx fryer to bbq.

Here it is posted by ol' TexLaw in another forum:

http://forum.texasbbqrub.com/showthread.php?t=29962