Why you should (almost) always brine your chicken 

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I worked at a high end fried chicken restaurant in LA and we brined our chicken. You can brine chicken with skin on and have a crispy fried chicken. Just make sure you pat dry after and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours before you add some batter, dredge or any type of combinations you use.

Great video bro! I always Brine my chicken, it is a game changer… A pickle juice Brine for chicken wings is unreal. Also if you want a crispy skin and a wet Brine, I suggest removing the bird from Brine and letting the skin dry out in the refrigerator, uncovered for up to 24 hours. The skin turns out amazing!

Fantastic video. During cooking tutorials I'm one of those students who LOVES having someone explain WHY I'm being told to perform a certain step. Once I comprehend what will happen if I go wildly off-piste and ignore the direction, I'm far more confident and excited about cooking. I love understanding why I'm doing what I do. Thank you so much for this upload, much appreciated.

Refreshing to see someone sticking to the point with such precision and not wasting time. Thank you brother. Subscribed!

I have been cooking dry ass chicken breasts for years. Thanks for the tip on the 155F internal. I have always brined... more for flavor than anything. Thank you for explaining what it is actually for.

Solid explanation man. This makes me want to pick up some of those 6 qt containers you have haha.

Love the explanations! Very helpful for understanding why certain methods are used.

a great example of useful video. straight forward and no yapping about ads or merch or other things. much love 🌷💜

I finally learned HOW brining works. Now THAT makes sense! Thank you.

Wow young man, you are Brilliant, it's that simple. I've never heard any explanation as good as this from any of the Master Chefs out 'their' (the highly respected TV Chefs of the UK) Well done 👍👍👍

You do not have to brine chicken here in Denmark. Most if not all chicken breat, are pre-brined. To the point that you can buy "premium" chicken, sold on the point that it is without brine. However I have noticed that chicken without brine are more easy to cook dry. With brine you can "torture" the chicken a bit more on the pan, without it going dry.

Appreciate the explanation of the differences! It really helped. Thanks

Exactly the video (and useful comments) I was looking for. I will be experimenting with brine, marinate, sous vide and charcoal sear method (2 day, 4 step process) for a barbecue over the weekend and needed some more info on brines. Cheers!

I watch a lot of cooking videos and this was fantastic in its directness and quality of information. You also have a very non irritating style of delivery (at least for me) which made it easy to listen to. I’m now a subscriber - thanks for creating the channel.

This is the most useful and information dense cooking video I have seen, much earned subscription my man

Mind blown on the whole 150 safe temp thing. I'll never be the same after this. Subscribed and thanks.

Also, an important thing to note is that your meat must be completely thawed before brineing it. The salt solution cannot move between the protein strands of the meat when the protein strands are frozen solid. It can give spoilage bacteria a chance to grow as well.

Awesome explanation! So much better to actually understand why things should be done rather just following what should be done

Add a little baking soda (like 1/4-1/2 tsp) and even a 15 minute soak will have a substantial effect on the tenderness. For chicken I recommend rinsing thoroughly before cooking or it does change the flavor a bit. It's a good way to make chuck or round steak fork-cut tender if you don't have time for braising or a pressure cooker.

thanks for just getting to the point rather than a big intro and history of salt or some nonsense. Great info! Love the extra science bit there.

Awesome and thorough explanation of cooking chicken temperatures! I use the 155 degree method myself and it's changed white meat chicken for me ever since! Great video as always!

Great video! It's already saved in my cooking folder.

I'm not a professional chef, however I enjoy cooking for friends and family. I'm always trying new and exciting recipes to entertain my culinary interests, and get rave reviews from everyone. So as a result they always admire my culinary creativity. Thanks for posting this video. It's very informative as well as educational. ❤

Simple, scientific, and satisfying! Great vid man!

My 16 year old culinary GENIUS grandson (ok, brag brag brag!) brined some chicken breasts overnight in dill pickle brine (diluted 50% with water), salt, and modest amount of sugar. TOTALLY awesome when grilled!!! Fall-part tender, SO succulent!

Best explanation I've ever seen.

Huge thanks!!! This changes everything.

Last thanksgiving I brined the turkey and it made a difference for sure.

Mind blowing. In the UK, we are instructed to cook chicken at 180 degrees Celsius, which equates to 356 degrees Fahrenheit… doesn’t come out stringy (this is a whole bird though). I’ll try the white meat (Breast) at the temp you suggested and see how it turns out!

I started brinning not so long ago and I feel I've been eating wrong my whole life. I still adjusting the brine recipe but the change is already amazing.

There are a million cooking channels and they're predominantly people who try to build suspense with cliffhangers or make the vid more about them than about the information. This is much more like the vids I've made, just a solid chunk of information. Very much enjoyed and will watch more.

Amazing overview and explanation, wow! Thank you so so much. I rewatched the salt conversion part, but don't understand lol but I understand it's ok as you mentioned to put the amount of salt as we like the taste.

I put salt in my marinade ! No need to choose between them. Results are yummy.

I just deleted my previous very long comment as to why my chicken is always very very dry. For the very first time, I brined my chicken, adjusted the fire under the pan, reduced the cooking time and after three tries, it finally came out juicy and perfect and here's how I did it. I took one chicken breast out of a package of six, cut it in half long ways so that it turns into two thin chicken breasts. I did not pound it because cutting it thin was just as good. In a very small airtight Rubbermaid container I filled it with cold water, and without measuring I just dumped in probably a teaspoon of each: salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder and a pinch of chili flakes that I would sprinkle on pizza. Put the thinly sliced chicken breast under the liquid and shook it vigorously so that everything would mix. Stuck it in the fridge for 3 hours or more. Put them out of the liquid, put them on several paper towels and patted them completely dry. Then I sprinkled and rubbed on both sides corn flour, which I saw on RU-vid, seals in the juices. Put it in a hot frying pan with enough oil to coat the bottom. Medium high heat is the key in cooking. Exactly 5 minutes on each side, quickly put it on a paper towel and checked the temperature. Even though the temperature immediately read 175 or 180, the chicken was moist, juicy, and it was just as good the very next day which shocked the the heck out of me because I never eat leftover (dried out) cooked chicken. I did the exact same thing the very next day with one chicken breast, only 4 minutes on each side and the temperature was 175 and it was still juicy. After perfect chicken on the third day I got tired and decided to cook hot dogs for a couple days. So the secret is to brine the chicken with salt and your favorite seasonings and make sure the fire is medium high which means between the medium level and touching the bottom of the pan. Too high and it cooks too fast and that is what dries it out, or so I read somewhere. Can you imagine a caveman yelling at his cave girlfriend that she's cooking the dinosaur too close to the fire and it will dry out the meat?

Well said! Explained so simply!

Phenomenal stuff, cant wait to give this a shot this weekend

Good tip about not wet brining chicken if you want crispy skin, but to "dry" brine instead. That's what I will do. Thanks!

Brining also speeds up the thawing of frozen meats. Toss your chicken or fish fillets in a kosher salt brine tub in the morning and is ready for marinade or cooking.

Thank you very much! If only all American guys on RU-vid were so pleasant to watch, you have a very decent and appropriate way of presenting your matters. You won yourself a new subscriber, well done ;-)

Excellent video and explanation. Thank you 🙏🏻

I’ve always ended up with salty chicken when using the 6% solution. We use about two Tlbs per Qt and get consistent results.

Great explanation of why cooking chicken breast to 155F! I'll try brining next time, as usually I put salt on breasts at least an hour before cooking, on the counter, at room temp. Result is always juicy meat. Cheers from Montreal!!

Great advice! Thank you. I will try this with wild white meat cottontail rabbit. The meat is extremely lean and easily dries out faster than even chicken breast on the grill. I think this salt brine recipe will definitely improve the flavor or cottontail meat.

Excellent presentation! Thank you!

Thank you for this video! So informative and insightful, I really appreciate it (:

Man great video. Couple personal points, I always take chicken off at 160, I'm going to try 155 next time and then maybe 150. Thank You. Be careful brining chicken too long, IMO it takes the salt too much if you brine too long. I never brine chicken more then 12 hours, but just be careful or it just tastes like salt(IMO). To crisp up that skin just pop the broiler on halfway through, but Im sure you realize that.

Such a great video man! It helped a lot, thank you so much.

Thanks for these explanations! I'm on it!

I did it!! The best chicken breast my husband have ever had and kids too 🤣! Thank you for this tip!

Thank you, that was really helpful! I'm new to cooking meat and need all the help I can get. Would love to see you make something on salmon fillet, mine always gets super dry!

This was a concise and informative video. I subbed instantly. Well done bud.

My aunt made a brined turkey for christmas and I swear it was the juiciest poultry I ever ate. Not to mention it tasked and felt like pork loin.

Never knew about the temperature for chicken, that's great information! I typically stop applying heat at 158-160 to let carryover cooking finish the job at 165-167 and have had great success in juicy chicken with a nice browned crust; however, I am always looking to up my game and if I can make it even better, why not? Great video! Thanks!

Really liking your content and sharing it with food friends. I also passed along your wealth management channel to my son. Here's a question. What's the difference between a dry brine and a "cure"?

BRAVO! What a fantastic video! You really helped us all! Thank you❤

Great explanation! You know what are you talking about, thumbs up!

The trick is to bribe the chicken 🐔

Hi. Thanks for the video. I got to your channel while looking at bread recipes. Greetings from Colombia, South America. Do you do this brining at room temperature or do you recommend doing it in the fridge because of food safety concerns?

I usually brine a whole chicken for like 2-3 days in the fridge and then let it hang hooked to dry out (kinda like Cured meat) for a day or 2. I have no idea if what I do is any good, but I feel that the chicken is extra crispy. I use a normal oven 250-350F, nothing fancy.

Nice video. I’m a dry brine guy personally. Nice and easy

Hi Charlie , you do make me a better home cook, thank you. I brined my chicken before putting it on the barbecue, it turns out very juicy. 2 questions please, can I use Himalayan pink salt in my brine ? ( in Australia kosher salt is not found everywhere) Also could you please teach use how to brine olives ( black or green) ? I failed several times as my olives turned mushy after a while, what is the right way to brine them? Thank you 🙏

To the point. 👍 You are one of very few people i can actually listen to. Chef Allan.

thank you for the great explanation!

Nice tip! I saw Guga use boiling water to shrivel up the skin and make it super crispy. Can you technically do that after brining, pour boiling water as an intermediate step to shrivel the skin before cooking?

That was really helpful, thanks. 2 questions - For a longer bringing process, eg overnight up to 48 hrs, i assume that you would need to put the solution with the meat in it back in the fridge, is that correct, or does brining always need to be done at room temp? And for a dry brine, on the skin side of a piece of chicken, will the dry brine penetrate through the skin to the meat, or do you need to get the dry brine under the skin?

Holy shit, you are the first video I’ve seen that not only said how, but WHY. Good job 👍

Tks charlie! You helped me a lot. By the way, im not an English native speaker but i got all what you said. You have a very good diction to speak. Trust me, a lot of English natives don’t have. Tks again!

I've been trying to change up my seasonings on my chicken. I'm trying to get that effect where it almost looks like the seasoning has melted into the meat. I've noticed on ribs seasoned before they're sealed or when they have pre-rubbed chicken in grocery stores

I'd recommend using 50% pepper, 25% salt, & 25% lawrys seasoned salt. Most people are of aware of dry brining with salt but any dry seasoning will absorb liquids. If you use the 3 then you don't have to rinse due to less salt with this combination 👍🥩🍻

Your videos are amazing bro, keep it up!

your a good maker of cooking videos, thank you sir

Great video man! But can you freeze chicken after it's brined? Will it affect the texture? Thanks.

Would it make sense to first brine and then marinate afterwards? First get the effect of protein breaking down as mentioned, then getting some additional flavor in so to speak.

Great explanation, without unnecessary chatting.

Very informative & helpful. You've earned a new subscriber.

Do you still salt the chicken when you season it, or does the brine make it salty enough?

I never brine chicken. I scoop melted butter on it. In swedish its called "Ösa" dont know the english word. When frying say chicken breast, fry it in butter on high heat until surface caramelize and gets brown. Then decrease the heat until low and with 2-5 minutes intervalls, scoop the melted butter onto the chicken breasts. I fry the chicken with garlic so the butter is "garlicy" and the chicken absorbs the flavours from butter and garlic. This way the chicken is cooked very slowly and gets tender with the help from the butter

Very informative and right to point. Thank you

Great video. I did as you recommneded on chicken breast with skin but I place the meat in a air fryer and it crisp the chicken skin very well.

Great detailed explanation. Thanks

Thanks for the video, lots of super helpful tidbits in here! :)

I brined some chicken in Claussen's pickle juice once. That was yummy!

Never tried brining chicken...now I have to try it!

You explained this very wells Thank You .

This is extremely informative! Thanks very much!! I am making bacon and experimenting with bbq technique

I started brining my turkey for Thanksgiving about 15 years ago and I’ll never go back to the old way. It’s amazing

Thank you! Very informative.

Thanks bruh good information I will add this to my future cooking techniques!

Wow! Thanks!!! Really helpful!

Wow. I learned a lot! Thanks

Great video! I’d love to see a more in depth comparison between dry and wet brines. I love to dry brine chicken wings and other parts in the fridge before cooking.

Thanks for sharing this brilliant knowledge. Greeting from Indonesia ✌️

More chill version of Ethan and Joshua I like it 👌

Loved the video, I always brine my pork and poultry.

Great information, thanks for sharing

Salt citrus solution is my go to.... absolutely delicious

This was SUCH a good video you have no idea

Not playing fast and loose with the temp but fully believe you are correct

Well done Great detail