This chicken brine recipe is made with lemons, honey, fresh herbs and spices, and produces a juicy tender chicken every time! A foolproof way for succulent and flavorful roasted, smoked or fried chicken.
If you’ve never had a brined chicken before, you’re missing out! It takes just minutes to make a chicken brine, but the end result is nothing short of fabulous. Serve your chicken with glazed carrots and rice pilaf for a complete meal.
I always get anxious about cooking large items of poultry like whole chickens and turkeys. It’s just so easy to either overcook the birds until they’re dry as a bone, or undercook them so they’re raw in the middle. This chicken brine infuses a whole bird with tons of flavor and moisture and helps protect it from drying out in the oven! Brined chicken is the best chicken you’ll ever eat!
If you are looking for other meats to brine, take a look at my turkey brine recipe, pork chop brine and dry brined turkey!
Table of Contents
Chicken Brine Ingredients
To make this chicken brine recipe you’ll need water, kosher salt, honey, lemons, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme and parsley. You will also want a chicken to place in the brine!
How Do You Make Chicken Brine?
When you make this chicken brine recipe start by pouring water into a large pot. Add salt, honey, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, parsley and lemon slices to the water. Simmer everything for a few minutes until the salt dissolves. Cool the brine to room temperature. Add your chicken to the cooled liquid, cover it and refrigerate it. When you are ready to cook the chicken, remove the pot from the fridge, pat it dry and remove any herbs or peppercorns from the chicken. Cook and enjoy the chicken!
Tips For The Perfect Chicken Brine
- I pour additional cold water over the chicken to make sure there is enough to submerge the chicken.
- Be sure to use kosher salt, do not use table salt in this recipe. Table salt measures differently than kosher salt and your chicken will be too salty with table salt. I typically use Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
- This recipe tends to work well with smaller chickens in the 3-5 pound range.
- I soak my chickens in a pot. If your chicken is larger than the biggest pot in your house, you can use a brining bag.
- If you’re making a smoked chicken, you can use a half batch of my smoked turkey brine before you put the chicken in the smoker.
Quick Tip
Make sure the liquid is completely cooled before you add the chicken for food safety reasons. You can add ice cubes to help speed the process along.
Recipe FAQs
Chicken is a naturally lean type of meat which mean it’s prone to drying out. When a chicken is placed into brine, it absorbs some of the liquid which helps to both keep it moist and also to season it all the way through. When you’re working with a brined chicken, even if you overcook it a bit, it should still come out tender and juicy.
A whole chicken should be submerged in brine for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours. Do not go past the 24 hour mark, as your bird may be overly salty if it sits in the brine for too long. If you’re looking to cook bone-in chicken pieces such as chicken thighs, drumsticks or chicken breasts, you’ll want to soak them for about 4 hours. If you’re working with boneless chicken pieces, you can leave them in for about 2 hours.
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How Do You Cook Chicken?
You can cook this type of chicken in any way that you would normally cook a whole chicken. Check out some of my favorite recipes below. Sometimes I like to add a few teaspoons of chicken seasoning to the outside of the bird before I cook it.
- Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs
- Slow Cooker Whole Chicken
- Peruvian Chicken
- Rotisserie Chicken
- Fried Chicken
Flavor Variations
This recipe adds amazing flavor and moisture to any chicken; however, you can change the recipe to suit your own taste.
- Citrus: You can try orange or grapefruit slices instead of lemon slices or make your own citrus combination.
- Sugar: Brown sugar works well with this brine. Just make sure to dissolve it in the water.
- Spicy: Feel free to add dried chiles for a little spice.
- Flavors: You can add fresh sage, paprika or quartered onions to your brine.
Once you try a brined chicken, you’ll be hooked! Everyone will think you’re a gourmet chef when they get a taste of your perfectly cooked chicken. While making a this brining solution is an extra step in the cooking process, it’s totally worth it in my opinion.
More Great Chicken Recipes
Baked Chicken Wings
55 mins
Chicken Madeira
55 mins
Smoked Chicken Thighs
3 hrs 10 mins
Grilled Chicken Breast
1 hr 30 mins
Chicken Brine Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Chicken Brine Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 cup kosher salt do not use table salt
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 5 cloves of garlic smashed and peeled
- 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 sprigs fresh parsley
- 2 lemons sliced
- 4 lb whole chicken
Instructions
- Place the water, salt, honey, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, parsley and lemons in a large pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes or until salt has dissolved.
- Turn off the heat and cool completely.
- Add the chicken to the cooled brine. Make sure the chicken is completely submerged.
- Cover the pot and refrigerate for 8-24 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Remove any herbs or peppercorns. Proceed with roasting, smoking or frying the chicken.
Notes
- Nutritional information includes the whole chicken.
- Make sure the liquid is completely cooled before you add the chicken for food safety reasons. You can add ice cubes to help speed the process along.
- I pour additional cool water over the chicken to make sure there is enough to submerge the chicken.
- I brine my chickens in a pot. If your chicken is larger than the biggest pot in your house, you can use a brining bag.
I have brined before, but I have to say this is one of the best!! The chicken was so moist, juicy and flavorful!
I love to try new things, and this was definitely worth it. I will definitely make again, maybe try legs and thighs next time.
Thank you for sharing!!
I brined two 4 pounders with this recipe, rinsed, patted dry and seasoned one with my home made pork/ poultry rub, the other with a simple salt/ pepper, smoked both to 160, very moist and flavorful, will do again
I was looking for a special ‘something’ for chicken breasts B/4 grilling them for luncheon salads. I needed 2 things:
1- Moist, and 2- Flavor. (I then added a little coarse grind pepper, Mrs. Dash and some garlic salt to some melted butter and dropped them on to a medium heat grill)
THIS WAS IT! This is now in my Master File.
Highly recommend.
Can I reuse the brine?
If you’re planning to reuse it, you’d want to do so within 24 hours, otherwise I’d be concerned about food safety issues.
I typically don’t write a comment to a recipe unless it WOWS me. This WOW’d me. I put some chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on) and made 1/2 the brine. Let the meat sit for 5 hours in the brine. Rinsed the thighs, dried them, brushed with oil, seasoned the skin with my favorite seasoning, and then air fried the thighs. Holy crap. Best chicken thighs I’ve ever made. This brine is fantastic. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the smell of the brine as it simmered, so I was a little skeptical. I was SO wrong. It’s amazing.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I’ll be using it many times.
I have used this brine mutiple time for rotisserie chicken I make in my air fryer!
I thought the stores selling rotisserie were good until I made my own. Prefer mine over store bought by a land slide! It is so awesome!
Thank you for a great recipe. Brining adds so much flavor, and the combination of flavors you developed is just divine. Another winner from Dinner at the Zoo!
This looks like the perfect brine – love all of the flavorful spices in it – I can’t wait to try it the next time we make chicken at home!
I made this for family and they all thought the herbs gave such a refreshing spin. Thank you!
The secret to a juicy and tender chicken is always in the brine! This is a good one!
I don’t like the taste of lemons so I replace with limes. Otherwise I love this brine recipe adding other seasonings like turmeric or cardamom is simple and doesn’t mess up the taste.
This is my absolute favorite brine and here I am ready to submerge my chicken and I have NO Lemons! I can easily use a substitute of white wine or vinegar for lemon juice – is there anything similar I can do for this brine that won’t ruin it? I realize I likely won’t get a response quickly enough, but this may happen again at some point. Thank you!
I’d just omit the lemon or use something like orange instead!
Hi Sara! I made this for Thanksgiving and it was absolutely delicious. Thank you for yet another winner 🙂 .
I wanted to make it again today, but I used up the rest of my honey. Do you think maple syrup or granulated sugar would be a good replacement?
Yes either of those will work!
Hi sara i dont have kosher salt instead i use coarse sea salt but i only use 1/4cup instead of 1/4cup is coarse sea salt fine i use 1/4cup only not that full either thankyou
That should be ok if it’s coarse!
Just a fabulous brine recipe 👍💕 it is my go to for brining all of my chicken! I didn’t have thyme so I added fresh oregano and just threw everything in a Ziploc bag with my spatchcock chicken. It transforms a “good” chicken dinner into a GREAT one. Thank you for posting and sharing! Your recipes are fabulous!
Could about 1 teaspoon or so each of dried rosemary, thyme, and parsley be used in place of fresh? Thank you.
Yes that’s fine!
Could I add the brine and the chicken into a larg ziploc bag to ensure it is fully submerged? It seems too shallow for a pot.
Yes that’s fine!
Takes a lot more water than 8 cups to submerge a chicken. Had to add more cold water.
Makes the best moist chicken when left in this brine. I personally leave in the brine for a minimum of 24 hours. I smoke my whole chickens and usually make two different flavors. My chickens come out super moist, super flavorful. I would give this recipe 10 Stars if I could. 🌟
I want to do three chickens combine total weight is 15 pounds do I just triple all the ingredients?
You could probably double the brine and add a little extra water to make sure the chickens are fully submerged!
We love this brine. The chicken comes out perfect every time!
can i use this for chicken breast?
Yes you may just want to cut the recipe in half! And chicken breasts will only need to brine for 2-4 hours.