Brining is important when you cook chicken be it chicken breasts, full chicken, chicken wings, or chicken thighs/legs. But can you brine frozen chicken?
Does frozen chicken give you the same results while brining as a chicken at normal temperature?
You must season any food that you cook. Bringing is also an important part of the process when cooking a whole chicken or even other cuts of meat that you have.
There are times where I do not include brining in the process but whenever I am cooking chicken, I always need to do it. It helps keep the chicken juicy and tender when it is cooked.
Some flavors are added to the chicken when you brine it. It is a very simple part of the process and you get a restaurant level chicken that is juicy on the inside and has a nice crisp finish on the outside.
When I cook a whole chicken, I try to make the preparation a little different. There are many ways to prepare your chicken and I never miss brining as it adds a lot of flavour in the chicken.
Whether you are cooking a simple meal or you want to go with roast brined chicken, smoked chicken wings, grilled chicken thighs, roast chicken, baked chicken, and more, you need to brine it.
Brining can also apply to frozen turkey, helping you make the best turkey for the next Thanksgiving.
You can make a nice juicy turkey with the same brine recipe that you use to make chicken.
There is no such thing as over brining and we will talk more on it in the coming sections, so let’s brine that chicken!!
Table of Contents
What Is Brining?
Brining is a preparation method where you soak the meat in the saltwater mix.
The usual mix is water and salt for brines which initiates an exchange of fluids and salt content within the chicken and the brine. I love adding herbs and other dry spices to the brine as well to add more flavor.
Brining helps break the fibers on the chicken and helps soften the meat which makes it juicy.
Brining packs a ton of flavour in the chicken and if you add some herbs and spice to the brine solution then you get more flavours while eating chicken.
It almost tastes as good as the restaurant chicken that we all love and crave.
Why Brine Chicken?
The main concept in brining is to make the chicken juicy on the inside and have a crisp finish on the outside.
Brining works the best for lean meats and if you love eating chicken and turkey then you have to do this every time you THAW them!
Adding herbs and spices to the brine can also help the chicken develop a better flavor when cooked. Since there is also an exchange in fluids, the chicken will become juicier when cooked.
That is why I love brining, since you can add other ingredients and adjust the brine according to the flavor you want to develop. It gives you the freedom to give the chicken any flavor you want.
By brining the chicken, you get the meat to absorb extra fluids, hence, a lessened chance of the chicken to dry out. The extra juices it has absorbed make up for the lost juices when cooking.
If you have brined other types of meat, you will also notice that the result is often softer than other recipes that used just seasonings or dry rubs instead of brining the meat before cooking.
How to make your brine solution?
It is pretty easy to make a simple brine solution. You need one tablespoon salt per one cup of water. I use normal salt while using my rbine solution but smarterhomemakerr.com recommends Kosher salt is even better.
Well, if you want to get creative then you can even add more spices and herbs. I love adding rosemary or thyme along with salt and peppercorns in my brine solution.
You can even use a vegetable stock so that more flavours get absorbed in the chicken or you can add some sugar too to give more depth of flavours in the chicken.
Can You Brine Frozen Chicken?
Yes, you can easily brine frozen chicken. I usually place a container with the brine solution in the refrigerator and leave the chicken to defrost inside it.
Make sure you do not leave the chicken outside in the brine solution to defrost as defrosting can take a 6-12 hours depending if it is a full chicken or chicken pieces and during this time you can get bacterial growth in the chicken causing food poisoning.
So, make sure you thaw chicken in the refrigerator and do not keep it outside at room temperature.
Brining frozen chicken is the best as you can thaw it and at the same time you can brine the chicken, this saves some time as you do not have to brine the chicken separately.
How long to brine Chicken?
How long do you brine frozen chicken really depends on how thick the pieces of the chicken are.
1. Brining Full frozen Chicken- I recommend if you are brining a full frozen chicken then you can defrost and brine the chicken in the refrigerator for about 12-24 hours.
2. Brining Frozen Chicken thighs- Brining frozen chicken thighs can take around 6-8 hours in the refrigerator while it thaws at the same time in the brine solution.
3. Brining Frozen chicken wings-Brining frozen chicken wings would take around the same time as chicken thighs which is about 6-8 hours while it thaws in the refrigerator.
How long to brine thawed Chicken?
If you have already thawed your chicken then you need to brine the chicken for different times as compared to the ones mentioned above.
You need to brine a full chicken for about 2-3 hours in a brine solution and you can brine chicken thighs and chicken wings for about 15 minutes which would be more than enough.
If you think you have thawed your chicken for longer then you can put it back into cold water and let it sit for a bit till it gets a bit firmer and then remove it out.
This would remove the excess salt and brine solution from the chicken. Pat it dry before you go ahead and cook it.
Can You Thaw Frozen Chicken In Brine?
Yes, you can thaw frozen chicken in brine and it is way easier to do it this way since you can thaw the chicken and at the same time brine the chicken.
I recommend using cold water when bringing frozen chicken and putting it in the fridge immediately. DO NOT THAW CHICKEN outside in room temperature as that can cause some bacterial growth leading to food poisoning.
Once ready, place the frozen chicken in the brine and then cover it. Place it in the fridge and allow it to thaw and brine for the next 10 hours or so, this can be done overnight.
Depending on the thawing times discussed above you can leave your chicken to thaw for different times depending on the thickness of the chicken.
During the thawing process, the frozen chicken will also start to absorb the flavors from the brine. We use cold water for this process to not start to cook chicken in any way.
If you use warm water for the brine, the skin of the chicken will partially cook and will become too soft when cooked. This gives the chicken a slimy texture.
Once ready, remove the chicken from the brine and then rinse off the excess salt. Pat dry the outside of the chicken to remove any excess water and then season the chicken before grilling.
Can You Over Brine?
This is another risk that you need to deal with when brining chicken. There is a possibility that you might over brine the chicken if you let it stay in the brine for too long or in warm temperatures.
Over brining can have two major unpleasant results.
1. WAY TOO SOFT CHICKEN- First, the chicken will have very tender skin like what we have talked about and it will also become a little too soft after cooking.
When this happens, you will not be able to put the nice crispy crust on the skin. It can also make the chicken mushy instead of the meat being pulled easily when you bite into it.
THIS IS Protein denaturing where the main protein content of the chicken will partially deteriorate, giving the chicken a mushy texture and pretty much useless in terms of nutritional content.
2. OVERSALTED BIRD- The other effect of over brining is the chicken will become oversalted. This means that the chicken has thawed enough and it has exchanged too much salt and fluid with the brine.
Luckily, you can still salvage this by soaking the chicken in cold water. This will help tighten the skin again and wash off some of the salt that has been accumulated by the meat inside.
Which kind of meat can I brine?
You can brine any meat you like, it depends on how effective brining is going to be with different meats.
Leaner meats are more preferred with brining as there is not a lot of fat to give it flavours hence the brine solution does a pretty good job of adding a pack of flavors in the meat.
Brining goes well with chicken, turkey, shrimps and even leaner cuts of pork.
You can almost brine anything you want but since brining is used to soften the meat, I recommend opting for leaner meats to brine every time.
I hope this answers your question on can you brine frozen chicken and if you have anything to add leave them in the comments below!
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