Easy Chicken Brine

I have always heard about brining meat and the wonders it does for flavor and texture but I have never been very interested in trying it. Im not sure what sparked my interest in it this week but I decided I would give it a try so I could either prove it wrong or become a believer. After cleaning up from our dinner meal for the night I simply put together my brine recipe and added my chicken and stuck it in the fridge for the following day. When it was time to start preparing dinner I simply removed my chicken breasts, rinsed them under water and stuck them on the grill. My husband, son and I sat at the dinner table each with chicken on our plate very anxious to dig in. Of course my son had already started attacking his food, but lets be honest, I couldn't use him as a gauge for whether the chicken was a success or not since I'm convinced he would eat just about anything. So my husband and I decided to slice off a piece and give it a try. The first thing that came to my mind was "I will never prepare my chicken any other way." Yes, thats right, it was a huge success, like big time! I had never had chicken so perfectly juicy and seasoned in my life. And heres the kicker...after taking my chicken out of the brine I put absolutely zero seasoning on it, zilch, nada, nothing! So all of the flavor I was tasting was coming strictly from the brine. 100% delicious, and it couldn't have been easier to throw together. Everyone has salt and water on hand and you can always play around with any of the other added ingredients. Give it a try, you might turn into a brining fanatic like me!!

Chicken Brine

Ingredients:

4 cups water

4 tablespoons of grated or finely chopped red onion

4 tablespoons salt

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1 heaping tablespoon of dried rosemary

1 lemon, thinly sliced

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Place the water and salt in a large tupperware container. Stir until salt is dissolved. Add onion, garlic, rosemary, lemon slices and your chicken breasts. Seal the container and place in your refrigerator for 24-48 hours. When ready to cook, run each of your chicken breast under cold water and pat dry. BBQ the chicken breasts until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.