Chai-Brined Chicken

We are big fans of brining. It's such an easy way to keep meats like chicken, turkey & pork, that often go dry when cooked, really moist. The right brine can also bring a lot of flavor to the meat.

When I was making the brine for the Molasses-Brined Pork Chops earlier this week I noticed a recipe for a Chai Brine. I had a chicken to roast thawing in the fridge & thought this would be a nice change of pace. Plus ever since we got back from India we've really been into drinking chai so why not cook more with it too.

I wish you could send smells through the computer because this chicken smelled amazing! And the taste was just as wonderful. Often when we roast a chicken all the flavor stays on the skin but the meat is still pretty bland. That is not a problem when prepared like this, the spicy/sweetness of the brine penetrates the whole bird. If like us you are trying to watch what you eat a little bit you know how bad that skin is for you so its awful nice to have the meat taste so good you don't miss the crispy skin (well, not too much anyway).

Chai-Brined Chicken
(from Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking)

1 c fruit juice (we used peat nectar but apple, pineapple or other juices would be great)
1 c chai concentrate
1 1/2 T kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper

Put all the ingredients into a resealable bag. Close the bag & shake to dissolve the salt. Add the chicken. Seal the bag removing as much air as possible. Rub the brine into the meat a little. Put into a bowl that just fits the chicken. Let sit in the fridge for 2 - 8 hours, flipping once, the longer it sits the more flavor the chicken will absorb. Remove the chicken from the brine, discard brine & cook chicken.

Makes 2 cups brine

We brined a whole chicken but you could brine chicken pieces with or without the bones. This was great as a roast chicken but I think would be equally good done on the barbecue or sautéed in a skillet.

Just a note about the cookbook, Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking, we got this brine recipe from. It is one of out favorite cookbooks & a lot of the recipes are good for more than just grilling. I noticed today it is bargained priced on Amazon for $6.20 & I just wanted to highly recommend it to you all. For the price it is hard to pass up.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski