The Importance of Brining Chicken Breasts for Grilling

When it comes to grilling chicken breasts, one of the biggest challenges is preventing them from drying out and becoming tasteless. This can happen if the breasts are not properly seasoned and cooked. However, with a simple brine solution, you can achieve moist and tender chicken breasts every time.

To make a brine for your chicken breasts, start by mixing together 2 quarts of water, 1/2 cup of coarse salt (or 1/4 cup if using table salt), and 1/2 cup of white sugar. You can also add other seasonings such as dried thyme leaves, cayenne pepper, granulated garlic, and onion flakes to give your brine extra flavor. In this recipe, we're using 1 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves, 1/2 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon of granulated garlic, and 1 tablespoon of onion flakes.

Once you have your brine solution mixed together, it's time to add the chicken breasts. Place the breasts in a plastic bag and pour the brine solution over them, making sure that they are completely covered. Seal the bag and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 1.5 hours. This will allow the meat tissue to absorb the moisture from the brine, resulting in tender and juicy chicken breasts.

After the brining process is complete, remove the chicken breasts from the brine solution and wipe them dry with a paper towel. You can also rinse them in water if you prefer, but be careful not to over-wet the meat. Next, lightly coat both sides of the chicken breast with your favorite cooking oil or olive oil. This will add a nice texture to the chicken breast before it's seared on the grill.

To cook the chicken breasts, heat up your grill to medium-high heat and preheat it for at least 10-15 minutes. You can use indirect heating by placing the coals on one side of the grill, with the chicken breasts placed on the other side. Sear both sides of the chicken breast for about 2-3 minutes, depending on how hot your coals are. This will give you nice grill marks and a crispy texture on the outside.

To prevent the chicken breasts from sticking to the grill, simply tug on them gently with your tongs a few times before searing. This should help loosen any excess moisture and allow the chicken breast to cook evenly. Once the chicken breasts are seared, move them to the opposite side of the grill and continue cooking for about 15-20 minutes, or until they reach an internal temperature of 170°F.

Using a chef's thermometer will ensure that your chicken breasts are cooked to a safe temperature without overcooking them. The finished product should be moist and tender on the inside, with a crispy texture on the outside. When you cut into the chicken breast, you'll see the moisture and juices flowing out, indicating that it's been properly seasoned and cooked.

The next time you're looking for a recipe for your barbecue, consider trying this brine-based method for cooking chicken breasts. With a little bit of effort and patience, you can achieve deliciously moist and tender chicken breasts every time. Whether you're grilling pork chops or bone-in chicken breasts, the principles of brining remain the same. So next time you fire up your grill, don't forget to give this recipe a try!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm going down to the house of sausage I got my barbecue shoes on I'm going down to the house for sausage I got my barbecue shoes on going to me a a redot foot long welcome to barbecu pit boo.com today we're going to do some boneless chicken breasts on the grill all right this is easy to do here I've got about three maybe four lounds of skinless boneless chicken breast you know all about those are pretty much sold everywhere and uh we're going to uh need a few spices here I've got some cayenne pepper here I've got some dried thyme leaves here I've got some granulated garlic here I've got some uh onion flakes this here is some uh coarse salt like a chef salt or this is a kosher salt here I have some sugar and you're going to need some fresh black pepper corn right there all right now the biggest problem with doing chicken breasts on the grill is you might know they dry out real easy they end up tasteless kind of like rubber well there's an easy way to make your chicken breasts moist and tender every time and we're going to use a brine so here uh I'm putting in one teaspoon of dried thyme leaves and here I'm going to use a half a tablespoon of cayenne pepper now you're going to be able to adjust these ingredients uh to Suit Yourself here but you just try it this way the first time now here I've got some granulated garlic and I'm going to use about one tablespoon and here I'm going to use about one tablespoon of onion flakes and I'm going to put in about one tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper corn now this is all going into about 2 quarts of water cuz as I said we're making a Brine and we're going to be uh marinating these chicken breasts uh for about an hour maybe a little bit more and this brine guaranteed make your chicken breast moist and tender every time now this is how you make your brine here by adding your salt and I'm using about a half a cup of uh coarse salt here now if you just have table salt then you want to maybe use a/4 cup but here's a half a cup of coarse salt and then we're going to add about a half a cup white sugar Now by making a brine like this um and soaking these uh chicken breasts in there you're going to hydrate the meat tissue and uh this was going to allow water to saturate the meat so you'll be serving up moist and tender chicken breasts every time now you can do this on pork chops or bone in chicken breasts all right gave it a good mix cleared off the table now I'm going to place these chicken breasts here in a plastic bag makes it real easy to do the marinate and make sure you put enough uh your uh brine in there to cover the chicken real good all right like I said about an hour and no more than an hour and a half otherwise your chicken breast might just get a little too salty all right through the miracle of time of about an hour has gone by and what we're going to do now is take these chicken breasts out of the Brine and uh we're going to wipe them off on a paper towel now you can actually rinse these in water if you want and then uh wipe them off but uh this will work real good just want to get the excess brine off cuz uh we're going to be searing these here in a couple minutes going dry them off real good all right now you want to get yourself your favorite cooking oil or an olive oil and we want to lightly coat all sides of this chicken breast uh before we sear it on the grill this will add a real nice texture to this uh boneless chicken breast all right let's let's put them on the grill we got a nice hot Grill doing indirect heating got the charcoal on one side we're going to sear both sides of these uh chicken breasts for oh maybe 2 3 minutes depends how hot your coals are man there's nothing like serving up chicken breast hot off the grill now to keep your chicken breast from sticking just uh just tug on them a little bit with your tongs there just do it a couple times and uh it won't stick to the grill all right look at those grill marks like I said just a couple minutes each side till you get some nice texture going up man can you smell that it smells good now we could shorten this video up a little bit here but I kind of like doing this all right these are seared ready to pull off the hot coals we're going to move them to the opposite side and we'll finish cooking for maybe another maybe 15 or 20 minutes you'll know when they're done you can use a chef thermometer get it up to about 170° put the cover on man you getting hungry or what all right it's time to eat take a look at that nice crispy texture on the outside be real moist and tender on the inside pull one off the grill let me cut into this here and I'll show you he you can see that moisture in there that's because we grinded cut a few slices now of course you can serve this up with your favorite sides going chicken got my barue in fact uh as always going to apologize for eating a little bit of this right you funny gu we call that Chef's privilege so the next time you're looking for a recipe for your barbecue you check out bbqpitboys.comI'm going down to the house of sausage I got my barbecue shoes on I'm going down to the house for sausage I got my barbecue shoes on going to me a a redot foot long welcome to barbecu pit boo.com today we're going to do some boneless chicken breasts on the grill all right this is easy to do here I've got about three maybe four lounds of skinless boneless chicken breast you know all about those are pretty much sold everywhere and uh we're going to uh need a few spices here I've got some cayenne pepper here I've got some dried thyme leaves here I've got some granulated garlic here I've got some uh onion flakes this here is some uh coarse salt like a chef salt or this is a kosher salt here I have some sugar and you're going to need some fresh black pepper corn right there all right now the biggest problem with doing chicken breasts on the grill is you might know they dry out real easy they end up tasteless kind of like rubber well there's an easy way to make your chicken breasts moist and tender every time and we're going to use a brine so here uh I'm putting in one teaspoon of dried thyme leaves and here I'm going to use a half a tablespoon of cayenne pepper now you're going to be able to adjust these ingredients uh to Suit Yourself here but you just try it this way the first time now here I've got some granulated garlic and I'm going to use about one tablespoon and here I'm going to use about one tablespoon of onion flakes and I'm going to put in about one tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper corn now this is all going into about 2 quarts of water cuz as I said we're making a Brine and we're going to be uh marinating these chicken breasts uh for about an hour maybe a little bit more and this brine guaranteed make your chicken breast moist and tender every time now this is how you make your brine here by adding your salt and I'm using about a half a cup of uh coarse salt here now if you just have table salt then you want to maybe use a/4 cup but here's a half a cup of coarse salt and then we're going to add about a half a cup white sugar Now by making a brine like this um and soaking these uh chicken breasts in there you're going to hydrate the meat tissue and uh this was going to allow water to saturate the meat so you'll be serving up moist and tender chicken breasts every time now you can do this on pork chops or bone in chicken breasts all right gave it a good mix cleared off the table now I'm going to place these chicken breasts here in a plastic bag makes it real easy to do the marinate and make sure you put enough uh your uh brine in there to cover the chicken real good all right like I said about an hour and no more than an hour and a half otherwise your chicken breast might just get a little too salty all right through the miracle of time of about an hour has gone by and what we're going to do now is take these chicken breasts out of the Brine and uh we're going to wipe them off on a paper towel now you can actually rinse these in water if you want and then uh wipe them off but uh this will work real good just want to get the excess brine off cuz uh we're going to be searing these here in a couple minutes going dry them off real good all right now you want to get yourself your favorite cooking oil or an olive oil and we want to lightly coat all sides of this chicken breast uh before we sear it on the grill this will add a real nice texture to this uh boneless chicken breast all right let's let's put them on the grill we got a nice hot Grill doing indirect heating got the charcoal on one side we're going to sear both sides of these uh chicken breasts for oh maybe 2 3 minutes depends how hot your coals are man there's nothing like serving up chicken breast hot off the grill now to keep your chicken breast from sticking just uh just tug on them a little bit with your tongs there just do it a couple times and uh it won't stick to the grill all right look at those grill marks like I said just a couple minutes each side till you get some nice texture going up man can you smell that it smells good now we could shorten this video up a little bit here but I kind of like doing this all right these are seared ready to pull off the hot coals we're going to move them to the opposite side and we'll finish cooking for maybe another maybe 15 or 20 minutes you'll know when they're done you can use a chef thermometer get it up to about 170° put the cover on man you getting hungry or what all right it's time to eat take a look at that nice crispy texture on the outside be real moist and tender on the inside pull one off the grill let me cut into this here and I'll show you he you can see that moisture in there that's because we grinded cut a few slices now of course you can serve this up with your favorite sides going chicken got my barue in fact uh as always going to apologize for eating a little bit of this right you funny gu we call that Chef's privilege so the next time you're looking for a recipe for your barbecue you check out bbqpitboys.com\n"