Have you ever wished that the chicken you cooked were juicier and more tender? It often happens with many of us that no matter how much we take care, chicken often turns out to be stringy and rubbery. This is primarily because of the age and quality of chicken we get here, as well as how long we cook it.  Nevertheless, we seldom get desired results, until now! Today I am sharing with you the recipe of brine.

Brining is one of the techniques that is not well known to the Indian households. I came across this technique last year, when one of my dearest friends taught me how to do it. Brining augments the amount of moisture in the chicken, by the process of osmosis. You can also impart some subtle flavors to the chicken by adding spices and condiments to the brine.

The most basic brine consists of water, salt and sugar. However, if you want to add spices, you will need to boil the brine so that their flavors get released into the water. Like I said, the process of osmosis takes place when you brine the chicken. The amount of water in the brine is much higher than that in the chicken’s tissues. Hence, the water travels from brine to the chicken, through its membrane. This is called osmosis. The structure of cells changes. This phenomenon is called ‘denaturation’. But let’s not go a lot deeper into the biochemistry. Denaturation simply helps the chicken retain the moisture within itself during the process of cooking.

It’s always better to cut the chicken into small or medium pieces. It makes the process of brining more effective and less time-consuming. However, chicken breast can be soaked in the brine whole. You can add soy sauce, honey or lemon as well to the brine. However, it depends a lot what to add to the brine on the recipe that you would be adding the chicken too. So it’s more about experimenting and combining different tastes.