An easy smoked chicken brine recipe that uses common ingredients but gives the perfect flavor for smoked poultry!
This brine made out of warm water, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and onion, is a MUST when we make cornish hens on the smoker or smoke any type of whole chicken for a major flavor boost and how to keep it juicy and give it extra moisture! This brine combined with the smoke flavor is absolutely delicious!
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What is a Chicken Brine?
Brine is a combination of salt and water, and is a great way to make chicken tender and more flavorful but it doesn’t have to stop there! Add fresh herbs, spices, and other ingredients to help enhance the flavor even more!
Why You’ll Love This Brine
This recipe is easy and it uses ingredients that you probably already have on hand! Although we use it most of the time for smoking, a brine solution also works great to marinate chicken if baking or grilling. After testing a few different versions, we’ve found this is the best brine to use for chicken!
Use it for all types of chicken or poultry such as:
- smoked cornish hens
- air fryer chicken wings
- boneless chicken breast
- smoked chicken tenderloins
- air fried chicken legs
- roaster chickens
- whole chickens
- chicken halves
- chicken thighs
FAQs
No, you don’t have to but it makes a BIG difference in flavor and can help the chicken stay moist and not dry out as much during the smoking process. A brine is highly recommended for best results!
Yes. You can, because it can make it too salty if your brine has a lot of salt in it (as most do) and the texture of the chicken can become mushy if it sits in it for too long.
Timing can depend on the type of chicken and how long to brine it. For instance, a chicken breast may not need as long to brine as a whole chicken. A good gauge to go by is:
– 2 hours for skinless chicken breasts
– 4 hours for bone-in chicken
– 8 hours to 24 hours for a whole, roaster chicken
How to Make this Flavorful Brining Solution
I’ve found that these are my favorite ingredients for a smoked cornish hen brine (small chickens) but it also works well for other chicken as well!
What you’ll need for this brine: (see full recipe card with details and measurements below.)
- warm water
- white onion (or yellow if that’s what you have on hand!)
- kosher salt (table salt will work too)
- brown sugar
- minced garlic (I prefer this over cloves but you can chop garlic cloves if you like)
- Start by adding warm water to a large pot (big enough for about a gallon of water and still big enough to leave room for the raw meat once it’s placed in.) You want to use warm so the brown sugar will dissolve.
- Next, pour in brown sugar
- Salt
- Minced garlic
- Stir to dissolve sugar and salt
- Add in white onions
- Now it’s ready for your chicken and the brining process! (If you used HOT water, make sure it cools off a bit before adding the chicken. You don’t want to “cook” the chicken in the brine with hot water.)
- Place chicken in brine, and cover pot with lid, aluminum foil or plastic wrap and place the pot with the chicken and brine in the refrigerator and let it marinate in the brine (see post for time length depending on type of chicken).
Do you rinse chicken after brining?
This is optional. If you prefer crispy skin, you can wash the brined chicken, pat dry with paper towels, put the chicken on a tray, and place it back in the refrigerator for an hour or so to help the skin dry out a bit.
NOTE: remove the chicken from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking to allow the chicken to become closer to room temperature so it will cook more evenly.
Discard excess brine.
Season with your favorite chicken dry rub recipe and smoke according to your favorite smoked chicken recipe for tons of flavor!
Side Dishes for Smoking Meat
If you’re smoking chicken, then you’ll love this secret recipe side salad, smoked stuffed mushrooms, and this Amish potato salad!
We love using the smoker, so make sure you check out the other dinners made with a smoker, so you can add them to your favorite list of ideas!
Recipe
Smoked Chicken Brine
Ingredients
- 1 gallon warm water NOT hot
- 1 white onion sliced in to quarters
- ½ cup kosher salt table salt is ok too
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup minced garlic
Instructions
- Start by adding warm water to a large pot (big enough for about a gallon of water and still big enough to leave room for the raw meat once it's placed in, and you want "warm" water so the brown sugar will dissolve. You don't want "hot" water or it will begin cooking the chicken.)
- Next, pour in brown sugar, salt, and minced garlic, and stir to dissolve sugar and salt.
- Add in white onions.
- Place chicken in brine, and cover pot with lid, aluminum foil or plastic wrap and place the pot with the chicken and brine in the refrigerator and let it marinate in the brine (see recipe notes and post for tips and time length depending on type of chicken).
Notes
- Can you brine chicken too long?
- How long do you brine chicken?
– 2 hours for skinless chicken breasts
– 4 hours for bone-in chicken
– 8 hours to 24 hours for a whole, roaster chicken
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
If you made chicken using this brine recipe, I’d love it if you could help others know your thoughts by leave a star review above in the recipe card!
Jack Solovey says
A Super brine recipe. Moist, Juicy Chicken and Delicious throughout. I added two tablespoons of tarragon, and two tablespoons of poultry seasoning. Added a squeezed orange too. Brined for 18 hours. Outstanding. For a rub on the chickens, I used Kosmos Killer Honeybee rub. Its great! I found it at Walmart. These are very tasty and with Mesquite wood smoke, turned out ***** superbly delicious. Couldn’t be better!
Jessica says
Hi Jack! So glad you liked this brine recipe! I love what you added to it too! May have to try that!
Eli says
This is a great tasting brine, and takes well to additions. I like to add 1 quartered lemon.
In the text you mention that warm brine is OK – I encourage folks to refrigerate the brine before adding meat because warm brine can promote harmful bacteria growth.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Cyndi says
Love it for our Cornish hens. Can’t believe the difference in taste and juiciness.
Jessica says
Right? We totally agree Cyndi! Thank you so much for reviewing and dropping a note about this chicken brine!
Janica Beckler says
Sounds delicious! I want to try this with my cornish hens. How long would I leave 5 in the brine?
Jessica says
Hi there! We have a smoked cornish hens recipe in case you find it helpful! But I would say at least 2 hours — and up to 24 if possible.
Zach says
Great and simple recipe to tweak to your liking!
Jessica says
That’s great! So glad you like this chicken brine recipe, thank you for sharing!
Catie says
My go-to brine! My husband got himself a smoker for his birthday so I had to figure out how to prep some whole chickens real quick. This worked like a charm, along with the Cornish hen rub recipe. Best chicken we’ve ever made! Did it again tonight(4 chickens this time!) for our fourth time and I’m still looking forward to these juicy hens!
Jessica says
Yaaay!! This makes me so happy and is exactly how I feel each time we make them. This chicken brine is the BEST! Thank you for taking the time to share and to leave a review.
Stephen Charles Daniel says
I use this brine on all my foul and it makes it delicious only way to prepare chicken.
Jessica says
Awww, that’s awesome to hear Stephen! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a note and a 5-star review!
H p says
Used this on a roaster chicken then tried a a roaster chicken without. The difference between the two was determined that I will never make a roaster chicken without brining ever again.
Jessica says
Thank you SO much for sharing this with us!! That’s fantastic to know!
Laurel Swanson says
This is my go to recipe for brine. I fvadd peppercorns & sprigs of fresh rosemary & thyme. I also heat up my water with the sugar & salt, though not to boiling.
I’ve learned to make my brine the evening before so it’s cooled down, I put it in the refrigerator once cooled down, by morning so I can get my chicken in right away to start brining
Jessica says
Those additions sound amazing and love the tips for how you cool it, too! Thank you!
Julia says
I absolutely loved this brine as I am a huge fan of smoked chicken. I love adding it to salads. Thank you for the detailed info, very helpful.
Jessica says
Smoked chicken on salad is SOOOO good!!! Thank you!
Beth says
Oh wow! The flavor is so delicious and tasty! Our new favorite quick and easy brine! Definitely will be making this again!
Jessica says
Thank you so much Beth!! It’s our new favorite too!
Rebecca H says
Used this brine on Chicken breasts and the came out so tender and juicy! Will make again!
Jessica says
Mmmmm, thank you! It makes such a difference and such a great addition to chicken breasts! 🙂