Pickle Brine Chicken

Description

There aren’t a lot of great uses for leftover pickle juice. I did hear recently that some people like to drink this stuff after jogging, which I found to be quite shocking, since I had no idea people still jogged. Like most brined recipes, the payoff is in the texture and moisture content and not necessarily in the taste. Having said that, these did have a nice little twang. So the next time you have nothing left in the pickle jar but the juice, you now know what to do.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups dill pickle juice, or more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper
  • 2 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Instructions

  1. Whisk together pickle juice
  2. brown sugar
  3. kosher salt
  4. 1 teaspoon black pepper
  5. and 1 pinch cayenne pepper in a large bowl until sugar dissolves. Place chicken breasts in brine
  6. using a plate or bowl to keep breasts submerged. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
  7. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.
  8. Remove chicken breasts from brine
  9. discard brine
  10. and dry chicken breasts with paper towels. Brush each breast with olive oil; season with salt
  11. black pepper
  12. and cayenne pepper.
  13. Cook chicken on the preheated grill until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear
  14. about 5 minutes per side. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C). Transfer chicken to a plate
  15. tent with aluminum foil
  16. and let chicken rest for 5 minutes.

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins

Servings: 2

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