How to Brine Meats at Home | Brining Basic Recipe and Tips
Brining meats is a technique to inject moisture and flavor in mostly tougher pieces of meat to increase tenderness and add flavor. Brining meat is great for pork chops, beef shanks, lamb shanks, and chicken breast – mostly lean cuts of meat that would otherwise dry out quickly before being cooked over intense heat. In a meat brining solution the cuts of meat are completely submerged in the liquid and the consistency of the brine is quite watery, nowhere near as thick as a marinade recipe.
Definition: Brining is a process of preserving, flavoring, and injecting moisture in meats by soaking them in a saltwater solution.
Ingredients Needed for our Fortified Meat Brine
Simmer Your Brine to Mix Flavors. Cool Down. Then Submerge Meats in Brine.
*Basic Brine:
- Water – 1 gallon
- Kosher salt – 1 cup
- Brown sugar – 1 cup (optional)
*Fortified Brine:
- Basic brine ingredients
- Bay leaf – 8 leaves
- Crushed chili pepper – 1/2 tsp
- Orange pepper seasoning – 1 teaspoon
*The basic brine is a salt and water mixture that adds moisture to your protein when submerged in it.
**The fortified basic brine also imparts flavor to your meat since you are adding herbs and spices to the basic brine.
Instructions for How to Brine Meats:
- Place all the brining ingredients into a pot or container.
- Place your meat (pork chops, beef shank, chicken breast…) in the container completely submerged by the brine solution.
- Set aside in the refrigerator and allow the fresh meat cuts to soak in the brine solution for 8-24 hours.
After your meats are brined they are ready to cook and enjoy.
Benefits of Brining Meats
Adds moisture to dry pieces of meat. This results in a more juicy product.
Causes the muscle fibers to break down. This results in a more tender product.
The salt in the brine also acts as a preservative, extending the shelf life of meats.
Video of how to brine meats:
In this video Chef Dan shows you how to make this brine recipe. Chef Dan also covers the do’s and don’ts of making a brine recipe.
Notes about making a brine for meats
Heating the fortified meat brine to allow flavors to mix: When preparing a fortified brine, combine your spices, then bring the water to a simmer to mix the flavors together well.
Allow the brine to cool: If you add the brine to the meat make sure the liquid is not hot, or it will boil your meats. The brine should be always be cold or at room temperature before submerging the pieces of meat in the brine solution.
Do not brine for too long: Since brine is a salty solution brining for too long will make your meats overly salty.
Keep the correct water to salt ratio for brining: As a guideline the salt to water ratio of a brine solution should be 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water.
A Culinary Institute of America graduate from the 1990s, Chef Dan began his career as a saucier at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan under the Hilton Corporation. Over the years, he has held key positions such as Corporate Executive Chef Director at 5-star restaurants, country clubs, and Indian Casino Resorts.