I wanted to try something new, and I’ve never tried brining before. Unfortunately, on the day I wanted to try this our intarweb was down and I couldn’t look up how to do it. So, I reached into the recesses of my memory and pulled this recipe out of nowhere.
My tastebuds kept telling me about asian food that morning, so I decided to listen to them. Rather than doing a straight water/salt brine, I brined the chicken in a water/soy sauce blend. (I used 1 TB soy sauce for every cup of water.) The liquid and the chicken went into a large ziplock bag, and it sat (breast-side down) in the fridge for about five hours.
After I removed the chicken from the brine, I rinsed it inside and out, patted it dry, and rubbed it inside and out with a mixture of garlic powder, sea salt, crushed mint and rosemary. (If you’ve never tried doing this, DO IT. It tastes awesome.)
I roasted it at 400 F for 1/2 hr. I then removed the chicken from the oven and brushed it with sesame oil to complete the asian feel. I lowered the temperature to 350 F, and roasted the chicken for another hour or so (until the meat reached 175 F). The chicken was brushed with one more thin coat of sesame oil, and I let it sit for a few minutes before it was carved. It was served with rice and steamed asian veggies.
Not bad for a completely blind experiment! If there’s one thing I could change, I wouldn’t have done that last slather of oil. Sesame oil adds great flavour and depth to a dish, and it’s nice and light.. But that was just a smidge too much. Other than that, no regrets.
