Recipe: Beer-Brined Chicken on the Grill

This beer-brined chicken served as our Fourth of July dinner!

The chicken picked up sweet, malty flavors from the brine and our charcoal grill added just a touch of smoke. Also thanks to the brine, the meat was tender and juicy, cutting easily with a butter knife.

With some blue cornmeal polenta and beet salad on the side, this meal was the perfect beginning to an evening of gabbing around the picnic table and waiting for the fireworks to start.

We prefer to use bone-in chicken breasts for this recipe. The bones keep the meat from drying out and help distribute the heat evenly throughout the breast. Leaving the skin on also helps keep this lean meat juicy. However, regular boneless, skinless chicken breasts can be substituted if desired.

This recipe can also be replicated in the oven or with a whole chicken, as per Emeril Lagasse's original recipe.

Beer-Brined Chicken on the Grill
adapted from Emeril Lagasse
Serves 4

2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
bouquet garni of 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, 1 Tablespoon pepper corns, 1 teaspoon juniper berries, and 1 teaspoon whole cloves
4 cups dark beer
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (boneless is fine if you can't find bone-in)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne

Combine the cider, sugar, salt, and bouquet garni in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until sugar and salt are dissolved, and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a bowl lined with a large zip-lock freezer bag, combine room-temperature cider mix, bouquet garnis, beer, and chicken breasts. Seal the bag, leave it in the bowl, and refrigerate for 8 hours - overnight.

Heat gas or charcoal grill to 450-degrees.

Melt butter and stir in chili powder and cayenne. Brush half the butter over each breast.

Lay chicken breasts skin-side down on the grill. Flip every 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through (165-degree internal temperature with juices running clear)--about 30-40 minutes. Baste the chicken breasts with the remaining butter about half-way through.

Remove from bone before serving. Breasts can be served with the skin on or removed.

Enjoy!

(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)

Comments (1)

Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try tomorrow. We have a Weber Baby Q grill which only has one burner. So many recipes require the grill to have two burners or be a little more flexible. We have a small patio behind our townhouse and this grill fits very nicely. Plus we can store it in the basement over the winter which is an advantage since we have no garage. We had a larger grill which we covered in the winter but it still rusted out after a couple of years.