Brining Your Chicken

• The basic process of brining a chicken is simple enough. All you need to do is dissolve some salt in water, immerse your chicken or chicken pieces, and wait. You can brine a large whole chicken for three to four hours, while chicken pieces might need as little as one hour. Most cooks vary the basic brine by adding other ingredients, such as brown sugar, spices or fresh herbs, for flavor. These impart their flavor to the chicken, making it tastier after it's cooked.

The Osmosis Thing

• Salt makes its way into your chicken's muscle tissues through a process called osmosis. The chicken's cell walls are designed to allow fluids to pass through, a necessary part of cellular life. When you place the chicken in salt water, the salt causes a chemical reaction that draws water out of the chicken's flesh. At a certain point the process reverses and water begins to flow back into the cells, carrying dissolved salt with it. Properly brined chickens taste well seasoned throughout the muscle, rather than salty on top and plain underneath, as they would without brining.

The Nature of Denaturing

• Salt has another effect, which is to cause the strands of protein to fray and contract. This is called denaturing, and it happens ordinarily during cooking. When salt denatures the proteins during brining, it makes the meat both tenderer and more compact. The frayed ends of the protein strands bond to water and trap it in place, much as the bristles of a hairbrush can retain droplets. The water trapped in a brined chicken can increase its uncooked weight by 6 to 8 percent, making it moister before cooking and juicier afterward.

It's Not Always a Plus

• Of course, few things in life -- or cooking -- come without trade-offs. Brining adds a pleasantly mild salt flavor and leaves the chicken juicier than it would have been, but that retained water doesn't add any chicken flavor. As a result, brined chicken can taste bland and watery. Brining it in chicken broth does little to help, because the flavor molecules in your broth are too large to be absorbed into the tissues. Some chicken comes pre-brined from the supermarket, so read the label carefully. If it says the chicken is extra-moist or pre-seasoned, it's probably already been brined. Brining it again will simply make it extra salty.