# Brining: How much salt and water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052 "2009-12-13T01:45:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/1 "2009-12-13T01:45:00Z")
I’m going to attempt to brine a 3lb chiken and roast it. Never done it before. How much salt should I use in the water? ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/2 "2009-12-13T01:59:10Z")
[This](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html) is the brining recipe I have used to rousing success the last two times I hosted Thanksgiving. You can adjust the recipe to the proportions of your three pound bird (cut everything by four.) ---
**Author:** ![shel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@shel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/3 "2009-12-13T02:00:21Z")
skip the water. substitute for vodka. use salt. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/4 "2009-12-13T04:55:21Z")
Your basic brine is 1 cup of kosher salt to 1 gallon of water. **ivylass** ’ link is for the brine of the gods, from the other perfect master. But if I am just doing a chicken for dinner, it’s 1 cup to 1 gallon. If you want to get fancy, you can also add 1/2 cup brown sugar to the brine. Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/5 "2009-12-13T05:03:28Z")
I prefer to brine by weight rather than recipe. Shoot for about a 3% salt and 1.5% sugar solution for a versatile brine. The way I do it is to put the chicken in a vessel, add water a cup at a time until it completely submerges the chicken, take the chicken out, add an ounce of salt & half an ounce of sugar for every 4 cups of water, stir to dissolve and then put the chicken back in. ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/6 "2009-12-13T12:43:36Z")
No recipe, but a rule of thumb. Should be about as salty as seawater. I usually also add peppercorns, minced garlic, and some kind of herbage to the brine. Turns out very tasty, although I use it for pork more than chicken. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/7 "2009-12-13T13:02:11Z")
Here’s [Nigella’s](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/spiced-and-super-juicy-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html) brine recipe for turkey. I’ve done this twice and it was spectacular each time. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/8 "2009-12-13T17:26:27Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Your basic brine is 1 cup of kosher salt to 1 gallon of water. The kosher salt is key - if you use an equivalent amount of table salt, the brine will be too salty. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brining-how-much-salt-and-water/521052/9 "2009-12-14T03:19:40Z")
I’m back! I took some of the advice but had to omit some stuff because I didn’t have time to go out and buy it. In the end, it was regular salt, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper. I soaked it overnight then flipped it to the other side this morning and soaked until before dinner. Then I covered it with seasoning and threw it in the oven. The chicken turned out great! Very flavorful, not too salty at all except for the drippings. I had to reroast it a little bit after finding out the middle was still red, but other than that it was great. I couldn’t get the bones to be consistent with store-bought softness and some of the tendons were still a little tough, but overall I’m really happy with the flavor. Thanks everybody for the help!