Grilled chicken in brine, with rice and coriander

This grilled chicken with rice and cilantro is a great way to enjoy an everyday recipe but with a great plus of texture and flavor. Brine , beyond a centuries-old technique for preserving food, is a culinary technique with which to enjoy new flavors and textures , since it provides not only saltiness, but also great juiciness . It is the secret of many chefs to offer flavors totally different from the usual ones in the most common meats and fish, and today we take advantage of it.

About this grilled chicken recipe

I hope that with this recipe you will discover a different but very simple way of offering a delicious grilled chicken: tender and very tasty, that is the chicken in brine with salt and spices that we propose to you.

This grilled chicken is a delicious alternative to classic roast chicken. It is also accompanied by a delicious and typical Brazilian rice recipe.

What is the brine cooking technique?

Brine, beyond being a preservation method that is already hundreds of years old, is a way of seasoning food and making it juicy, while also greatly enhancing flavors.

It is a very simple way to completely change a recipe, as the result on the palate of meats and fish is very different if they have been left in brine for a few hours.

Cooking in brine is nothing more than immersing food in a solution of water and salt . In cooking, the most common thing is to talk about a concentration of salt in water of 3% and 10%. It will depend on what you are looking for and the size of the pieces that you concentrate more or less that water, as well as the time that you are going to have the food in that salting (the more concentrated the water and salt solution is, the less time you will need).

The benefits of brining food are further increased when you also take advantage of the hours of rest in brine to add other flavours: you can season the water with spices and aromas, so that the meat takes on those flavours. The end result is spectacularly different from food without that brine.

There are two types of brine:

• Dry brining: You've probably heard of brining fish. It basically consists of covering the food with salt for a few hours, so that the moisture is removed from the food.
• Brine in liquid: This is the brine that we will apply in today's recipe, the most common way of applying brine to meats and olives. It basically requires immersing the food in this salty mixture.

How to make liquid brine?

1. Prepare a mixture with 10% salt concentration - that is, for every litre of water (1,000 ml of water), add 100 g of salt. Heat the water slightly and mix until dissolved (heating is necessary to make dissolution easier, but it is not necessary to do so... and you must be careful not to let the water evaporate or the salt concentration will increase).
2. Once the salt has dissolved, you can dip the food you want in the salt and let it cool in the refrigerator for the appropriate amount of time (depending on the food and thickness, it will normally be from one hour to overnight, but follow the recipe guidelines).

For convenience, prepare the water mixture in a large bowl with a lid that can hold all the meat or fish you are preparing. In the case of long pieces of fish, you can use a rectangular oven tray with some height.

There does not need to be a lot of water, but there needs to be enough so that the pieces of food are completely submerged.

What are the advantages of brine for meat and fish?

1. The volume of the food increases, since part of this salty water is absorbed by it.
2. The piece is hydrated, making it much juicier (it is more difficult for it to dry out when cooking).
3. Given the two previous points, it reduces less during cooking.
4. The meats have a less fibrous texture, are softer and more pleasant to chew.
5. Red meats intensify their color and take on greater flavor, and fish and white meats become more tender and juicy.

Le Creuset Non-Stick Grill , Le Creuset Damascus Steel Knife , Le Creuset Grill , Le Creuset Evolution Round Cocotte , and Le Creuset Ramekin.

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• A whole chicken weighing between 1 and 1.2 kg.

For the brine (optional):

• 100 g brown sugar
• 100 g coarse sea salt
• 1 liter of hot water
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tsp chili
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 150 ml of Cachaça (traditional Brazilian alcoholic drink)
• Juice and peel of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp black peppercorns

For the rice:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 cup white rice
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 1 tsp salt
• A handful of chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

Preparing the chicken and brine:

1. Ask your butcher to prepare the chicken with the central spine removed and fully opened, so that it can be grilled. Otherwise, open it at home, using a cutting board and a sharp knife .
2. For the samuera, in a large bowl that can fit the chicken, mix the salt and sugar with hot water until dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients and submerge the chicken.
3. Leave it submerged for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator (you can leave it overnight if you want).

We cook the chicken and rice:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (or 160ºC with fan).
2. Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with kitchen paper.
3. Using a baking brush, brush with olive oil.
4. Heat the Le Creuset grill pan to medium heat. Once hot, place the chicken skin side down first, pressing down to maximise contact with the grill pan. Cook for about 12-15 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 12 minutes on the other side (slightly less if you're using a cast iron grill pan, as it gets very hot).
5. Place the rack in the oven and cook for about 15 more minutes. Then remove the rack from the oven and let the chicken rest on the rack for about 20-30 minutes.
6. While you let the chicken rest, heat the olive oil in a Le Creuset cocotte over a medium heat and sauté the chopped onion for about 5 minutes, without letting it brown. Add the garlic powder and rice and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom.
7. Sauté the rice for a few minutes, quickly add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Lower the heat slightly, put the lid on and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. Add the cilantro and it's ready to serve.
8. Serve the chicken with rice.

Grades

• The brine gives a great juiciness to the meat, but if you want to make the recipe without making the brine you can also: enjoy a good grilled meat with rice, it is ideal any day of the week!
• In this case, we have cooked a whole chicken cut in half, but if you want you can cut it into quarters, or cook the parts you want in exactly the same way (cooking thighs, making breasts...). The same technique will apply equally.