Dry Brine for Chicken Thighs: Does it Do Anything?

Whether we’re talking bone-in, skin-on or boneless, skinless chicken thighs – dry brining will further enhance the eating experience.

Essentially creating deeply seasoned, juicy chicken thighs with more crispy skin – without diluting the overall “chicken flavor.”

If you’ve never dry brined your thighs before, I’d strongly encourage doing so.

What Does “Brining” Mean?

Before delving into what a dry brine is, it’s best to understand what a “brine” is in general.

A traditional brine is a salt-based solution.

Uncooked meat – like chicken thighs – are submerged and soaked in this solution (brine liquid) for a specified amount of time, usually around 1-24 hours (1 hour per pound is common).

Here’s a single chicken thigh placed in a 5% salinity, salt-water solution – brined overnight:

This brining process works extremely well for bland proteins like chicken, turkey, and pork.

In essence, the brine works via processes like osmosis and diffusion – causing the uptake of both salt and water; Essentially moving from an area of high concentration (the brine) to an area of low concentration (the meat).

Brining also causes muscle proteins to break down or “denature.”

Since salt (NaCl) is comprised of sodium (Na+) and Chloride (Cl-) ions that carry electrical charges, when dissolved in water they dissociate into their constituent cations and anions.

These electrostatic interactions between the salt and the protein disrupt the structure of the muscle filaments causing them to unfold. This re-shaping of the protein structure results in a greater water holding capacity in the muscle cells.

The end result being the meat absorbing moisture from the brine.

In essence – brining makes something like chicken thighs more moist and tender.

Why Wet Brining Isn’t Ideal for Chicken Thighs

Now, while “wet” brining does work – I do have qualms with using it for something like chicken thighs.

My goal with chicken thighs is to create moist/juicy/tender meat, accompanied by crispy/crackly skin.

While wet brining can certainly produce the perception of moist meat, the diffusion process pulls in excess water that can wash out the intrinsic flavor of the chicken.

This is in a similar vein to ordering liquor and having it watered down. The actual flavor becomes lost due to the water.

The traditional wet brine also won’t result in crispy skin – rather the end result will be soft and rubbery.

Here’s another chicken thigh, dry-brined and cooked to 185F internal:

Far better fat render on the skin.

Also worth noting: Brining any cut of meat – even chicken thighs – is sort of an involved process.

You need:

• Ample space in your refrigerator to store the meat and the salt-water solution. The meat also needs to be submerged in this solution.
• You need to measure specific quantities of salt and water to equilibrium brine with.
• You need a non-reactive container.

Here’s the chicken thigh above in my outdoor refrigerator brining:

As you can imagine, if I had more chicken thighs I’d need more water, more salt, and more room.

Where-as with dry brining, all you need is kosher salt (non-exacting values either), a baking sheet, and a wire rack.

What is Dry Brining?

In essence, “dry” brining is essentially a brine without the added water (the above “brine” people now differentiate as a “wet” brine since it uses water).

So you’d salt the skin side:

Then you’d salt the meat side:

It’s important to remember that “meat” is muscle tissue.

Lean meat (muscle tissue) contains roughly 60-70% moisture (water), 10-20% protein, 2-22% fat, and 1% ash.

Meaning, we can take advantage of the effects of osmolarity by salting the meat and using the natural moisture content within the lean meat.

This way we don’t “water” down the flavor of the meat – rather we’re enhancing the flavor via the salt.

When you go to dry brine chicken thighs, what will happen is:

• You salt all the surfaces of the thighs – the skin and the meat.
• Moisture from the thigh will pool/bead on the surface as it’s drawn out by the salt.
• Given enough time, the salt will dissolve in the moisture (since salt is water soluble).
• That salt-water solution will then re-absorb back into the chicken thigh via osmosis and diffusion.
• The salt then denatures the proteins – allowing them to hold onto moisture better.

The result is more moist/flavorful chicken thighs and crispy/crackly skin.

How to Dry Brine Chicken Thighs

To start, you’ll need a few things:

• Kosher salt – either Diamond Crystal or Morton’s.
• Wire Rack – this is to elevate the chicken thighs when you place them in the refrigerator.
• Baking Pan – This is to place the wire rack on to catch the drippings from the chicken thighs as the dry brine pulls out moisture.
• Paper towels – to pat dry the meat.

1. To start, take out your baking sheet and place your wire racks on top.

2. Open your package of chicken thighs and place the thighs on top of paper towels. Your goal is to pat dry all surfaces of the chicken thigh, including the skin.

This process helps with air drying and helps along the processes of evaporation.

Here’s what these look like when dried:

3. Take out your salt and salt all surfaces of the meat – the skin and the meat side.

You could also opt to put the salt under the skin to help this process along but it’s not totally necessary as salt can actually penetrate chicken skin.

Dry brining won’t ever call for an exact amount of salt to use; Rather, you’re essentially eye-balling the amount. The goal being to season evenly and to cover all sides and surfaces of the meat.

If I were to estimate, I’d say it’s about a pinch or two per side.

If you’re heavy handed – I’d suggest investing in some Diamond Crystal Kosher salt as it’s more forgiving. This is due to the fact that it’s less dense than say Morton’s Kosher salt.

Also aim to salt from around 8″ above the food as apposed to salting close to it. This simply makes the dispersal of the salt more even.

4. Once all surfaces are salted, place the now salted chicken thighs on top of the wire rack.

5. Place the baking sheet with the chicken thighs on the bottom rack of your refrigerator; I like to loosely cover with butcher paper.

6. With chicken thighs I like to dry brine for at least 12 hours but overnight is ideal (usually 16+ hours).

The reason for this is because aside from the fact that I want the salt to penetrate and re-absorb the brine, I’m also air drying the skin so that when I go to cook it, it will crisp up better.

Here’s the skin the next day:

As I hope is obvious, the skin is fairly dry at this point and all the salt is no longer visible.

Both air drying and dry brining take time.

From research by Dr. Greg Blonder, we can see that salt was capable of penetrating meat:

• 30 minutes = 0.11 – 0.15 inches
• 1 Hour = 0.19 – 0.23 inches
• 2 Hours = 0.27 inches
• 24 hours = 0.66 inches

Meaning, I’d dry brine for at least 1 hour (this works well for say boneless, skinless thighs).

In that same article of Dr. Blonder he found that diffusion rates of salt also increased at higher temperatures; Which for chicken thighs is a good thing since they’re pushed to around 190F+.

Most people will say to simply observe the surface of the meat. If the liquid is still pooled on the surface, it still needs time to re-absorb this brine solution.

If the surface appears dry (likely after 1-2 hours), then you can cook the meat.