Our Pickle Brine Chicken is one of our favorite ways to consistently grill juicy and flavorful chicken. Whether you’re feeding a crowd or making a batch to eat throughout the week, we promise you’ll fall in love with the ease and flavor of this recipe.
The Best Pickle Brined Chicken
Why would we brine chicken in pickle juice? We’ve been asked this a time or two, and the answer is simple. Because it’s one of the easiest ways to ensure juicy and flavorful chicken without adding a bunch of additional seasonings. The pickle juice lends its slightly tangy flavor to the chicken while keeping it moist throughout the cooking process.
Have You Ever Made Your Own Pickles?
If not, you definitely need to checkout our Refrigerator Dill Pickles recipe! Super easy and delicious!
What You Will Need
- pickle juice – just pick-up your favorite jar of store-bought pickles at the grocery store or use the juice from these refrigerator dill pickles – it is our favorite.
- bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs – cooking with bone-in, skin-on chicken provides for a richer, fuller chicken flavor, that you can’t fully appreciate until you try it.
- kosher salt & ground black pepper – the simpler the better with the seasonings in this recipe. The pickle juice does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to flavor.
How To Make Pickle Brine Chicken
Use the leftover pickle juice in a jar that is empty or remove the pickles from the pickle jar, leaving the juice behind.
Place the chicken thighs in a large bowl and pour pickle juice over the top. Cover and place your bowl in the refrigerator.
How Long Should I Brine Chicken in Pickle Juice?
Highly recommend allowing yourself a minimum of two hours to brine the chicken. However, if you have the time, we love brining overnight for the richest flavor. Just make sure you don’t leave chicken in the brine for longer than 24 hours or it will change the texture of the meat.
Remove chicken, discard brine, and place chicken on a plate to pat dry. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.
Bring the grill up to high heat (around 450 degrees) and place chicken skin-side down on the grill grates over direct heat for 3-5 minutes and then flip. Cook the other side until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F (use a meat thermometer).
Remove the chicken from the grill and let meat rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Best Ways To Serve Pickle Brine Chicken
We love grilling up a batch of these for a crowd with a crisp veggie side dish like grilled corn on the cob, garlic green beans, or easy grilled broccoli. And if you’re looking for something a bit heartier, try your hand at some smoked baked beans or these yummy smoked potatoes. And if you’re really feeling like going all out, whip up this easy strawberry crisp. You won’t regret it.
Recipe FAQs and Tips
- What kind of pickle juice should I use? Because the pickle juice will greatly impact the flavor of your chicken, we recommend going with a simple, clean option like the juice from this refrigerator dill pickle recipe. You’re welcome to grab some from the grocery store, but try to avoid a pickle juice with a yellow hue or that’s loaded with a lot of extra ingredients.
- Storage: leftover chicken can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Made this recipe and loved it?! We would love it if you would take a minute and leave a star rating and review – it is also helpful if you made any substitutions or changes to the recipe to share that as well. THANK YOU!
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Smoked Chicken Brine
Pickle Brine Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Brine Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Grill
- Cuisine: American
Description
A simple, easy Pickle Brine Chicken recipe that creates chicken thighs that turn out so juicy and delicious, every time!
Ingredients
- Approx. 1 cup pickle juice* (love the juice from these Refrigerator Dill Pickles)
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- kosher salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
- Brine: Place chicken thighs in a medium bowl or large storage bag. Pour pickle juice over top. Cover and place in the refrigerator a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- Season: Remove chicken from brine (discard brine) and place on plate. Pat dry with clean paper towel. Season with kosher salt and ground black pepper.
- Grill Chicken: Bring grill up to high heat (about 450 degrees F) and ensure the grill grates are clean. Place chicken skin-side down on the grill grates over direct heat (directly over flame) for 3-5 minutes and then flip. Cook on other side until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F (use a meat thermometer).
- Rest + Serve: Remove from grill and let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- *Pickle Juice: the pickle juice you pick will greatly impact of the flavor here. I like the pickle juice from these Refrigerator Dill Pickles because it is clean and light tasting – I wouldn’t recommend a pickle juice that is particularly yellow with lots of extra ingredients.
- Chicken Breasts: you can also use chicken breasts, boneless chicken thighs, etc. – this will work with any cut of chicken, but I prefer using bone-in chicken thighs.
- Whole30/Paleo: if you use the Refrigerator Pickle juice these will be Paleo/Whole30 – check your ingredients if using store-bought pickles.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chicken thigh
- Calories: 143
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 281.1 mg
- Fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 1.4 g
- Protein: 25.6 g
- Cholesterol: 82.7 mg
Erin says
This looks so good! I’m guessing this would work on chicken drumsticks too?
Erin says
Yes! It definitely would!
Erin says
So yum!!! It turned out great!!
Erin says
Yay!! So happy to hear that!! Thanks for coming back to leave a review – I really appreciate it!