A simple chicken wing brine that is exactly what you need to take your wings from good to GREAT! With a simple pot of water, kosher salt, garlic, and herbs, you can infuse your wings with flavor and tenderize the meat. They're a Whole Lotta Yum!
Our brined chicken wings are so good!
- Brining tenderizes the meat before cooking, whether you're making them on the grill, smoker, frying them, baking, or air frying.
- They'll have tons of flavor and the wings will be fall-off-the-bone tender.
- We are combining salt, garlic, herbs, and spices to create a brine that is flavor and effective but will not overpower any sauce or rub you are adding to your wings.
- This recipe can be doubled or tripled to cook a huge batch of wings or for other chicken cuts, or a whole bird.
We love to use this chicken wing brine recipe before we whip up one of our many wing recipes, especially with our air fryer wings with dry rub, baked dry rub wings, or pan fried chicken wings.
Why brine wings?
While brining wings isn’t critical, if you have extra time, we highly recommend it.
- Brining your wings helps to retain moisture, which will give you juicier more tender meat.
- You can change the flavor of the brine by adding herbs and spices which enhance the flavor of the wings and penetrates into the meat.
- Brined wings also make the chicken meat extra tender since it breaks down muscle fibers.
Ingredients you'll need
While brine is mostly salted water, we are going to also include garlic and four different herbs to complement the entire recipe.
- water
- coarse kosher salt
- black peppercorns
- fresh herbs - parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage
- garlic cloves
Substitutions and Variations
- To make a quick and easy brine, just use water and coarse kosher salt or coarse sea salt. The purpose of brining is to tenderize the meat and make it more juicy and flavorful, simple salted water accomplishes that.
- 1 cup of brown sugar or sweetener can be added to the brine.
- Making lemon chicken? Feel free to add lemon slices to your brine to infuse even more of a lemony flavor.
How to Brine Chicken Wings
We are going to combine our water with the flavoring elements, heat, then let the chicken wing brine chill in the fridge and work its flavoring magic.
Step 1: Put the water, kosher salt, black peppercorns, garlic cloves, and fresh herbs in a large pot. Cover the pot.
Step 2: Over medium heat, bring the mix to a simmer. Once the liquid is simmering, cook it for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Allow the chicken wing brine to cool completely.
Step 3: Once the brine has cooled, add the wings to the pot. Press down to make sure the chicken wings are completely covered with the salty mixture.
Cover the pot and move it to the fridge for 1-2 hours.
Remove the wings from the brine and rinse the chicken with cold water. Pat the wings dry with paper towels. They're now ready to use in your favorite chicken wing recipe!
How long to brine Chicken Wings?
How long you brine chicken wings in part depends on the size and type of wings. As a good rule of thumb, we recommend brining chicken wings for at least 30 minutes but not longer than 24 hours. If you have larger drumettes, they can handle being brined longer for up to 2-4 hours. The smaller wingettes could just use a quick brine for 30-60 minutes.
Jen's tips
- Morton's table salt is NOT the same as kosher salt or sea salt. Table salt is much stronger and not recommended as a substitute for brining.
- Be sure to allow your brine to cool completely so you don't accidentally start cooking your chicken wings in the brine.
- Fully submerged the wings in the brine.
- Allow your wings to sit in the brine for at least 1 hour. Feel free to brine them for up to 12-hours, but not longer than 24 hours. Brining wings longer than 24 hours can give you overly salty and mushy chicken.
- You can use this for other chicken pieces, such as breast or thighs, as well as a whole bird. Make sure your meat is fully submerged.
- To ensure your wings crisp up during cooking, be sure to pat them dry after brining and rinsing.
Serving ideas
The sky is truly the limit with wings! They're always a favorite to serve whether you're using them as a main dish or side dish.
We love to serve them with scalloped potatoes and air fryer asparagus, dressed up with a BBQ rub and beans, or served alongside other finger foods including jalapeno poppers and stuffed mushrooms.
More wing recipes
- Air fryer dry rub chicken wings
- Frozen air fryer wings
- Stovetop chicken wings
- Chicken wings dry rub
- Dry rub baked chicken wings recipe
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Easy Chicken Wing Brine
An easy brine for chicken wings whether you're baking wings, air frying, or doing smoked wings. Whether you want to keep it a simple chicken wing brine or add flavors or sweetener, we'll teach you all that you need to know!
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- ½ cup coarse kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- fresh herbs - parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage
- 6 small garlic cloves
Instructions
- Put the water, kosher salt, black peppercorns, garlic cloves, and fresh herbs in a large pot. Turn the burner to medium heat, add the lid to the pot, and bring the mix to a simmer.
- Once the liquid is heated, cook it for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the mix from the burner.
- Let the chicken wing brine cool completely.
- Once the brine is cooled, add the wings to the pot. You'll want the chicken wings to be completely covered with water.
- Cover the pot and add the chicken wing brine to the fridge for 1-2 hours.
- Remove the wings from the brine and rinse the chicken with cold water. Pat them dry with paper towels.
- The brined wings are now ready to use alongside your favorite wings recipe.
Notes
To make a quick and easy brine, just use water and coarse kosher salt or coarse sea salt. The purpose of brining is to tenderize the meat and make it more juicy and flavorful, simple salt water accomplishes that.
Morton's table salt is NOT the same as kosher salt or sea salt, table salt is much stronger and not recommended as a substitute for brining.
As an optional step, 1 cup of brown sugar or sweetener can be added to the brine.
Making lemon chicken? feel free to add lemon slices to your brine to infuse even more of a lemony flavor.
The chicken brine recipe works for whole chicken wings or trimmed wing sections. You can also use the exact same recipe for other types of chicken pieces.
Double or triple the brine as needed if you want to brine something like a whole chicken.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 8Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 7084mgCarbohydrates 1gNet Carbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 0g
Ann says
This brine has way too much salt in it. I strongly suggest the salt amount be cut in half.
I followed this recipe to the letter and we had to through the wings in the trash because they were like eating pure salt.
John Sparks says
Have you ever added Buffalo wing sauce or hot sauce to the brine? If so, how much please.