Black Garlic Brine for Chicken

With my Black Garlic being nearly used up, I wanted to see how it performs in a Chicken brine and found it does beautifully. The Buttermilk and salt making the chicken super juicy and tender, combining this with powdered dried Shiitake Mushrooms gives this Black Garlic Brine a fantastic depth of flavour.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• How to Make This
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

Apart from, of course, the Black Garlic I made a few weeks ago, I found this Buttermilk Brined Roast Chicken recipe, using dried porcini mushrooms in the brine. I knew I wanted to brine the chicken for my Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad, so the combination was perfect.

Summary

Or: Why This Brine Will Ruin Plain Chicken Forever (In the Best Way)

• Black Garlic = Flavour Bomb – Deep, fruity, umami-rich and slightly sweet—black garlic turns your roast chicken into something pretty special.
• Buttermilk Brining is a Game-Changer – Makes the meat super juicy and tender. If you’ve never brined before, welcome to the juicy side. You can’t go back now. Sorry (not sorry).
• Next-Level Umami – Shiitake powder, tamari, black garlic, and lemon come together for a rich, complex, savory flavor explosion that soaks into every bite.
• Tender & Juicy Magic – The combo of lactic acid from buttermilk and salt breaks down the meat just enough to make it incredibly tender.
• Overnight = Effortless Flavour – Throw it all together the night before, and the brine does all the heavy lifting while you sleep. Wake up, pat dry, roast, done.
• Built for Meal Planning – If you’re already planning meals (like a responsible adult or a food-obsessed nerd like me), this fits right in—zero stress, max flavour.

Imparts Incredible Flavor

If you never brined your chicken in buttermilk, you are in for a treat! And unfortunately you can never go back to unbrined chicken. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Buttermilk adds tang and flavor together with the salt. But shiitake powder, lemons and black garlic take it to a whole new level. There is umami from the powdered mushrooms and Tamari sauce, sweetness and fruity notes from black garlic and acidity from the lemons. All you need for a perfectly balanced brine. The fact that it usually sits overnight lets all of that goodness soak deep into the meat.

Tenderizes and Gives You Juicy Chicken

The lactic acid together with the salt starts to break down the proteins in the meat (no worries, your body still gets the protein) and tenderize it in the process, while the salt and spices can penetrate it easier, giving you a thoroughly seasoned and delicious roast.

Lets You Prepare Your Roast The Night Before

Now some might see this as a downside, because it takes a little planning. But frankly, if I go shopping, I have essentially my weekly meals planned out. The brine just takes minutes to assemble and will do a good part of the seasoning for you while you sleep.
The next day all you do is pat your chicken dry and roast it and you are done. Super easy!

The Ingredients

• Buttermilk – Tenderizes the meat with the salt. This is the essential bit
• Kosher salt – Don’t be scared of the lot of salt used for this. The brine won’t be eaten later, but the meat will absorb some of the salt and be perfectly seasoned.
• Brown sugar – Adds balancing sweetness to the brine
• Tamari or soy sauce – For an intense umami hit
• Fresh thyme or rosemary – Because what would roast chicken be without herbs?
• Dried shiitake mushrooms  – ground to a powder in your spice grinder *. That way they can deeply penetrate the meat. You could also use dried porcini mushrooms.
• Back garlic cloves  – Mashed with a fork, so they can impart their intensely fruity-sweet umami flavor into the chicken
• Fresh garlic cloves –  Smashed. A bit of a supporting actor in this case, but give some punchy flavor.
• Lemon –  washed, zest grated. Rest sliced. Adds more acidity and an addictive lemony aroma to the brine

I knew from my Black Garlic Mushroom Salad  how well the above work together with their deep umami flavours, while blending beautifully with the Black Garlic Butter, I pushed under the skin of my chicken before roasting.

Equipment Used

Measuring Cups

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zester

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bowl

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chopping board

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knife

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Saucepan

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*

How to Make this

• In a medium saucepan *, combine 2 cups of water, brown sugar, kosher salt, tamari or soy sauce, thyme, fresh garlic, and the ground shiitake mushroom powder. Place the saucepan * over medium heat and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove the saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly.
• In a large bowl *, combine the remaining 2 cups of water and buttermilk. Pour the cooled mixture from the saucepan into the buttermilk-water mixture.
• Add the black garlic mash, lemon zest and lemon slices to the brine mixture.
• Stir the brine thoroughly to ensure all the ingredients are well combined.
• Place the chicken pieces (such as chicken breasts, thighs, or a whole chicken) in a large resealable plastic bag or a container suitable for brining.
• Pour the brine mixture over the chicken in the bag or container, making sure the chicken is fully submerged. If needed, add more water to cover the chicken entirely. Do not spill half the brine, because your container is too small. Don’t be like me.
• Seal the bag tightly or cover the container with a lid, and place it in the refrigerator to brine. The brining process generally takes 4 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the chicken pieces or the whole chicken. I usually leave it until the next day when I want dinner. Just make sure to not leave it any longer.

How to Use

You can just throw some new potatoes into the oven with the chicken, to have them roast alongside (add some lemon wedges, thyme, rosemary, and smashed garlic cloves in their skin too while you are at it) and call it a Sunday roast. Having fantastic leftovers for all kinds of other meals over the week. Or you can go all out with the above-mentioned salad, getting all your veggies in one delicious, colourful bowl *. I know which one I prefer in summer.

The brine can be varied endlessly. You could leave out the dried mushrooms if you have none on hand, and just use fresh garlic instead of the black. It will still be delicious. Just make sure you fill it up with cold water after dissolving the salt and sugar in the pot by briefly boiling it. The heat will also release all the herby and lemony flavours, which is what we want here. But you don’t want to warm up your chicken by placing it in the hot water, hence the 2-step process.

Meal Prep

And there is my chicken ready to go to rest in the fridge, letting the brine do it’s job. Check my Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad recipe for the beautiful results.
I’ve kept this recipe separate, as it can be used in so many ways and isn’t mandatory to the salad. Though highly advised.

While I love being in my kitchen and pottering around, I’m a big fan of preparing whatever I can the day before I make a big meal, like my Black Garlic Roast Chicken Summer Salad. And meal prepping that one too, for the rest of the week. Brining a chicken, the day before roasting plays right into that. It means all I have to do on the day is push some Black Garlic Butter with Lemon under the skin, and I will be rewarded with a perfectly juicy, incredibly well seasoned bird after just 1h in the oven. (Depending on the size of your chicken that is.)

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