Making a Brine for Chicken Wings is one of the simplest and most rewarding things we can do, to make our fair feathered friends a little juicier. It’s no lie that chicken can get a little dried out, especially chicken wings. Brining Chicken Wings will not only ensure moisture in the meat itself but will also provide additional flavor.

Brined Chicken Wings ready to be cooked.

To Brine or not to Brine – that is the question. Well, here’s the answer – Brine! Most chicken bought at a supermarket comes with no guarantee that the finished cooked product will be juicy and flavorful. Chicken is a very lean meat, with little fat content, making it prone to drying out when cooked. Brining poultry retains juiciness and gives Chicken Wings a little flavor boost. It takes minutes to prepare and is oh so worth it!

This recipe is for a wet Brine. Use a dry Brine instead if preferred. I find a wet brine yields better results for smaller cuts of chicken such as Chicken Wings.

Ingredients

Chicken Wings: Use either fresh or defrosted Chicken Wings. They are usually sold in a bulk packages at the supermarket, with an average of 9 complete wings in a package.

Sugar: regular granulated white sugar. This helps brown the skin of the Chicken Wings.

Salt: Weigh the salt. I will repeat. Weigh the salt. Different salts have different weights. If you are prone to use the American ‘cup’ measurement, set aside your measuring cup just this once. If you take a cup of table salt and a cup of kosher salt, (looks like the same quantity,) then weigh them, the table salt will weigh almost twice as much as then Kosher. This is because the 2 salts have different crystal sizes. I used Kosher salt.

Granulated garlic: for flavor.

Water: 2 pints cold, 8 oz hot and about 8 oz of ice.

More About Brining

How do you know how much brining liquid you will need. Simply choose the bowl or container the Chicken Wings will be brined in, add the Chicken Wings, add enough water to submerge them. From this amount of water, subtract the amount needed for hot water and ice.

So, for example, if you need about 5 pints of water to submerge the quantity of Chicken Wings you are using, then remove 1 pint of water. Hot water (½ pint) and ice cubes (8 cubes or ½ pint) will replace the pint that was removed.

Use this Brining Chart to assist with quantities of sugar and water needed according to the type of salt used.

Type of Salt	Amount of Salt	Sugar	Hot Water	Ice Cubes	Cold Water	Total Water
Table Salt	2½ oz	4 oz	½ pint	8 (½ pint)	4 pints	5 pints
	4 oz	6½ oz	1 pint	16 (1 pint)	6 pints	1 gallon
	6 oz	9¾ oz	1½ pint	24 (1½ pint)	9 pints	1½ gallon
Himalayan Salt	3¾ oz	4 oz	½ pint	8 (½ pint)	4 pints	5 pints
	6 oz	6½ oz	1 pint	16 (1 pint)	6 pints	1 gallon
	9 oz	9¾ oz	1½ pint	24 (1½ pint)	9 pints	1½ gallon
Kosher Salt	4 oz	4 oz	½ pint	8 (½ pint)	4 pints	5 pints
	6½ oz	6½ oz	1 pint	16 (1 pint)	6 pints	1 gallon
	9¾ oz	9¾ oz	1½ pint	24 (1½ pint)	9 pints	1½ gallon
Celtic Sea Salt	3½ oz	4 oz	½ pint	8 (½ pint)	4 pints	5 pints
	5½ oz	6½ oz	1 pint	16 (1 pint)	6 pints	1 gallon
	8¼ oz	9¾ oz	1½ pint	24 (1½ pint)	9 pints	1½ gallon

Brining Chart for Poultry,

Instructions

A Chicken Wing comes in 3 parts – a wingette, a drumette, and wingtip. Cut off the wingtip. It has really no meat.

To cut off the wingtip, first pick the wing up, then force the joint to dislocate the bone out of its socket. After that cut the tendons and skin. Avoid cutting the bone and creating bone chards.

Separate the drumette from the wingette by cutting them. Dislocate the joint to make cutting easier.

The wingtip is not used, save it for stock. Put it in a freezer bag, label it and pop it in the freezer.

In a bowl, or tub, put the dry ingredients. Add hot water and mix. The hot water will help dissolve the sugar and salt.

Add ice to cool the water to lower the water temperature.

Add cold water to complete the cooling of the brine. Stir well.

Add the drumettes and wingettes to the brine. Submerge and cover them with plastic wrap. Put in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours. Any longer and they will be too salty. Drain off and discard the Brine. Before cooking the Chicken Wings, pat them dry first.

Flexibility

Any type of salt can be used. I wouldn’t use your best sea salt for this, regular table salt is just fine. The brine is getting thrown away afterward, so think about that when choosing your salt.

Same goes for sugar. You can use any kind of natural sugar, regular granulated sugar is the cheapest, so that is a good choice.

Instead of using water, you can use beer. My recommendation is to save the beer and drink it with the wings when they’re cooked! If you have expired beer (what is that?) then using it in brine is a good alternative. If using beer, be sure to only substitute the cold water quantity with beer and keep the hot water and ice in the recipe.

Garlic powder does not need to be added for this Brine to be successful. I believe Chicken Wings fall into 3 categories:

BBQ wings.
Asian wings.
Buffalo or similar flavored wings.

Garlic Powder works well in the Brine with all of these flavor profiles. Feel free to omit it.

I have intentionally kept this Brine recipe simple with minimal ingredients. Adding more ingredients to a Brine turns it into more of a marinade.

Uses for Brine for Chicken Wings

This Brine recipe is for Chicken Wings. Chicken Wings are a small cut of poultry and can dry out easily, brining them helps make them tender and juicy. This Brine recipe can be used for all cuts of chicken and pork.

This Brine is excellent in the making of Hot Honey Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings.

Storage

Store then in a well sealed container, once they have been drained, for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.

Freeze uncooked Brined Chicken Wings for up to 6 months.

Equipment

The only equipment needed for this recipe for Brine for Chicken Wings is a suitable container.

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A Tip From Me

Don’t get carried away adding flavorings to the brine. Keep it simple with adding just garlic powder. Adding soy sauce, ginger, hot sauce, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar can limit the style of Chicken Wings when cooked. Salt, sugar and garlic powder in a Brine provides a lot of possibilities as to how Chicken Wings, other chicken pieces and pork are prepared and cooked.

Got Questions?

I’ve got answers – hopefully!

Can I use soy sauce instead of salt? I would not recommend it, because it might be difficult to get the sodium (salt) content correct. The end result might be very salty tasting chicken. Also soy sauce is more expensive, why spend money on it to throw it away later?
I’m on low sodium diet, can I still brine my Chicken Wings? I am not a doctor, this is really a question for the medical community, but at a pinch I would say no.
Do my Chicken Wings have to be completely defrosted before brining them? No, you can add partially thawed Chicken Wings to the Brine. The usual brining time is between 2-4 hours. I would let the Wings brine for 4-5 hours depending on how frozen they were when placed in the brine.