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Freezing Brined Chicken Breasts

Can you brine boneless chicken breasts, then freeze them for later?

Can you brine boneless chicken breasts, then freeze them for later?

We brine chicken breasts both to season them and to help keep them moist during cooking. While considering your question, we began to ponder which is better: brine first, then freeze, or freeze first, then brine? To see, we brined, froze for two weeks, defrosted, and then cooked several boneless chicken breasts. We compared them with breasts we froze plain for the same two weeks, defrosted, and then brined and cooked. We pitted both of these frozen versions against chicken breasts that we freshly brined and cooked.

The result? There were slight textural differences, but all three were moist and juicy, and we’d happily use any in our cooking.

THE BOTTOM LINE  Go for it—brine and freeze. Or freeze, then brine.

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