A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. This week, we’re wet-brining without the fuss.
By this time each year, you’ve probably heard the word brine in relation to turkey many, many, many times.
So I don’t need to tell you that brining is just another way of saying: seasoning in advance. That this yields more flavorful, moist, tender meat. That you could dry-brine (salt and done) or wet-brine (submerge in a salty liquid). That, more often than not, a laundry list of other ingredients get involved in the name of flavor!, like peppercorns and citrus peels and bay leaves.
We know all this. Just as we know that this Thanksgiving won’t be like other Thanksgivings. And many of us aren’t roasting the usual 18-pounder because our gatherings won’t involve the entire family, but just a few people or two or one.
Which is why we’re not talking about turkey. We’re not breaking out my parents’ infamous turkey-brining bucket—I suspect it was purchased from Staples and intended to be a file box—that lives in the basement, waiting for its shining moment every November. We’re not carefully measuring water and weighing salt and unloading the entire spice cabinet.
Instead, we’re grabbing some skin-on, bone-in, easy-to-please chicken pieces—and opening a jar of olives.
Like sauerkraut, kimchi, dill pickles, and feta, olives come swimming in their own brine. As with the brine you’d carefully mix up for a holiday turkey, it’s super salty and super flavorful. Perhaps, in the past, after the olives were snacked on and long gone, you poured their liquid down the drain. But next time? Make this Big Little Recipe instead.
Wet brines can start with a slew of liquids. Traditionally water. But why not gin? Or coffee? Or pickle liquid? Or feta brine? Or buttermilk?
The benefits here are huge: First, it’s easier. Instead of combining this spice and that herb with hot water and waiting for it to cool, you can rely on an ingredient that’s already fully formed, and likely already in your fridge. Second, it’s flavorful to the nines. Because when you soak a turkey in gin, you capture all those boozy botanicals. And when you soak a chicken in coffee, you perk it up with bitterness and depth. Likewise, olive brine is salty, sure, but it’s also savory and funky and meaty in its own umami way.
We’re using the olives themselves, too. Tossed into the skillet with the chicken pieces, these sizzle in schmaltz, becoming crackly-fried outside, buttery-tender inside. I like purchasing mixed olives, so you get even more flavors and textures and colors, but straight-up kalamatas work great as well.
Throw in some garlicky croutons and a bouquet’s worth of parsley and you have a one-skillet dinner—or Thanksgiving for two, no brining bucket needed.
| 4 | bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs |
| 1/4 | cup drained mixed (or kalamata) pitted olives, brine reserved |
| Kosher salt | |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | |
| 2 | cups torn, bite-size bread chunks |
| 2 | large (or 3 small) garlic cloves, peeled and minced |
| 1/2 | bunch (about 2 1/2 ounces) parsley, leaves plucked and roughly chopped |
| 4 | bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs |
| 1/4 | cup drained mixed (or kalamata) pitted olives, brine reserved |
| Kosher salt | |
| Extra-virgin olive oil |
| 2 | cups torn, bite-size bread chunks |
| 2 | large (or 3 small) garlic cloves, peeled and minced |
| 1/2 | bunch (about 2 1/2 ounces) parsley, leaves plucked and roughly chopped |
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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14 Comments
I usually use Earl Grey but have also used Constant Comment.
Added to the cooled down tea is an equal amount sugar and sea salt.
Then I add bay leaf, garlic, thin-sliced onion, thyme, rosemary, parsley and a few peppercorns.
Brine chicken for 3 or 4 hours.
Can substitute Chinese 5 spice for the green herbs and it gets an Asian feel.
But, I am definitely trying this olive based brine!
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