As a basic brine, this simple recipe worked out great for me. It falls short of five stars only because I did a lot of tweaking to add flavor to the brine mix by adding some aromatics. I will say though, in the last three years I've been coming here for recipes, this is the first one that inspired me enough to make an account and comment.<br/><br/>I rough cut a carrot, celery stalk, three large cloves of garlic, and an onion. A couple of sprigs of fresh thyme (gently tap the sprigs with the back of a solid knife to bruise and bring out more essence) really rounded it out nicely. <br/><br/>I tossed all of that in with a whole cut up chicken and put it in the fridge. It smelled amazing, still cold and uncooked, when I lifted the lid off after only three hours of soaking in the brine. <br/><br/>I rinsed and patted the parts dry, then made a mixture of 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp fresh chopped garlic, 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Baked at 425 for 30-40 minutes. My family absolutely loved it. I've never had chicken breast so tender and juicy. <br/><br/>You can chop two or three russet potatoes, skin on, toss in the same herb and oil mixture (before the chicken) and salt to taste. These can be cooked alongside the chicken and will be done at the same time.
