Brief buttermilk brine brings bold flavor to weeknight chicken breasts
Marinating poultry in buttermilk is a tried-and-true technique for making fried chicken, but using it on a whole bird not destined for the deep fryer was popularized by bestselling cookbook author Samin Nosrat in her book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” (Simon and Schuster, 2017). Her method is simple: let a whole chicken sit in a mixture of buttermilk and lots of salt overnight before roasting. The salt and the acid in the brine tenderize the meat and the sugars in the buttermilk help to create a deeply browned skin.
For those without the luxury of extra time, we can adapt Nosrat’s technique to make a fast, flavorful weeknight chicken dinner. Use small boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of a whole bird and amplify the brine’s flavor with a heavy dose of garlic powder. A 10-minute rest in the marinade is enough to flavor and tenderize the chicken, and a relatively quick pan-fry deeply browns the exterior while the chicken cooks through.
To build on the buttermilk theme, reserve some of the marinade (before adding the chicken) to use as the base of a ranch-like sauce. Add a scoop of sour cream and a flurry of soft green herbs (parsley or dill work equally well) to drizzle over or under the chicken at serving time.
Buttermilk Chicken Breasts
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 (6-ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, dill or other soft green herb, plus more for serving
- Make the marinade: whisk together the buttermilk, salt, garlic powder and pepper in a large bowl. Measure out 1/2 cup of the mixture and reserve it in a medium bowl.
- Add the chicken to the marinade in the large bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. While the oil is heating, remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry. Discard the marinade. When the oil is shimmering, add the chicken and cook until well-browned with an internal temperature of 165 degrees, about 6 to 8 minutes per side. Adjust the heat as needed to prevent burning.
- Meanwhile, add the sour cream and parsley to the reserved buttermilk mixture in the medium bowl. Whisk until smooth.
- Serve the chicken with the sour cream sauce and additional parsley for garnish.
Serves 4.
Per serving: 359 calories (percent of calories from fat, 46), 41 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams total sugars, 1 gram fiber, 18 grams total fat (6 grams saturated), 145 milligrams cholesterol, 1,630 milligrams sodium.
