Greek Recipes
Grilled Feta Brine Chicken
Prep
5 minutes
Cook
20 minutes
Yield
4 -6
This super simple 5-ingredient brine uses up your feta brine, while making delicious, juicy chicken thighs for grilling or cooking.
This recipe is a super easy way to marinate your chicken for the grill this summer and avoid food waste. Use up your feta brine in an eco-friendly way by using it in a brine for this juicy, easy Feta Brine Chicken. Pair this chicken with your favorite grilled veggies or summer salad for a well-rounded, easy meal on those sunny summer nights that you’d rather spend outside than in the kitchen.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Feta Brine Chicken
- Easy: With a few easy ingredients you probably have in your fridge already, you can have a similar marinade for your chicken ready in no time.
- BBQ-Friendly: Throw these chicken thighs onto the grill for an easy summer meal but don’t worry, you can bake these in the oven or in a pan if you don’t have a BBQ.
- Healthy: This chicken is protein-packed and healthy. Pair it with veggies and you have a healthy, well-rounded meal.
🍲 Ingredients
Chicken Thighs – Chicken thighs are flavorful and budget-friendly. What’s great with chicken thighs is that they stay juicy when you cook them, even if you cook them for hours in the slow cooker due to the higher fat content.
Feta Brine – The brine that comes in a container with feta is a salty solution that helps store and age feta cheese. This brine is essential for keeping the cheese moist and flavorful. The sad part is, once your cheese is done, this hardworking brine just gets tossed down the sink. This recipe is a great way to use it and not let it go to waste!
👩🍳 How to Make Feta Brine Chicken
- To a baking dish or glass bowl add the feta brine, olive oil, pressed garlic and ground pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Add the boneless skinless chicken thighs and toss to coat. Let sit on the counter for 30 minutes or marinate 4 hours to overnight in the fridge, covered.
- Once marinated, remove the chicken from the marinade and place on a plate. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
- Heat the grill to medium-high heat, about 400-425F.
- Oil the grill well and when heated, place the chicken thighs on the grill and cook, turning every 5 minutes, for about 12-15 minutes or until cooked through (internal temperature reached 165F) and well browned.
- Remove from the grill and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
🗒 Tips and Tricks
- Save Your Brine: The most common and eco-friendly way is to save the liquid from your store-bought feta containers. As you finish a block of feta, simply pour the brine into a jar and keep it in the fridge. It can last a long time due to its salt content.
- Enhance Your Marinade: The brine will add saltiness so you won’t need to add any more salt to your marinade, but you can jazz it up and balance it out by adding herbs, and garlic.
- Cooking: You can skewer this meat on kebabs, BBQ it, bake it, or pan-fry it. It works in so many ways.
🗒 Variations
If you like this chicken marinade, you’ll love some of these other variations:
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Leftover Feta Brine Chicken is so versatile. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container and use it on tacos, bowls, or salads for a protein-boost.
🤔 Common Questions
Feta brine is the salty, tangy liquid that feta cheese is packed in. What makes it great to marinate chicken in is that the salt helps the chicken retain moisture, making it extra juicy when its cooked. It also adds a nice feta flavor to your meat.
Absolutely not! You can use chicken breasts or other cuts of meat like drumsticks work great with this brine marinade.
No, do not rinse the chicken. Rinsing will wash away the flavorful brine!
Grilled Feta Brine Chicken
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (900 grams) boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup brine from a container of feta (from a 250-300gram container of feta cheese in brine)
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves pressed
- ½ tsp ground pepper
Instructions
- To a baking dish or glass bowl add the feta brine, olive oil, pressed garlic and ground pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Add the boneless skinless chicken thighs and toss to coat. Let sit on the counter for 30 minutes or marinate 4 hours to overnight in the fridge, covered.
- Once marinated, remove the chicken from the marinade and place on a plate. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
- Heat the grill to medium-high heat, about 400-425F.
- Oil the grill well and when heated, place the chicken thighs on the grill and cook, turning every 5 minutes, for about 12-15 minutes or until cooked through (internal temperature reached 165F) and well browned.
- Remove from the grill and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- This is the perfect recipe for grilling season!
- Pair with our Maroulosalata aka my Mama’s Salad, Greek Tzatziki Sauce and Fluffy Greek Pita Bread Recipe for a delicious meal.
