Feed The Resistance: Dry January, Week 4 – Hop Water-Brined Chicken!

Dry January rolls on!  Once again this week, we’re not just drinking non-alcoholic, but also cooking with it.  About a year ago, we were introduced to a Hard Kombucha, which I turned into a great brine for chicken.  For this dish, I used the same basic idea, but instead of the Hard Kombucha, I brined the chicken in a mixture of Hop Water, Brown Sugar, Salt and Lemon Juice.  When I brined the chicken in Kombucha, the skin turned out nice and crispy, and the meat was really good & juicy!  This worked exactly the same way!  Since the first time that I made the kombucha-brined chicken, I have made that same dish several other times, but using different flavors of kombucha – each  adding a really unique flavor to the meat.  For the hop water-brined chicken, I used an unflavored hop water – but in the future, I want to try some of the flavored hop waters, and hop teas, to see if I get a similar result.

Obviously, to pair with the Hop Water-Brined Chicken, we drank straight up Lagunitas Hop Water.