Brined & Roasted Chicken Breast

This is something new I just tried about a month ago. Every few weeks Meijer has been running their split(bone in, skin on) Chicken Breasts on sale for 99 cents a pound. So I bought some and tried a couple different things with it. With grocery prices rising and kids eating more and then the talk of an economic collapse in the future, I figure we can start learning now to survive on less. Yes, depressing I know, but it's better to be prepared, just in case :)

Making your brine. The brine makes the chicken super moist. I never thought I could make chicken as moist & tender as this turns out. You need to do this ahead of time. I put my chicken in the brine overnite, but it needs at least 12 hours to soak.

Step 1: Boil 4 cups of water.

Step 2: Stir in 1/4 cup of kosher salt. (I just used the sea salt I had for my grinder) Once the salt is dissolved, add about 12 peppercorns and 2 cloves of smashed garlic. Now remove it from the heat and let it cool.

Step 3: Once your brine is cooled Pour it over your chicken in a large bag. Put your bag in a bowl or dish first, cause it could leak. Mine has leaked everytime I have made it, it's alot of weight in that bag. Now just stick it in the fridge.

Step 4: The next day take your chicken out of the bag. Discard your brine. I put my chicken breast on a rack on top of a cookie sheet. Then I rubbed some olive oil over the top and sprinkled some chicken something(montreal????) spice on it that I had. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 mins to an hour. Use a thermometer to check temps. It should be 170 in the center.
And of course I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! But it is really good. We like to dip it in a little bbq.

Another idea for the cheap split chicken breasts that I tried, was to cook them on low in your crockpot and then shread the meat. Use it for whatever you like. I did chicken quesadillas with mine. And also some buffalo chicken wraps. There's lots of things you could do with it, and for 1/2 the price of boneless skinless chicken breasts. You can cut the meat off the bone yourself and then you will have the same thing, but I'm too lazy for now :)