Arnold Palmer Brined Chicken (Sweet Tea and Lemonade)

Arnold Palmer Brined Chicken Recipe – Sweet Tea and Lemonade – chicken marinated overnight in tea, lemonade, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Super easy to make and has tons of great flavor! Can cook the chicken on the grill or indoors on the stove and oven. Great for all of your summer cookouts, potlucks, and picnics. This is a new family favorite!

Originally posted April 6, 2016

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Sweet Tea Brined Chicken

This Arnold Palmer Brined Chicken (Sweet Tea and Lemonade) is a new favorite at our house. This recipe is super easy to make and is packed full of flavor! Chicken marinated overnight in tea, lemonade, onions, garlic, and rosemary. OMG! SO good! We always make a double batch so we can have leftovers. It is crazy delicious! Leftovers are great chopped up on top of a salad or in a sandwich wrap. YUM! Give this recipe a try the next time you fire up the grill!

What is an Arnold Palmer?

An Arnold Palmer drink is half tea half lemonade. Per Wikipedia, Palmer “was in the habit of drinking iced tea with lemonade at home, and in 1960 at the U.S. Open at the Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, he ordered the non-alcoholic drink at the bar. A woman sitting nearby overheard him, and ordered “that Palmer drink”, thus giving the beverage its name.”

grilled chicken in a cast iron grill pan

How to Make Arnold Palmer Brined Chicken

This chicken is super easy to make with only a few simple ingredients. In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add tea bags and remove from heat. Cover the pot and let the tea steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. Stir in lemonade concentrate, kosher salt, sliced onion, garlic cloves, fresh rosemary sprigs, and black pepper. Heat on medium-high heat until the salt dissolves. Remove from heat at cool completely. Stir in ice cubes.

Place chicken in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag. Pour tea mixture over the chicken and seal. Place bag in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

When ready to grill, remove the chicken from the brine. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and cook on the grill or in the oven. Garnish the chicken with fresh lemons and rosemary.

Helpful Tips & Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why Brine Chicken? Brining chicken ensures your chicken will be tender, juicy and packed full of flavor. I mean, nobody likes dry flavorless chicken! 
  • You can use this marinade on any cut of chicken – breasts, tenders, thighs, wings, or drumsticks/legs. This brine is equally delicious on turkeys.
  • You can use boneless or bone-in chicken. Cook until a meat thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165ºF.
  • I suggest pounding the chicken breast to an even thickness. We put the chicken in a ziplock bag and use a flat meat mallet to carefully pound out the hump. This ensures that the chicken cooks evenly and you don’t have juicy chicken and half-dry chicken.
  • I don’t have a grill. Can I cook the chicken breasts in the oven or skillet? Yes! To cook the chicken breasts inside, pan-sear it for 3 to 4 minutes per side. Place on a rimmed baking sheet or baking dish. Bake at 400ºF for 10 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF.
  • Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
plate of grilled chicken

What to Serve with Grilled Chicken

We ate this juicy chicken for lunch and had the leftover for dinner and for lunch during the week. It has tons of great flavor and it is a little tangy from the lemonade. We serve this with our favorite potato casserole and some green beans. This is definitely a new favorite!

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plate of grilled chicken with text overlay

Arnold Palmer Chicken

Yield: 6 people
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes
Arnold Palmer Chicken Recipe – Sweet Tea and Lemonade Brined Chicken – chicken marinated overnight in tea, lemonade, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Super easy to make and has tons of great flavor! Can cook the chicken on the grill or indoors on the stove and oven. Great for all of your summer cookouts, potlucks, and picnics. This is a new family favorite!

Ingredients:

  • 6 tea bags
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 cup thawed frozen lemonade concentrate
  • ¼ cup kosher salt
  • 1 small sweet onion thinly sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
  • 1 Tbsp freshly cracked pepper
  • 2 cups ice cubes
  • 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness

Instructions:

  • Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a saucepan; add tea bags. Remove from heat; cover and steep 10 minutes.
  • Discard tea bags. Stir in lemonade, salt, onion, garlic, rosemary and pepper. Heat over medium heat just until the salt dissolves.
  • Cool completely; stir in ice.
  • Place tea mixture and chicken in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag; seal. Refrigerate up to 24 hours.
  • Remove chicken from marinade, and grill until done, approximately 10 minutes.

Steph

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Comments

    1. You can make this any way you want. I’ve only made this as written, so I can not say how it will taste as the canned drink is not the same as what is in the recipe.

  1. Steph, since I'm on a Masters role; How do you have 125 acres of grass and not one weed? My wife and I spent 3 days in 2010 looking for one weed. Nope! The Azaleas always bloom just right for the Masters? If they are slow to flower they put hot compost around them to speed them up. If they look like they will bloom to early, they pack ice bags around them.

  2. Now if you can just tell me where to get those dark green napkins they give you with your food. You won't find a white napkin at the Masters. If you drop a green napkin on the grass at the Masters nobody sees it. Those guys never miss a trick.

    1. I'm not familiar with that mix. You want to use plain unsweetened tea since you are adding lemonade concentrate and it has the lemon and sugar in it.

  3. This chicken is amazing. I made it the other night and could not believe how great it was. I've shared the recipe with all of my friends!

  4. Thank you for the Master's theme recipes. We are making this chicken this weekend! So excited to watch some golf!

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