How to Season, Brine, and Marinate Meat for Backyard BBQs: Overnight & Quick Prep Tips

Whether you're planning ahead or just remembered your in-laws are pulling up in two hours, knowing how to prep your protein is the key to unlocking juicy, flavorful, Backyard Certified results.

 

From overnight marinades to lightning-fast vacuum-sealed flavor infusions, we’ve got the game plan for backyard BBQ success laid out for you below.

First Things First: Why Season or Marinade at All?

Prepping your protein ahead of time — whether by dry brine, wet brine, or marinade — s about more than just flavor. It can help:

• Tenderize tougher cuts (key for feeding bigger groups on a budget)

• Lock in moisture

• Deliver bold flavor all the way through, so there's seasoning on more than just the top layer or skin

• Build that craveable crust or bark when grilled or smoked

Now let’s get into the methods.

What’s the Difference? Dry Brine, Wet Brine & Marinades Explained

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly the difference is between all these prep methods, you’re not alone. Here’s the breakdown:

 

Dry Brine

Dry brining is simply seasoning your protein with salt (and a little bit of Station 1923), then letting it rest — usually uncovered in the fridge. The salt pulls moisture from the surface, then the meat reabsorbs it, taking the flavor deeper and improving texture.

 

Benefits:

• Deep flavor without extra liquid; no need for a big tub

• Helps develop crispy skin or crust

• Great for poultry, pork, and even steak (we dry brine our spatchcocked whole turkey for Thanksgiving)

Dry brine is our preferred method for whole birds that need flavor far beyond the skin like chicken and turkey. We're also a fan of dry brining turkey parts like wings and necks (especially if you want to smoke and use them for dishes like greens and red beans).

Wet Brine

Wet brining is like giving your protein a spa day—submerging it in a salty, seasoned water solution for several hours. The meat soaks in moisture and flavor, which helps it stay juicy, especially during longer cooks.

 

Benefits:

• Juicier results, especially for lean or large cuts

• Good for whole poultry, pork chops, and seafood

 

Admittedly, we're not fans of the wet brine around these parts — it's messy, takes up a lot of room in the fridge, can leave meats mushy, and makes it more difficult to achieve tight, crispy skin.

 

Marinade

A marinade is a flavor-packed blend of oil, acid (like citrus juice or vinegar), herbs, and seasonings used to coat your protein and infuse it with taste. Marinades may help tenderize depending on the ingredients, but their main job is to layer flavor.

Benefits:

• Boosts flavor

• Works well on a variety of protein types - from boneless skinless chicken (like these with mezcal and pineapple juice) to beef cuts (like carne asada)

• Easy to experiment with — switch out lemon and lime for something else (we used blood orange juice in this chicken skewer recipe), add a splash of alcohol, or even give yogurt a try!

 

Now that we've covered the difference, let's sort out which one is best — and that all depends on how much time you've got!

Overnight Prep: For the Planners

When you’ve got the time, overnight prep gives you the deepest flavor and best texture. We purposefully left wet brines out, because that's not our jam. We only want to make recommendations based on what we know, have learned, and use regularly in our own kitchen.

Dry Brines

When you've got the time, an overnight dry brine works best — giving salt and seasonings ample time to penetrate through the skin and protein. As mentioned previously, we love a good dry brine on whole chicken, whole turkey, turkey wings, turkey and turkey necks.

 

We even love dry brine on thicker cuts of pork, beef, lamb, and super lean cuts like venison.

 

How to Dry Brine

For every 3 pounds of meat, we use a 1:1 ratio of flakey sea salt (it's less salty by volume) and Station 1923 seasoning. If using a zero sugar blend like Black People Spaghetti, we add 1/2 a tablespoon of sugar. 

 

Combine everything in a small bowl, and use a whisk or fork to mix.

 

To clean and prepped meat, sprinkle it generously on all sides and under skin if applicable. Since you're working with flakey salt, press it into the meat and skin.

 

Place on a rack over a baking sheet or tray, or in a shallow dish uncovered in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf (for food safety reasons). If exposed meat in the fridge makes you  uncomfortable, loosely tent it with saran wrap or foil, but leave room for airflow.

 

The next day, lightly rinse and pat dry well to to remove excess salt and seasoning. Proceed to season with a light hand before cooking.

Marinades

Marinades are also a perfect contender for overnight flavor development, giving acids ample time to tenderize, while seasonings and herbs penetrate the protein to deliver flavor with every bite.

How to Make a Marinade

At a base level, a marinade consists of three parts: oil, acid, and seasonings. While ratios may vary by recipe, starting out with a 1/4 cup of oil, 2-3 tablespoons of acid of choice (lemon juice, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, wine, or even pineapple juice), and 2-3 tablespoons of your favorite Station 1923 blend is a good baseline. 

 

From there, you can adjust to add more seasonings (or other enhancers like a shot of alcohol, or soy sauce), fresh herbs, and aromatics like onion, garlic, and bell pepper. 

 

Backyard Certified Note: Use caution when using acids in overnight marinades. Juices like pineapple with tons of enzymes can make certain protein turn mushy if left overnight. Read more about the benefits — and cautions — of pineapple juice here.

 

Overnight Seasoning

Some proteins don't need the heavy lift of a dry brine or marinade overnight to get the job done — you can just season and let them sit.

 

Overnight seasoning works especially well for thinner, bone-in cuts of meat like ribs, and smaller bone-in pieces like chicken wings and legs.

Overnight seasoning is pretty straightforward — to your clean and prepped protein add a binder (like mustard for ribs) and/or high smoke point oil of choice (we go with avocado or high smoke point olive oil), and your seasoning of choice.

 

We never smoke a slab of ribs without rubbing them down the night before in Brown Sugar Smoke or Honey Smoke.

Short on Time? Let’s Accelerate That Flavor.

If you’ve only got an hour or two, don’t panic — your vacuum sealer is your new MVP.

Can You Really Marinate in Just 1–1.5 Hours?

Yes — if you use vacuum sealing. Vacuum-sealing removes air, forcing the marinade or dry brine deep into the protein quickly. You can get comparable results in a fraction of the time. It works best for thinner cuts like chicken breasts, thighs, and skirt steak, but we've used it successfully on thicker-skinned proteins like turkey wings.

 

How to Vacuum Seal for Fast, Flavorful Results

Follow your chosen dry brine or marinade recipe, add everything to a vacuum, sealing bag, and seal 'em on up!

 

Dry brines should have little to no issue vacuuming and sealing; marinades can get tricky due to the liquid contents. To avoid seal failure and having all your marinade sucked out, remember two things: one, use less marinade. You only need enough to cover the meat.

 

Two, after adding your meat and marinade, hang the bag vertically over the edge of the countertop, creating a cliff where the opening is the only thing on top of the counter and feeding into the vacuum sealer. 

What About Seafood?

For us, seafood is always best hit with your favorite Station 1923 blend just before cooking. But, there are a few exceptions we make every once in a while:

• A little bit of baking soda goes a long way to keep shrimp "snappy". Sprinkle on 1/4 teaspoon per pound, 15 minutes before grilling so they don't dry out as easily. Read more about that here.

• Heartier fish like salmon can take a marinade well, as long as its not too acidic and left soaking for too long. 10-15 minutes in your marinade of choice is plenty. Remember — citrus will cook fish (hello, ceviche)!
  

• The season + vacuum seal method works on fish, because it forces the moisture to be reabsorbed — but be mindful of time. Lean, delicate fish (like cod, tilapia, flounder) should be seasoned and vacuum sealed for no more than 30 minutes. Heartier fish like salmon and trout, 1 hour, tops. Any longer than that, and you run the risk of curing and cooking the fish.

 

Flavor Fam, we covered a lot of ground in this post. But if you're hungry for more, be sure to join the Station 1923 Backyard Certified Community! We're dropping exclusive gems, promos, and more to get you cookout ready!

 

Plus, you'll get a copy of this guide FREE!