Crispy Tea-brined Chicken

Skin-on, boneless chicken legs marinated in a brine of freshly brewed tea seasoned with rosemary and pan seared to perfection. Serve with a nutritious gluten-free buckwheat salad.
You need to brine the chicken for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, for the flavor to come through, or up to 24 hours. The aromatic salty-sweet brine pulls its flavors into the meat and tenderizes it before you begin cooking, you'll never eat dry chicken again with this method. This recipe used Darjeeling tea, but other black tea, like Early Grey, Lapsang souchong or Celyon black tea are great too.

15 g Black tea leaves (or 8 teabags)
500 ml Water
20 g Sea salt
30 g Honey
1 Rosemary sprig
½ Lemon, sliced
4 Chicken legs, boneless and skin-on
Freshly milled black pepper
Chicken schmaltz, to cook
Fresh herb, chopped
Buchwheat salad, to serve

Measure the tea leaves and place them in a large paper tea filter, then secure it with a piece of kitchen string or twine.
To make the brine, pour the water into a small saucepan, add the salt and bring to the boil and stir to dissolve.
Take off the heat and add the tea bag. Let them steep for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Squeeze the teabags and discard. Stir in honey, rosemary sprigs, lemon slices. Set aside the brine to cooled completely.
Add the chicken to the brine for a minimum of 2 hours or up to 24 hours, covered, in the fridge. Remove the chicken from the brine and pat them really dry with kitchen paper. Discard the brine. Season the chicken lightly with freshly milled black pepper.
Put a little chicken schmaltz into a large cold frying pan and add the chicken, skin side down. Turn the heat on to high and put another heavy pan ontop of the chicken, to weight it down. Cook for 5 minutes until the fat has rendered out and the chicken skin is crisp. Remove the top pan, turn the heat down, flip the chicken over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Garnish with chopped fresh herb and serve with the buckwheat salad.