Late Night Coffee BrinedChicken

"Early in the week, I knew I wanted to combine coffee and orange. Yesterday, after sitting in my fridge defrosting for a day and a half, my whole chicken whispered to me "it's now or never." Since it was Wednesday, I did not have time for an overnight brine, so turned to Michael Ruhlman's quick brine. Substituting hot, freshly brewed coffee for water, I added cloves, star anise, whole black pepper and fresh oranges to the brine. Okay, brine finished, now how to proceed? A while back, I adapted Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk recipe and remembered how incredibly tender the finished chicken turned out. This time, with the coffee brine, cooking the chicken in milk seemed to make sense, and just to round out the coffee-milk pair, I rubbed the brined chicken in brown sugar before browning in a little butter. I was curious to see how it would turn out, and frankly a little nervous. When I took the chicken out at midnight, after an hour and forty minutes, the chicken was dark, splitting and sitting in a pool of rich sauce. Although not the prettiest bird I’ve ever seen to come forth from the oven, it was rich and flavorful, extremely tender (falling off the bone!) with sweet and smoky undertones. - gingerroot..."