Brining a turkey makes a beautiful and juicy turkey and delicious gravy. Once you’ve brined a turkey, it will be your “go-to” method for roasting a Thanksgiving turkey. This Herbed Brine Recipe is easy and delicious…
How to Brine a Turkey
Brining a turkey gives such a beautiful color to the outside of the roasted turkey.
When you brine a turkey, you are basically giving the turkey a salt bath. The saltwater pulls water into the meat and locks the moisture into the turkey creating a delicious and moist turkey – every time.
How Long Should You Brine a Turkey For?
- Overnight – which would be several hours, up to 24 hours before roasting your turkey.
Should you Brine Turkey?
- Brining a turkey is really giving a turkey a saltwater bath. The turkey pulls in water from the brine and the salt breaks down some muscle proteins so the turkey will retain more moisture while cooking.
Can I Use Table Salt While Brining a Turkey?
- If you are using table salt in place of sea salt or kosher salt, use less of it. Table salt is broken down into a super fine crystals, so you will get more salt crystals out of a tsp. of table salt than you would a large piece of Kosher salt
Will my Brined Turkey be too Salty?
- It is very important to rinse the turkey from the brine mixture. You do not want your turkey to be too salty.
So…How Do You Brine a Turkey?
- Mix water, herbs, spices, and salt into a large pot
- Boil and mix until the salt is dissolved
- Add cold water to the mixture and let the water cool off
- Using a large roasting pan to hold the turkey and a large oven bag to hold the turkey and water mixture
- Pour the brine over the turkey that has been placed into the bag
- Seal the bag and place the turkey into the refrigerator for several hours
- Rinse the brine off in cold water
- Roast as directed
Here are my top Amazon Picks for Brining a Turkey…
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How To Brine A Turkey – An Herbed Brine Recipe
An herbed brine for a juicy and delicious turkey – every time
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 Quarts of water
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1&1/2 cups of salt
- 1/2 cup of fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup of fresh rosemary
- Bay leaves – a small handful
- 4 tsp. dry mustard
- 4 tsp. garlic powder
- 4 tsp. ground (cayenne) red pepper
- 4 tsp. whole peppercorn
- 4 Quarts of cold water
- Turkey oven roasting bag
- Turkey
- Aluminum Disposable Roasting Pan
Instructions
- In a large stock pot…add the first 10 ingredients
- Bring to a boil, and stir to dissolve the salt & sugar
- Add 4 more quarts of cold water to the brine – this will cool it off for you (you don’t want to cook your turkey in a hot bath of water)
- Let the water mixture cool off until it is cool to the touch – let it cool for about 20 minutes
- Transfer your brine to whatever you’ll use to pour the brine with
- *I used a nice big bowl with a spout to transfer the brine into the roasting bag. A pitcher would have worked well, also
- Take out any gizzards and neck from the turkey cavities
- Place your turkey inside the roasting bag, and place the bagged turkey it in the disposable roasting pan.
- *I find the pan to be very helpful in catching splashed water, and a great container for rinsing the turkey
- Seal the bag, and place the turkey – still in the disposable container – into the refrigerator
- You will want to let the turkey marinate in the brine for several hours, or overnight – up to 24 hours
- Occasionally flip the bird over so everything is exposed to the brine
- When you are ready to cook the turkey empty the bag of juices, and thoroughly rinse the turkey – inside, and out – I know, it seams odd to rinse off all of the spices, and seasonings, but you’ll want to really give it a thorough rinsing. Trust me…you don’t want a bird that’s too salty
- Pat it dry, and place it in your roasting pan…breast side up
- Rub olive oil all over the turkey – top, and bottom
- You can shake a little ground pepper over the turkey for some added flavor
- Roast it according to this turkey cooking chart
- Or, if you are using a printable, make sure your turkey is registering 165 degrees when your thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the breast or thigh
- Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
- Find the original recipe and so much more at Taste of Home
~ Melissa – Kid Friendly Things To Do
