Description
Dry Brine Turkey – Learn how to dry brine a turkey with this simple + easy recipe! The best way to prepare your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey!
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Brine + Turkey
- 12–14 pound whole turkey* (fully thawed)
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt**
- 1–2 teaspoons lemon or orange zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs, minced (thyme, oregano and/or sage)
Roasting Pan Liquid:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups chicken broth or stock
- 1 small yellow onion, sliced
- sprigs of fresh rosemary + thyme
- (optional) a splash of white wine adds a fun flavor to the drippings
Optional Stuffing:
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 small orange
- fresh sprigs of thyme + rosemary
Herbed Butter:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Basting Butter:
- 3–4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
Dry Brine Turkey
- Thaw Turkey: Ensure your frozen turkey is fully thawed before you start the brining process. To thaw in the refrigerator, you need 5 days for every pound of turkey so for a 12-14 pound turkey you will need close to 3 days. Read: How to Thaw a Turkey for more tips and tricks!
- Spatchcock or Not: decide whether you want to spatchcock your turkey or not! The process of spatchcocking is actually super easy (as long as you have some sharp/strong kitchen shears). This method does tend to result in a more consistent cook of your turkey – and shorter cook time). Read: How to Spatchcock a Turkey here!
- 3 Days Before Cooking: Combine kosher salt, zest and minced herbs in a small bowl. Pat turkey dry with a clean paper towel. Rub dry brine all over including under the skin, where possible. Place in a brining bag OR on a rimmed baking sheet with a wire rack and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator.
- Night Before Cooking: The night before you are set to cook, remove the plastic wrap or brine bag. Place the dry brined turkey back on a wire-rimmed backing sheet and return the bird to the refrigerator. This allows the skin to dry out and will result in an extra crispy skin. Note: this step is optional!
- Day of Cooking: Remove from refrigerator for at least 1 hour before cooking to allow the bird to come closer to room temperature. Feel free to pat dry with a clean paper towel; do not rinse!
- At this point you can continue on cooking your turkey how you want – keep reading for our go-to roasted method.
Oven Roasted Turkey (see Notes for Spatchcock Turkey Instructions)
- Oven + Roasting Pan: preheat oven to 450 degrees F. (we will reduce later) and ensure you have a roasting pan + rack (which lifts the turkey off the bottom of the pan and allows it to cook a bit faster). Add the chicken broth, onion, and rosemary/thyme to the bottom of the roasting pan. Ensure turkey is sitting in the roasting pan on top of the roasting rack, breast-side up.
- Prepare the Turkey: Combine the Herbed Butter ingredients and set aside. Pat turkey dry (outside and inside the cavity) with a clean paper towel. If stuffing, add your onion, orange, and herbs to the cavity of the cavity. Using your fingers gently separate the skin from the turkey breasts as much as you can. Push 3-4 tabs of butter underneath the skin. Take the Herbed Butter mixture, that you set aside, and spread all over the outside of the turkey.
- Place Turkey in Oven: place turkey inside the oven and turn the temperature down to 325 degrees F. Do not cover the turkey initially with aluminum foil – allow it to cook and once it starts to turn brown you can tent with foil, as-needed.
- Roast: Let turkey roast 13-16 minutes per pound.
- Baste: Melt the Basting Butter and use that to baste the turkey with a basting brush every 30-40 minutes. Once the Basting Butter is all used up simply use the basting liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan.
- Internal Temp: A turkey is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees F. at the thickest part of the meat (usually the thigh + breast). About halfway through the estimated cook time start checking the internal temperature so you can project how much longer will be needed. Again, if you notice certain parts of the turkey skin browning too quickly feel free to place a piece of foil over a specific area or tent the whole turkey if the whole thing is browning.
- Rest: Once the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. remove from oven. Lift the roasting rack up and out of the roasting pan and place on a cutting board. Cover with foil and let rest 20-30 minutes. The turkey will continue cooking and residual heat will continue to raise the internal temperature 5 degrees. Transfer any liquid remaining in the bottom of the roasting pan to a glass measuring cup or fat separator so you can use it to make turkey gravy. Don’t forget to save the carcass to make homemade turkey stock.
- Carve + Serve: Follow this tutorial to learn how to carve your turkey then serve with homemade turkey gravy and all of your other favorite thanksgiving side dishes!
Notes
- *Turkey: I don’t recommend using a pre-brined/pre-salted turkey – the end result will be a turkey that is too salty. Instead find a natural or heritage turkey. (Note: we did test this recipe with a pre-salted turkey to see just how salty it was … while it wasn’t completely off-putting, it was noticeably saltier than most people would want or enjoy!)
- **Salt to Weight Ratio: use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4-6 pounds of turkey.
- Spatchcock Method: if you spatchcock your turkey just know it will take approx. 6-8 minutes per pound – see our Juicy Spatchcock Turkey recipe for the full details!
- Extra Juicy: if you really want to amp up this recipe, add in this Turkey Injection recipe!
- Different Ways to Cook Turkey: besides roasting your turkey (either whole or spatchcocked) you can also grill your turkey (See: Grilled Turkey or Grilled Turkey Breast) or smoke your turkey (Ultimate Smoked Turkey or Smoked Spatchcock Turkey).
- Dry Brine vs. Wet Brine: a wet brine includes submerging the turkey in a salt/water mixture – learn more about it here: How to Brine a Turkey.
- Roasting Rack/Foil Roasting Pan: if you are using a disposable roasting pan then I would recommend using either carrots or celery stalks as your “roasting rack” – just line them up in the bottom of the pan and place your turkey, breast-side up, on top of them.
- Tin Foil: you can start with the foil tented over the turkey and then remove it half way through cooking if you prefer, but I like starting without it and adding it as-needed as the turkey browns.
- Storage: store leftover turkey in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.