After roasting a fair number of turkeys, mostly for various holiday occasions, I decided to try a dry brine after reading some reviews and talking with friends. I have friends that make a wet brine in preparing a turkey for cooking and like the results. But in thinking about the prep and storing a large turkey while soaking in brine, I thought a dry brine would be easier to maneuver and keeping cool in the fridge. I have a second fridge which makes this much easier to do as most recipes call for the turkey to be covered in the dry brine for up to three days. Once the brining period is finished and ready to be roasted you don't wash the turkey or wipe away any of the brine on the turkey.
You can dry brine chicken or turkey. As I was cooking a turkey, my interest for the quantity of ingredients was focussed on that. I researched a number of recipes and based the ingredients and directions using a combination of these three listed recipes (provided below). I wanted to include lemon juice and zest and olive oil in the ingredients. The turkey I cooked was 12.4 pounds. I used Diamond Crystal kosher salt. As the directions indicate, you need to add a bit more if you are using the Diamond brand versus Morton's. For brining, you have to use kosher salt and not other kinds of salt. For the fresh herbs, I bought a poultry blend package of fresh herbs and used the herbs provided in the blend which included rosemary, sage and thyme. I had some fresh herbs left after using most of the package for the brine and saved these to add to the turkey when it was to bake.
As the dry brine occurs over a period of three days (you can shorten it to two if needed) before roasting the turkey, you need to calculate your timing to defrost a turkey if using a frozen turkey, three days to brine and then cooking the turkey. To give you an example of timing, I started to fridge defrost the turkey on Sunday, started to brine the turkey on Wednesday and roasted it on Saturday. If you like stuffing to go with turkey, it is best to make the stuffing and bake it separately. Once the turkey was ready to roast, I added a cut up onion, lemon and fresh herbs to the cavity.
In making this recipe there were several things that made me pause and think in reading how to do it. I was going to brine the turkey uncovered in the fridge for three days and roast it in the oven uncovered for about 4 hours. I have been so used to covering things. There are a number of rules of thumbs for length of roasting time needed per pound of brined turkey. Brined turkey cooks faster so I decided to use the calculation of 12 to 15 minutes per pound. For the 12.4 pound turkey I was cooking, I aimed for four hours followed by a 30 minute rest before carving.
This dry brined turkey was likely the best turkey I have made. It was flavourful from all of the herbs, moist and not dry and the skin was perfect.
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_dry_brine_and_roast_a_turkey/
https://www.askchefdennis.com/dry-brine-roast-turkey/
https://cjkatz.com/blogs/recipes/dry-brined-turkey
INGREDIENTS:
12 to 16 pound turkey
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1.5 tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 1.5 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1.5 tbsp fresh thyme
- 6 sage leaves, chopped
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 3 tbsp Morton's kosher salt (add an extra 1.5 tsp if using Diamond Crystal kosher salt)
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- zest from 1 to 2 lemons
- 3.5 tbsp lemon juice
- 3.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
DIRECTIONS:
1. Defrost a frozen turkey or use a fresh 12 to 16 pound turkey. Remove the packaging and the pop up thermometer if it has one. Remove any giblets or neck from the cavity if your turkey came with it. Use it for the gravy or other recipes. Pat dry the turkey (outside and inside) with paper towels and place on top of a rack in a baking sheet or a large pan. It needs to fit into your fridge. The breast side of the turkey should be facing up.
2. Using your hands, separate the skin from the breast and legs without tearing the skin. You need to loosen the skin as you will be putting the dry brine ingredients between the skin and the meat.
3. In a medium size bowl, mix the garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, sugar, lemon zest and juice and olive oil.
4. Spread half the brine mixture under the skin around the breasts and legs and massage it in. The remaining half can be spit between spreading it inside the cavity and around the outside skin of the bird.
5. Place in the fridge uncovered. About 24 hours into the brine process flip the turkey over so it is breast side down. Then in another 24 hours, flip it back to breast side up.
6. On day three of the brine, take the turkey out of the fridge about an hour before you want to put it in the oven. Heat your oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the turkey from the pan you used for the brine process and place the turkey onto a rack in a roasting pan. You can use the same pan that you used to brine the turkey but it needs to be a deeper pan than a cookie sheet. If you use the same pan, clean it off and remove any excess liquid from the brine process.
7. Place a quartered onion, lemon and extra herbs into the cavity of the bird. Tie the legs together using butcher twine. Tuck the wings as best you can under the bird. I added a bit of olive oil to my hands and rubbed it over the skin before putting the turkey in the oven.
8. Place the uncovered roasting pan with the turkey on the lowest rack in your oven. Bake at 425 degrees F for 12 minutes and then reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. I decided after two hours to reduce the heat to 300 degrees F as I was worried it might cook faster than what I had calculated to have it ready for supper. Some cooks like to baste juices over the turkey while it bakes. I found that there wasn't much fat or juice on the bottom of the roasting pan and just skipped it.
9. Check the temperature of the thigh and breast using a meat thermometer and aim for 160 degrees F. My meat was at 180 degrees F when I took it out after four hours in the oven and it was fine. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and cover with the roast lid or tin foil. Let it rest for about 30 minutes before carving.
