How to Brine a Turkey (Turkey Brining Recipe)

Turkey is a tough bird to cook without it drying out. They are leaner than chicken, and their larger size increases the cook time which makes them highly susceptible to over cooking and drying out. For the best results, wet brine your turkey. So what does “Brine” Mean? Brine at it’s most basic form is just a solution of water and salt. Immersing your turkey in a brine solution will help the salt penetrate all of the turkey through a process called OSMOSIS. This will season your bird and add a minute amount of water to the bird to help it from drying out.

OK, so before we begin you will need to assemble the following items:

• Kitchen Scale (grams and ounces)
• 5 gallon bucket
• Plastic bag for the turkey
• Distilled Water
• Sea Salt (or kosher)
• Brown Sugar
• Spices (optional)
• MSG (optional)

Your brine will be formulated off the total weight of the water and the bird combined. This will allow you to properly season without the risk of over seasoning. Do not use iodized salt as it can cause flavors to be off a little. Line the bucket with the brining bag. Place the fresh (not frozen) turkey in the bag in the bucket and pour in water. Keep track of how many gallons you put into the bucket to fully submerge the turkey. Once the turkey is fully submerged, remove it from the water. Dump the water into a food safe vessel. You will want the weight of the water. Keep in mind that a gallon of water weighs 8.32LBS.

Weigh out your dry ingredients, the weights will be calculated by multiplying their %% below by the mass of the Turkey AND the water.

• 1.65% Sea Salt
• .5% Brown Sugar
• .1% MSG (optional)
• Spices (you drive).

Mix with a whisk and insure that the salts and sugars are fully dissolved . You may be wondering why the brown sugar, two reasons, it helps retain water and adds dimension to the brine. There will be no detectable sweetness. Place the bird back into the bucket and add the brine. Seal the bag and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours, remove from the brine, pat dry, place on a cooling rack over a pan in the fridge to allow the skin to properly dry off. This will help with smoke adhesion if smoking, and crispy skin if baking.

ENJOY!