Dry Brine Turkey

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So, you want to do something above and beyond a Basic Roasted Turkey this year for Thanksgiving and don’t want to deal with a wet brine. What are you to do? A DRY BRINE! Get seriously tasty and juicy results by dry brining your beautiful Thanksgiving Turkey this year. Read on to get all my tips, tricks and instructions about how to dry brine a turkey!

But First, What the Heck is a Dry Brine?

A dry brine is just like a wet brine but uses no water. Turns out, you don’t need it, thanks to osmosis! By leaving a flavored salt mixture on your turkey, it forces the turkey to release all its moisture and then thanks to the turkey’s semi-permeable membrane, the turkey reabsorbs that moisture back in with the salt and flavorings, leaving you with a juicy and tasty bird. As it sits for an extended period of time in the fridge, the skin also dries out, giving you extra crispy skin after it’s been roasted. Seriously, a dry brine is win-win all the way around!

Kosher Salt is KING

When it comes to brines of any kind, the main ingredient is SALT. Most dry brine recipes use kosher salt and kosher salt only. Iodized table salt is much more sharp and salty. We don’t want our turkey to be salty per say, just ‘seasoned’ and kosher salt is the best way to do that. I used Morten Coarse Kosher Salt and it worked perfectly.

Through my extensive online research, checking with my friend KJ, the dry brining queen and plain old trial and error, I’ve found that 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for every 4 pounds of turkey is an accurate measurement. My recipe is based off of a 12 pound bird, so you will want to adjust your salt/recipe accordingly, based on the size of turkey you buy.

My Dry Brine Recipe|Main Ingredients Needed

While defrosting your turkey and waiting for it to brine 24-36 hours can take some advanced planning, this recipe is really quite simple to do. I flavor this dry brine with a few simple ingredients, but the most important ingredients are the salt and the sugar. While you can change out the herbs, spices and zests to your liking, the salt and sugar should remain constant.

• Kosher Salt: I used Morton Coarse Kosher Salt and it worked perfectly.
• Brown Sugar: salt helps with osmosis but so does sugar! Brown sugar also helps gives color to the bird and caramelize the skin.
• Black Pepper: I think black pepper is a good compliment to the salt and the general flavor of turkey, but this ingredient is definitely optional.
• Orange Zest: I love the slight sweet and floral note orange zest adds to the turkey; Can be omitted or substituted with lemon.
• Fresh Thyme: I don’t love a lot of fresh herbs, but thyme is one of them! Of course dried thyme is a fine substitution, as are any dried or fresh herbs. As long as you like them, they should work.

How to Dry Brine a Turkey

After you have defrosted or prepped your fresh turkey, these directions are pretty straight forward. See my note below about using a fresh versus a frozen turkey.

1. Remove neck and any giblets from your fully defrosted (or fresh) turkey. Blot with paper towels (inside and out) to dry completely. Place onto roasting rack inside roasting pan. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine kosher salt, brown sugar, orange zest, pepper and thyme. Rub entire dry brine mixture on the exterior of the turkey.
3. Place turkey uncovered into the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. After this time, your turkey should be completely dry!
4. After turkey is done brining, use paper towels to remove any dried orange zest bits or thyme leaves off the turkey so they don’t burn. Wipe out any excess moisture that has accumulated in the bottom of the roasting pan. (There shouldn’t be much at all.)
5. Fill turkey cavity with any desired aromatics, such as onion, garlic, apples, orange/lemon wedges or fresh herbs. Fold wings down and back, tie legs together and roast turkey as desired.

Fresh vs Frozen Turkey

A brine is a good opportunity to add extra moisture and flavor to your Thanksgiving Turkey. How you do this is obviously your choice. A fresh turkey comes basically ready to roast…no prep work needed. Adding a brine would add delicious flavor. But what about a frozen turkey?

If you have read the fine print…meaning read the entire package that a frozen turkey comes in, you will probably recognize the following sentence: “contains up to 8% of a solution of water, salt, spices and natural flavor for tenderness and juiciness.” This basically means that your frozen turkey already comes with a brine of sorts. If you defrost your bird in the fridge for a few days, it will be sitting in this solution…therefore semi-brining itself before you roast it. Should you still dry brine a frozen turkey? I would say yes. Not only does it leave you with an overall juicier bird, but it also adds the flavors you want your turkey to have.

Do I Have to Rinse My Turkey off After I’ve Dry Brined It?

No! Stop! Step away from the sink! You shouldn’t rinse your turkey. If you’ve dry brined your turkey correctly, you should be sticking a bone dry turkey into the oven for roasting. There should be nothing to rinse off. If you give it enough time to release its juices and then soak them back in, after 24-36 hours you should have a dry turkey that is ready for the oven.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t want to add water to the skin! You want crispy skin on your turkey! Rinsing it would defeat the purpose and ruin all that hard work you put in the day before.

Some larger tv networks that focus on food…ahem…have some ‘dry brine recipes’ that call for brining your turkey for 8 hours and then rinsing the brine off and baking. THIS IS NOT A TRUE DRY BRINE. You shouldn’t have to rinse anything off.

Won’t My Turkey Be Too Salty?

No! Just like when you season a large roast and add a lot of salt, this is exactly the same. It’s a 12-25 pound turkey…it needs a lot of salt. Instead of just rubbing it on the exterior and sticking it in the oven, we allow the turkey to ‘soak up’ the salt and flavors so it gets flavored the entire way through. It won’t be too salty.

Will My Turkey Drippings Be Too Salty?

No! Just like I mentioned above, your drippings are coming from a properly seasoned turkey. It shouldn’t taste too salty at all. If you’re worried about it, you can add some chicken or turkey stock to the bottom of your roasting pan when you are noticing those drippings are starting to appear. OR another great option is to simply place your turkey on a bed of onions, celery, carrots and fresh herbs for a more flavorful gravy. Yum!

Other Flavor Options

So, there are lots of varieties and combinations of flavors that are delicious when it comes to poultry. There are lots of rubs and seasonings out there. While I don’t recommend changing the salt or sugar, the herbs and spices are definitely up for interpretation. Here are a few tasty options that you could add to your dry brine this Thanksgiving:

• Sage: a classic Thanksgiving/turkey flavor!
• Rosemary: more earthy and strong flavor
• Thyme: mild and classic
• Herbs de Provence: a mixture of french herbs and spices in this blend.
• Lemon or Orange Zest: to add floral and bright flavors
• Poultry Seasoning: a classic blend of dried herbs that compliment chicken or turkey well.

Classic Thanksgiving Sides

So, you make this gorgeous Dry Brined Turkey…what do you serve with it? Here are some classic side dishes that are popular and traditional for an American Thanksgiving.

• Dinner Rolls – a must have
• Amazing Thanksgiving Stuffing
• Perfect Scalloped Potatoes or Funeral Potatoes…both are extremely popular on my site around the holidays
• Thanksgiving Turkey Gravy
• Mashed Potatoe or Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole (with bacon!!)
• No-Knead Crescent Rolls– includes make ahead directions
• Cranberry Sauce
• Pumpkin Pie or Sweet Potato Pie
• Pecan Pie