Great Turkey Brine for a Moist Juicy Bird!

Submitted by Sandy 0225

"This is a great brine recipe for turkey, or it would work for chicken too. Make sure and soak your turkey in the brine at least overnight before cooking, or even better for 24 hours. You do need to keep the bird refrigerated while brining, but if your November weather is like ours, we often can keep our brining container in the car, or in the garage, on an enclosed porch--somewhere where raccoons and dogs can't get to it, and cold, at least 38 degrees. You can use canning or kosher salt, if you use regular table salt, reduce salt amount by about half, because those kinds of salts are coarser, so less concentrated. If you use ground spices, reduce the amounts by half also. If you grow your own herbs, this is also a great way to use them. If you use the fresh herb, use three times as much. NOTE: this is for a standard 1/5 gallon bottle of white wine, the computer keeps changing it to 1/4 gallon of wine. You can also use cider or apple juice instead of the wine, or you can use 1/2-3/4 bottle of wine instead of a whole bottle. This is a very forgiving recipe!"

 

• Ready In: 10mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 2 1/2 gallons
• Serves: 1

ingredients

• 1 cup canning salt
• 1⁄4 gallon white wine
• 2 tablespoons whole leaf dried sage
• 1 tablespoon whole dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon whole leaf dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon whole leaf dried rosemary
• 2 gallons water

directions

1. Mix the salt, water and spices along with the wine in a large clean container such as a food grade five gallon bucket. Stir well until the salt dissolves. (Sterilite makes a nice five gallon can that's clear and food grade that I obtained from Big Lots for this purpose for $8 ).
2. Take your thawed turkey, clean it under running water and remove the neck and giblets for another use.
3. Add the turkey to the brine, putting it in so the breast side is down in the brine, be sure to fill all the cavities in the bird with the brine.
4. Cover and refrigerate until time to cook, then drain and cook according to your package directions.

Reviews

[Susie D]

The intro is a little confusing concerning the adjustment on spices so I just played around. I reduced the recipe by half to brine a whole chicken and elected to use juice instead of wine. I kept it in the fridge 24 hours and washed it before roasting. The chicken was moist and flavorful. Next time I might add some garlic to go with the herbs. Made for Pick A Chef "09