*Dry brining a turkey adds flavor and saves time on the big day!*

Matt and I have been using this method for preparing Thanksgiving turkeys ever since hosting our first.

Dry brining is synonymous with curing, which, in food related terms, refers to the process of preserving meat or fish through salting, drying or smoking.

For Thanksgiving, however, we are not looking to preserve the turkey. We are brining to add flavor through-out the entire bird, make the skin crispy and increase tenderness. Although salt will initially draw moisture out of the bird, it will prevent the turkey from drying out in the roasting process.

A nice side-effect of using this method of preparation is that it cuts down cook time. Typically, turkeys roast at 13 minutes per pound but, after dry-brining, the cook time comes down to 10 minutes a pound.

NOTES

Small birds need to dry brine for at least 24 hours. Larger birds should brine for 48. You do not need to wash this brine off when you roast the bird and you will not need to clean any moisture off the bottom of your roasting pan before roasting. You may want to add a little white wine to the bottom of the pan half-way through cooking when that liquid starts to look like it is getting dark. You can work on a ‘roasting pan gravy’ using this liquid while your turkey is resting on its rack on your cutting board.

INGREDIENTS

Salt

Sugar

Chopped herbs or any other spices can be added to the salt/sugar mix based on personal taste but the salt and sugar are the essentials.

METHOD

Truthfully, I just mix 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of sugar for my big birds. What I don’t use, I don’t use. But if you’re looking to get more scientific, the ratio below might help. It is really fairly straightforward, mix salt and sugar in equal parts.

I generally use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt + 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of sugar per pound of turkey meat as a good ratio. This totals one Tablespoon of dry brine mix per pound. You might use more or less but the most important thing is to rub the bird all over with this mix, over and under the skin, without using so much that it can clump and fall off. That would make this bird way too salty, so some good judgment is needed.

So for a 16 pound bird, you should mix 1/2 cup salt with 1/2 cup sugar, for a total of 1 cup of dry brine mix. If you run out, make a little more mix.

Rub the mixture all over the bird, including under the skin. You can carefully get under the breast skin and work your hand up towards the neck, rubbing the salt mix onto the meat.

For the thighs, you may need to us a pairing knife to make a small slit at the base of the back of the bird and work your fingers, and eventually your hand up under the skin, again, rubbing the salt mixture onto the meat.

Rub salt & sugar mix all over the bird like you’re giving it a good massage both under and on the skin, front and back. The salt/sugar may start to sting your hands after a while after rubbing into the bird so if you have disposable kitchen gloves, that might help.

Place turkey, breast side up on the roasting rack over a roasting pan and place in refrigerator uncovered, the air movement in your refrigerator will help the skin to dry out.

Cure or brine using the chart above.

TIMELINE working backwards

Determine your cook time by working back from when you intend to serve. If you are nervous and you want to make sure you aren’t running behind, bump up your serving time on your timeline (but not in real life) by 30 minutes or even more. The turkey can rest for up to an hour and I’d rather have more time than less when I am hosting.

Let’s say we want to serve an 18 pound bird at 5pm, using the general rule of roughly 10 minutes per pound for the dry-brined bird ( about a 180 minute cook time or 3 hours).

5:00 pm Serve

4:45 pm Carve. I always carve the turkey before serving. Takes the pressure of the Clark Griswold moment out of the equation. The resting turkey is what guests get to ogle. I carve in my kitchen on my cutting board with extra kitchen towels under the board, overhang bunching up against the side of the board to catch any excess cooking liquids.

4:15 pm Turkey out of oven + rest for 20 - 40 minutes.

3:15 pm Flip the bird and cook breast side up for 1/3 of the overall cook time or until breast is brown and crispy. This isn’t easy but it’s worth it for juicy breast meat. Use kitchen towels to protect your hands and flip’er over.

1:15 pm Turkey in oven breast side down for 2/3 of cook time or until thighs are brown and crispy.

12:45 Preheat oven to 400F

10:15 Bring turkey to room temp on counter: 3 hours before roasting

After I write my timeline backwards (usually the day before cooking), I reverse it so I don’t make mistakes by misreading and I know exactly what time to get the ball rolling. Double or even triple check your timeline math...I just did. It is easy for some of us to flub up and miss or add an hour with potentially stressful results.

*We use a sheet pan under our roaster because our roaster is not usually big enough for the size bird we need for our gatherings. C’est la vie!*

THAT’S IT!

That is the dry brined turkey! If you are making more dishes and need the oven, I recommend making things like sweet potatoes and stuffing the day before and reheating them in the 400F oven while your turkey rests. Mashed potatoes are the only Thanksgiving staple that really need to be made the day of to be at their best. The less you do the day you’re hosting, the happier host you will be, and that is truly more important than perfect Thanksgiving food!

Have a blessed and very very happy day of thanks.

Sincerely,

Maggie Noble

Dry Brine Thanksgiving Turkey