Easy, tasty and beautifully moist!
When amazing neighbors gifted us with five turkeys, I dry-brined every one. I never liked turkey so much or found it so easy to prepare until I learned about this method. Now it’s all I use.
I adapt almost every recipe I use, adjusting it to guests’ individual tastes and demands. After rinsing my turkey (yes, I still rinse but am careful about contamination), I skip patting it dry and put it in a stainless steel roaster, slathering the entire turkey with about 3T of sea salt (depending on turkey weight–see recipe directions on link above) like steps 1-3 but not worrying about the cavities until later because they’re usually frozen solid. I skip any other spices until after step 7.
I fold the wings when thawed enough to do so, also removing any packaged parts or plastic from the drumsticks or elsewhere when I can, and covering without turning but refrigerating as directed (For me, thawing usually takes longer than 3 days). I usually forget to rub in the salt or flip and uncover the bird.
On roasting day, I go to step 6 and do it but don’t pat or baste with any butter on step 7, where I opt for placing the turkey breast down in my roaster. I used to insert big fork tines, one on each end, to flip the turkey after it baked a half hour at 425 degrees F. It was hot and heavy work. Now I just take the roaster out of the oven and let the turkey cool while I zest 2-4 limes (or 1-2 limes, 1-2 lemons) and snip 2T fresh or frozen rosemary (or you can ground dried rosemary in a pestle). I halve the zested fruits, then hand-squeeze the juice of half over the skin. By this time, the turkey’s usually fine to quickly flip breast-side up with my hands (but I’m kinda tough). I squeeze the rest of the juice over the breast-side of the turkey, but wait to top with sprinkled rosemary and zest until the last hour of roasting so they retain their color don’t dry out too much. I tuck the rinds into both bird cavities, loosely stuffing with quartered apples, celery chunks and salt (all of which is purely for flavor and discarded after the turkey is done).
After flipping and seasoning, I roast at 325 degrees F as per step 8, but my oven can take 3 hours or longer. If at any point the turkey is browning too much, I simply put on my roaster lid.
I skip the foil of step 9 and try to let the turkey stand as directed before serving. Often we’re already eating it.
Since dry-brining, my turkeys taste great and and disappear fast. The kitchen smells delicious for hours! Only complaint: my oldest daughter says it’s so good we never use leftovers to make other recipes anymore.
Thanksgiving 2022 note: my bird was the smallest on record but I still used 2 limes and it was even better than ever.
We ate another turkey over Christmas. It was a big one, so I used 4 limes. Our Thanksgiving turkey was gone so fast it almost started fights, but delicious as our Christmas bird was, we finally had some leftovers. Even my eldest offspring was happy.
Thanksgiving 2023 note: said eldest spearheaded the Thanksgiving feast this year. I contributed almost nothing but guess what the main dish still was 🙂 Only downside: our main oven broke, so we had to use our remote summer kitchen’s, missing the wonderful aroma that usually fills the house.
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