For years I brined my turkey in a 5 gallon bucket. It's a great technique if you have a cold garage and not a lot of fridge space. But if you can make room in your fridge for 2 days for your turkey, I highly recommend dry brining your turkey.
If you are going to do a dry brine like the recipe I have below, here are some additional tips.
- Make sure your turkey has not been injected with salts or sugars. Most of them have been, especially the cheaper ones (it adds weight to the bird) so read the labels. I like Norbest Natural turkeys the best.
- Cooking bags steam turkeys, they don’t roast them.
- Cooking turkeys with stuffing inside makes it difficult for the turkey to cook thoroughly.
- Pop up timers always seem to pop up long after my thermometer registers 165. When I rely on those my turkeys are over cooked.
I wrote this back in 2018, it's now 2025 and I still make my turkey this way.
I roasted a turkey yesterday for a Single Adult dinner and it was by far the best turkey and gravy I have ever done. I thought I’d share the technique here in case you are roasting a turkey next week.
2 days before you roast it, make a simple 1:4 mixture of sugar:salt. About 1 T sugar and 4 T kosher salt. Lift up the skin of the turkey and break the membrane so you can rub the mixture on the meat directly. It’s weird and fun at the same time. Get the breast, legs, and thighs as best you can. Tuck the wings and truss the legs with string. I use twine.
Find a place in your fridge for your turkey to sit for 48 hours. Do NOT cover. You want the skin to dry out.
An hour before putting it in the oven, bring out the bird to take the chill off. Rub a paste on the skin made of oil and baking powder.
30 minutes before, place a baking stone in your oven and set your roasting pan on top. Heat them at 500 degrees.
Pull out the hot pan and add a little bit of cooking oil, I use avocado because it has a high smoke point. Place the turkey directly onto the hot pan. It should sizzle.
Make a foil shield that only covers the breast of the turkey. You want the dark meat to get a head start. Turn the oven down to 425 and roast for 45 min to an hour depending on the size of the bird.
Turn the oven down to 325 for the remainder of roasting time. Remove the shield. The breast should be 165 degrees and the leg and thigh 175. About 20 minutes per pound.
I have a thermometer that I can leave in the bird and watch through the window. Instant thermometers can’t do this. Make sure the thermometer isn’t touching the pan or a bone.
Update: I know have Bluetooth thermometers.
Remove the bird and place on a carving board. Leave it alone for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Again do not cover.
The skin should be good and crispy because it was dried out and because of the air pocket you created rubbing the salt mixture on it.
This is the YouTube video I watch to refresh my memory on how to do this.
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