Turkey Brine and Baking Turkey

By Tdunl

This was really good! Make sure thigh reaches 180 deg! It will be underdone if not

Ingredients

• Brining Turkey:
• 1 brining bag
• 1 gallon vegetable broth
• 1 gallon apple juice
• 1 cup sea salt
• 2 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary
• 2 tablespoon dried sage
• 2 tablespoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoon dried savory
• 1 gallon ice water
• For a 15-20 lb turkey
• Baking turkey:
• 2 cups kosher salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted, divided
• 4 carrots (chunked)
• 4 celery stalks (chunked)
• 1 onion (chunked)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf

Preparation

Step 1

In a large stock pot, combine the vegetable broth, sea salt, rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory.
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to be sure salt is dissolved.
Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature (This takes a long time)


When the broth mixture is cool, stir in the ice water.
Wash and dry your turkey. Make sure you have removed the innards.
Pour broth mixture into a clean 5 gallon bucket. (Or put it into a brining bag and then set it into a cooler, if small enough turkey, put it into a vegetable drawer in fridge.) Place the turkey, breast down, into the brine. Make sure that the cavity gets filled. Place the bucket in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the turkey carefully draining off the excess brine and pat dry. Discard excess brine.

Preheat oven to 350 deg or 500 deg (see both below)

Brush the turkey with 1/2 the melted butter. Place breast side down on a roasting rack in a shallow roasting pan. Stuff the turkey cavity with 1 onion, 1/2 the carrots, 1/2 the celery, 1 sprig of thyme, and the bay leaf. Scatter the remaining vegetables and thyme around the bottom of the roasting pan, and cover with the white wine.

Roast uncovered 3 1/2 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until the internal temperature of the thigh reaches 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Carefully turn the turkey breast side up about 2/3 through the roasting time, and brush with the remaining butter. Allow the bird to stand about 30 minutes before carving.

Cook the turkey as desired reserving the drippings for gravy. Keep in mind that brined turkeys sometimes cook 20 to 30 minutes faster so watch the temperature gauge.

OR.......

Bake it uncovered at 500 degrees until brown and then covered and baked at 350 degrees. Rotating the bird in the oven while cooking is important also, start with the breast down because the dark meat (underneath) needs to cook for a longer period than the top white meat (breast) flip over and finish roasting with the breast side up. Otherwise your top white meat may be drier as the dark meat takes an extra few minutes to reach the appropriate temp.