Brined Roast Turkey

By clawson

Ingredients

• Brine:
• 1 (14-16 lb) turkey
• 1 cup kosher salt
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tblsp black peppercorn
• 1 ½ tsp allspice berries
• 1 ½ tsp chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
• Aromatics:
• 1 sliced red apple
• 12 onion, sloiced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Preparation

Step 1

Directions:

Combine vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature and refrigerate.

The night before cooking combine the brine, water and ice in a 5-gallonbicket, place thawed turkey breast side down in the brine and refrigerate or set in cool area to 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the over to 500 degrees. Remove the bird from the brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onions, cinnamon stick and 1 cup of water in a microwave save dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on the lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Set the thermometer alarm, if available, to 161 degrees. Roast 2 to 2 ½ hours. Let turkey rest, loosely covered with foil for 15 minutes before carving.