Best Brined Turkey

By kipscookbook

This recipe is for a 15 lb. turkey. You can adjust according to size. The ingredients do not have to be precise.

Ingredients

• 3 Gallons cold water
• 2 Cups kosher salt
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1-2 Tablespoons juniper berry
• 1 Tablespoon allspice
• 1 Tablespoon peppercorns
• several sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• couple of garlic cloves

Preparation

Step 1

Place thawed in brine, cover, and refrigerate for 12 hours or overnight.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola oil, vegetable oil or butter. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees. Set thermometer alarm to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.