Brined Roast Turkey or Chicken

I have tried various brining recipes for turkey over the years, and I haven't liked any of them. I haven't liked the seasonings added, and I really didn't like the sugar or fruit juices that seems to be in most of them, even before I was supposed to abjure sugar. It turns out you don't need any of that stuff, though. All you need is salt and water.

In my opinion brining should also be done with a fairly light hand, by which I mean: not for too long. I'm saying up to 16 hours, but really, I don't recommend soaking your turkey for much longer than 12 hours, and 6 or 8 will be enough. It is far too easy to end up with a very salty turkey through over-brining.

I also don't think brining is necessarily a great technique for industrially farmed birds, which are already a little limp and soggy. You should especially never brine a turkey which has been "basted" with "butter" or indicates on the packaging that it has been in a salt solution (aka brine) already. For natural, free-range turkeys, though, the extra moistness and tenderness it provides is excellent.

I recently did a chicken this way, too. I did not brine it as long as the turkey, it being a smaller bird (somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds) but it came from a local farm (same one as the turkey in the photo) and I was a bit concerned that it had gotten an awful lot of fresh air and exercise. Brining it made it tender and delicious. Half the recipe of brine was enough for that mid-sized chicken.

Check your pan juices before you use them to make gravy. Hopefully, if you have avoided over-brining your bird they will be plenty salty but fine to use, especially if you cut them a little with unsalted stock. It's a good idea to have a back-up plan, though.


10 to 16 pounds
5 to 16 hours to brine
15 minutes per pound to roast

Brine the Turkey:
1 cup pickling or kosher salt
8 litres water
a 10 to 16 pound turkey 

Put the pickling salt into the water and heat it gently until dissolved. Stir regularly. It should not be hot when you use it to brine the turkey.

This should cover a 10 to 16 pound turkey, in a snug fitting vessel that will get the brine over it completely, which is what you must do. Once the turkey is covered, put it in the refrigerator. That's probably the hardest part of this recipe, and you should be sure to clear some space and make sure your container will fit, in advance. One suggestion I've heard that sounds useful is to put the brine and turkey in a roaster bag, seal it well, then keep it in a picnic cooler with ice.

Of course you can make more or less brine to cover a smaller or larger turkey (or chicken); just use the same proportions of salt and water. Remember that if you are starting with a frozen bird it must be completely thawed first, and that will take at least 2 days for a smaller turkey and 3 days for a larger one. Chickens will generally be thawed in 2 days.

Cook the Turkey:
When you are ready to proceed, remove the turkey from the brine and drain it very well. Pat the skin as dry as you can get it with paper towel, and then let it sit out in the air to further dry for about half an hour to an hour before it goes into the oven - wet, soggy skin will not get crisp and brown.

I have not stuffed a brined turkey, and now that that kind of unrestrained carb-fest is no longer on the diet, I guess I won't. You can though; just don't add any salt to it, and as ever, have your dressing ingredients chopped and prepared the night before but don't cook and assemble them until just before they are to go into the turkey, and they are not to go into the turkey until just before it goes into the oven. 

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Roast the turkey for 15 minutes per pound; allow 20 minutes if the bird has been stuffed. Cover loosely with foil (or the roaster lid, if possible) and let the turkey rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving it.




Last year at this time I made Broccoli & Mushroom Pasties.

Posted in: Ontario Food