This is very similar to an excellent brine I made last year, and will make again in a couple days, Joe. I also use fresh garlic and sustitute ice for the water so it can sit on a cool porch. (Hard to fit a five gallon bucket in the fridge!) I also suggest fresh herbs and spices. Try it! Your friends and family will NOT be disappointed!!
I just wanted to comment on tda95337's note. Don't use a garbage bag. There are chemicals in those bags that are toxic. I brined a bird in a turkey bag one year and later found out that garbage bags are harmful. Use an oversized turkey roasting bag or wash out a cooler instead.
I used this exact Brine recipe for baking the Turkey yesterday for Thanksgiving. We purchased an 11 pound turkey the 21st. I put the Brine recipe together as directed. I put the Turkey with the Brine in a food grade bucket overnight for 14hrs. Removed it from the solution on Thanksgiving day & placed it in a huge colander & rinsed the access brine from the turkey. Pat dried it & stuffed it with apples & coated the skin with unsalted butter & sprinked some pepper & seasoning salt on the outside. Placed it in the roaster & added about 2 cups of chicken stock to the bottom of the roaster. The turkey cooked surprisingly in 2hrs. It was perfect & the family just loved it:)
We made some modification to this recipe and loved it the turkey was perfect. Cut the Kosher salt by 1/2 cup. We added1/2 onion and 6 cloves of garlic. We also stuffed the cavity with celery carrots lemon the other 1/2 onion 6 more cloves of garlic rosemary and Thyme. The we put the Turkey and brine in a garbage bag then placed in a cooler with plenty of ice overnight
I used this recipe along with an Apple Sage Brine Kit I purchased at my local grocery store so it worked out perfectly. Since the brine kit I purchased from the store required a medium boil then cooling then add to turkey procedure I added brown sugar apple cider (required by the brine kit) a little bit of maple syrup celery poultry seasonig dried thyme leaves dried rosemary bay leaves celery seeds pepper chicken soup base carrots onion & garlic to the brine kit when it started to boil. The kit came with a brine bag. After the above mentioned cooled I added this to the turkey with 6 quarts of cold water & 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar (required by the brine kit). In all honesty other than the extra ingredients I added (and the brine kit) I used this recipe as my anchor and I purchased the brine kit out of desperation because all of the kosher salt had been sold out. Now let's get back to my next steps. I placed my turkey in a cooler with ice (too big to fit in the refrigerator) for 24 hrs. My 20.5 lbs. Turkey cooked in 3-1/2 hours. I was told by my entire family that this was the best turkey they ever had. The turkey was moist (even the breast!) and everyone wanted leftovers! Thanks! Great brine & will use again next year!
It works beautifully and doesn't leave any after-taste behind. Everything you could want in a brine and so simple too. Made one of the best turkeys I've ever produced for the holidays!
This was the most juicy and tender turkey ever. I used a 5 gal cooler to soak my turkey. That way it didn't take up room in the refrigerator and I didn't have to worry about the weather being to warm. The spices soak into the meat and its not salty just very good. Even the leftovers weren't dry.
I used this recipe with a 26 pounder. I brined for nearly 24 hours then I left uncovered in the refrigerator for another 12 hours to dry out the skin. The turkey was juicy and even the next day the white meat wasn't all dried out. However I didn't notice any flavor boost like I was expecting. I did not like how dark the skin got which is from the apple juice and apple cider. I'm no stranger to brines and do several a year.
I followed the directions exactly--only decreasing the amounts to suit a turkey breast rather than the whole thing and "the bird was the word"! Excellent flavor without being too salty juicy all around excellent recipe I'll be pulling out again.
