Dry Brine Turkey

This turkey was so moist and flavorful! Not to mention that it's so much easier than traditional wet brining. My turkey was a little bigger so I used 4 tablespoons of kosher salt and added 3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar and about a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper. After the dry brining process was complete ( I did two days instead of three), I let the turkey rest at room temperature for an hour and then rubbed softened butter and bacon grease on and under the skin and inside the cavity. Then I used some mesquite dry rub and followed the recipe directions for roasting. Seriously AMAZING! Thank you for sharing!

I just tried this recipe after dry brining it for 2 days. I have to say that this is one of the best turkey's that I've ever roasted. I'm definitely using this recipe again.

I didn't do all the steps due to time constraints. I skipped the final stage in the fridge completely. I did roast as directed. Despite not doing entirely as directed I was very pleased with the results. I had a moist, tasty bird. I will do this recipe again.

My turkey turned out excellent. Will do this again.

No need for rinsing, well worth the wait, even topped with bacon

This method keeps your turkey from tasting watered down because the meat has no extra water to soak up. The brining will happen faster if salt is rubbed under the skin. Other dry brine recipes always say to rinse excess salt before roasting. This really is the best way to brine ! :-)

My family decided this would be our brine of choice for all future turkeys!

This worked perfectly. I admit I was a little worried because I have always done Alton Brown's wonderful brined turkey but it's a lot of work and it's messy and not inexpensive. Now that we are empty nesters I thought maybe it's time to give myself a break - this is it! It's easy, cheap and the results are spectacular. I started with a fresh 13.6 lb turkey and followed the directions exactly. The meat was extraordinarily moist and flavorful. I am not a big celery fan and was really hoping it wouldn't be too strong - it wasn't at all; it was just juicy and delicious. Will definitely do again.

This was excellent. I had never brined before or bought a fresh turkey from a farm I will be doing both again next year! We had 13 people here and they all raved about the turkey !

It was OK, but I thought it came out too dry. Although I may have over cooked it, I used the roasting directions, and cooked for about 2 1/2 hours, it was 15 lbs. I made up for it by using the "make ahead" turkey gravy on this site, all over it. Definitely worth a try, but I think I like the wet brining better.

Excellent method, 23 # turkey only took 4 hours let it sit for 2 hours still warm delicious and the flavor was amazing and NOT dry

Wonderful in taste

Didnt judge my time correctly, only brined for 2 days, but, it was very good. Gonna try another one with the correct amount of time. Very good.

Turned out GREAT! In addition, rubbed the entire turkey with mayonnaise. Lots of "yum yums".

I was cooking a Thanksgiving meal for the first time in about 30 years. I decided to give this recipe a go and everybody loved it. I will definitely recommend it and I would make it again. I did it exactly as called for, and I used it on a 17 pound bird.