With a wonderful citrus flavor and a crunchy cinnamon-sugar coating, these cookies bake crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. An unmitigated Christmas murderer! When they are baking, they smell amazing. The kids will enjoy rolling them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture before you bake them, and they’re really simple to make! Fantastic with milk, coffee, and hot tea. They stay crunchy after dipping and are fantastic for dipping!
| Servings: | 15 |
| Yield: | 1 whole turkey |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
- 1 ½ gallons water
- 1 gallon apple cider
- 1 ½ cups kosher salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon poultry seasoning
Instructions
- Rinse turkey inside and out with cold water; pat dry with paper towels.
- Mix water, apple cider, kosher salt, and sugar in a large pot or 5-gallon food-grade bucket, stirring to dissolve salt and sugar. Submerge turkey in brine, cover the container, and place in refrigerator, 8 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Remove turkey from brine and discard used brine. Place turkey breast-side up into a roasting pan; pat turkey and cavity dry with paper towels. Loosen turkey skin over breast and thighs with your fingers.
- Mix olive oil, thyme, and poultry seasoning in a small bowl. Rub seasoned oil over turkey and underneath loosened skin. Cover turkey loosely with aluminum foil.
- Roast in the preheated oven until an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of a thigh, not touching bone, reads 165 to 175 degrees F (75 to 80 degrees C), 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Remove foil tent about 45 minutes before end of roasting time to let skin brown. Let turkey rest 30 to 45 minutes before carving.
- Always brine foods in a food-grade, nonreactive container such as a stainless steel or enameled stockpot, a brining bag, or a food-grade plastic bucket. Never use ordinary trash bags, plastic trash cans, or metal buckets or containers not meant for food use.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the brine ingredients. The actual amount of the brine consumed will vary.
Reviews
Made it as written. I’d add one more day to the defrosting process. It was awesome.
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was delicious and so moist. I changed it just a little by only using half the salt and adding poultry seasoning and rosemary to the oil. Will keep this recipe!!
I have been using this recipe for my holidays for the past 8 years. It’s the best recipe! My turkey is always sooo tender for my 14lb turkeys or larger. Nobody in my family gets the turkey as tender and the turkey is always picked to the bone. Hands down this is the best recipe for brining.
I have never been a fan of white meat because it’s often so dry. My sister in law told me to try this recipe and I’ll never cook turkey another way again. My turkey was as tender, juicy, flavorful, and delicious as I could ever want. Thanks for sharing!!!!
As mentioned, the turkey takes less time to cook which is great. Crisp skin from all the sugar in the cider reminiscent of Peking Duck. Omitted all salt and it was never missed and far healthier for it. Used more poultry seasoning in olive oil for brushing the skin and put some diced apple, onions, garlic and herbs in the cavity. Did the often recommended cooked first half with breast side down and then flipped. The cider tenderizes the breast meat so well, dark meat lovers were won over. Cider marinade as I think of it since no salt is used, is the only way to go.
Not sure what I did wrong but it was too vinegar tasting for our taste. Bird was very well brined and juicy after cooking but the vinegar taste was off putting.
This turkey was delicious! I added some black peppercorns, bay leaves and garlic to the brine. After brining, I rinsed my turkey and soaked in fresh water for about 15 minutes to eliminate saltiness. Used herbed butter under the skin. It was so juicy which I attribute to the brining process!
made it for Thanksgiving and my picky eating daughter loved it! so made it for Christmas. agreed pot wouldn’t fit in frig. so put the pot in a cooler with ice. substituted water for chicken broth and added sage, rosemary, garlic & onion powder, and pepper to oil mixture.
I put onions, carrots and garlic in the roasting pan with dark beer. Everything was delicious. Never brined before and it was a game-changer.
Best of all the brines! I have used this brine for 4 years now and absolutely love it. Instead of stuffing the turkey, I put 2 peeled and cored Granny Smith apples and 1 quartered sweet onion in the cavity. Great brine, Lauren. Thank you.
Amazingly juicy!
I will absolutely make it again. I just made an 8 lb. turkey breast. The only thing that was different is that I basted it with a beer. It was the most tender and moist that I’ve ever had!
This was delicious. But I could not find a big enough, food grade, container for the turkey. Note to self; turkey roasting bags…..not a good idea for it! Lol. Probably would’ve been amazing if I could’ve properly soaked it.
This is the only way I will ever make a Turkey. I received so many compliments from people who never give them, in fact they’re critical! This was so juicy, I was blown away at how easy and delicious. Thank you for saving Thanksgiving.
This is the best turkey that I’ve ever had! That apple taste that was in the turkey, then using the broth in the gravy was RE–DICULOUSLY AMAZING! **smacks lips**I cannot wait until Thursday because I am making it again!! (Thanksgiving)
Hands down, this is the best turkey I have ever had! I was intimidated by the brining process and, frankly, the turkey baking process, but this one was a piece of cake. I didn’t have a large enough container for the fridge, so I used my large ice cooler overnight. I slightly decreased the amount of water in exchange for a 3 lb bag of ice (some ice I put in a zip lock so it wouldn’t dilute too much).
The first time I ever brine anything and the poultry did come out very juicy. I brine four chicken breast with bone therefore scaled down the ingredient by a quarter. I added some garlic salt and rosemary to olive oil mixture.
I followed the I instructions, however I made some changes on the spices and the amounts of these, it turned out “ridiculously” savory and moist, my first time to cook a turkey and it was a total hit, amongst the other thanksgiving expert cooks. So very pleased with it, thanks for sharing this recipe !
First time ever to brine a turkey. This was the best turkey I have ever fixed!
Very simple and easy to make. Flavor was delicious and meat very moist. I roasted in the Big Green Egg with soaked Apple wood chips for smoke and it turn out perfect. I’ve used other brines in the past that required more preparation and to be honest didn’t give any better results. My wife said this by far was the best brine and roast I had done, so happy wife, happy life!
I used this recipe to make my very first Thanksgiving turkey this year. It turned out super tender and was a HUGE hit! The 14 lb turkey was literally picked clean by the end of the night! I followed the recipe for the most part but made a few small changes. I made the overnight brine as suggested but replaced the water with chicken broth. The next morning I prepared the turkey for the oven per the recipe but added more seasonings. I added onion and garlic powder, seasoning salt, rosemary, pepper, and sage to the olive oil mixture for even more flavor. I also placed pats of butter on and under the skin of the turkey prior to roasting. I removed the foil tent from the turkey 45 minutes prior to the end of cooking time (which was 4.5 hours). This was a very easy recipe and well received by all. You won’t be disappointed!