No matter how long you cook the turkey for, this brine will give it tremendous flavor and keep it moist. You can adjust the amount of allspice berries in the recipe based on how much of its distinctive and delicious flavor you prefer. The ideal salt for any brine is kosher salt, but if you don’t have any on hand, you can use 1 cup of table salt in place of the 1 1/4 cups of kosher salt. It was one of the most moist and luscious turkeys I’ve ever made. I once used it to brine a turkey that took seven hours to cook. You can use this recipe to fill a 17-pound turkey with food.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 1 |
| Yield: | 34 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 gallons water
- 1 ¼ cups kosher salt
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
- 1 ½ teaspoons whole allspice berries (Optional)
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Stir water, salt, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, allspice berries, and bay leaf together in a large pot; bring to a boil. Set aside to cool completely before brining turkey.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the brine ingredients. The actual amount of the brine consumed will vary.
- Let the turkey sit in the brine overnight in the refrigerator. Turn the turkey over in the brine halfway through. When ready to cook, remove the turkey and pat dry but do not rinse. Wipe oil onto the turkey skin and add freshly ground black pepper.
Reviews
Everyone loved the turkey. Flavorful and juicy! I used more garlic and more bay leaves.
Today I’m making my brine for the 4th or 5th time. I cook our bird on our BBQ grill. Turns out great every time
This is the third time I have used this very easy and complete brine. PERFECT EVERY TIME! Thank you for the recipe!
I followed recipe using everything it called for. Turkey was 17# and i left it in brine for 24 hours in the garage fridge. Insanely moist, but a little on the salty side. i may cut down brine time next year.
Great brine! Used 1.5 gallons of water (1 gallon boiled with salt and 0.5 gallon of cold water after boiling), no allspice berries and added a couple of extra bay leaves. Soaked turkey for 14 hours.
Wow! What a difference this brine made. Unless you really add a lot of allspice berries (which you can if you like that flavor), the difference is subtle but adds just the right flavor and a ton of moisture. We cooked our nearly 20lb bird on a wood grill (Traeger) for 4 hours and it was hands down the best turkey we’ve ever had/made.
Moistest turkey I ever made. Will make again. Guests raved.
This was so easy and the turkey tasted fantastic! I received many compliments at Thanksgiving dinner.
I did this recipe for christmas lunch today….it was delish. I would definitely use this again. I’m still getting compliments!!!
Was great! Made my turkey very juicy. Just be careful to not keep the turkey in for too long as it does make it very salty.
Used everything but the bay leaf, everybody loved it on Thanksgiving!
I have used this for four years now. My family was scared it would destroy their traditional roasted turkey. After eating it they would not want me to switch back to no brine!
This was a great, simple recipe. I couldn’t find vegetable stock, which is required for most other brines, but I had almost everything for this recipe. I only had dried herbs, but it still worked great. This gives the turkey a nice juicy flavor, without a lot of herb and citrus notes that you find in other brines. I brined the turkey for 24 hours before roasting.
I have never brined a turkey before. This was the best turkey I had ever made! My family was very impressed. Will always use the brining method in the future.
I used this brine in conjunction with the Herb-Glazed Roasted Turkey, also on Allrecipes.com, so it’s tough to say if the brine was totally successful in doing what it was supposed to accomplish. However, my turkey was moist and tasty, so I figure it probably did what it was supposed to do. A quick warning though…. “Ready in about 1 1/4 hours” is WAY off! I “set aside to cool completely”…. In fact, it sat on my deck in 40 degree weather to cool down and after 4 hrs it was still close to 60 degrees. Not a temp to start brining a turkey! Make this WAY ahead of time and allow to cool. Don’t wait until the last minute.