A brined turkey will be more juicy, and this brine’s combination of sage, celery seed, thyme, and soy sauce also adds a lot of flavor.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 10 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
Ingredients
- 2 gallons cold water
- 10 ounces Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons dried sage
- 2 tablespoons dried celery seed
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
Instructions
- Mix water with soy sauce, salt, sugar, sage, celery seed, and thyme in a large stockpot. Stir well until salt is dissolved. Let cool to room temperature.
- Place turkey in a large, non-reactive pot and pour cooled brine over top. Cover and refrigerate, 8 hours to overnight. Remove turkey from brine; rinse well. Follow your regular cooking instructions.
- Nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of brine ingredients. The actual amount of brine consumed will vary.
Reviews
Update* I’ve done this same procedure with Prime Rib as well! It definitely pushes the Limit! One was deep fried and one was roasted in the oven. Both were spectacular!!!!!
We use this for turkey, chicken AND pork. It’s a hit, every time. We can do half a batch for two chickens in a food-grade pail.
Excellent, big hit. I do this brine every year, wouldn’t do it any other way. The bomb!!!
This is my “go to” brine for my turkeys! I add a few cloves of crushed garlic and a couple of bay leaves and brine it overnight (at least 12 hours). I read some reviews about people saying that their birds weren’t juicy. A meat thermometer makes a world of difference and so does cooking bags and I will swear by both methods! I haven’t had a dry bird since I started brining years ago and this brine by Kikomans is excellent as is! Thank you Kikomans for posting this recipe on this site because the copy I have is is a very tiny clipping from a magazine and I am older and blinder now, unfortunately.
This is my “go to” brine for my turkeys! I add a few cloves of crushed garlic and a couple of bay leaves and brine it overnight (at least 12 hours). I read some reviews about people saying that their birds weren’t juicy. A meat thermometer makes a world of difference and so does cooking bags and I will swear by both methods! I haven’t had a dry bird since I started brining years ago and this brine by Kikomans is excellent as is! Thank you Kikomans for posting this recipe on this site because the copy I have is is a very tiny clipping from a magazine and I am older and blinder now, unfortunately.
This is the last brine recipe I will ever try. This is now my family’s go-to poultry brine. I always brine my turkeys and usually try a new recipe each time, but I used this one and we were amazed at the juiciness of the turkey. Best bird EVER!
Great basic Brine! *But… I have never met anyone who can fit a 5 gallon bucket in their fridge! 🙂 I use oven roasting bags.. double them. Put the turkey in with the brine and seal. then place the turkey in an ice chest and cover with ice and water. or in the 5 gallon bucket with ice and water !! put outside. Make sure it is covered well, you don’t want the possums and raccoons fighting over who gets your turkey!
excellent go to recipe for our thanksgiving meal! easy and flavorful. surprisingly it’s not too salty at all.
I was told my turkey was the best they ever had by my husband and my guests. This turkey was so tasty and juicy and perfectly golden brown. I did put an apple, orange and an onion and fresh herbs in the cavity. Not sure if this added any added flavor but it sure was amazingly delicious! I will always make this turkey. So easy!!!!
I’ve have done this turkey brine for about 3 or 4 years now and it is a very solid recipe.
I’ve used this a couple of times for our holiday turkeys and it’s turned out fantastic. I tend to experiment a bit, adding a bit of this or that, to taste, but generally following this recipe. Every combo has turned out wonderfully well.
I have made this brine several times and love it. The turkey comes out with a nice brown color,like you see in the magazines.Also the taste of the meat was good. The two things I changed was I heated a qt. of the water called for to dissolve the sugar and salt,also added the herbs to bring out their flavor. I also used low sodium soy sauce. It still turned out good.
Did this 4 years ago. My husband and his brother said it was the best turkey they had ever had.
This is the first time using this recipe and also brining my thanksgiving turkey. I can say that my family absolutely loved it. My teens complimented on the juiciness and tenderness. This is why a week later I will be using it again for another special occasion.
I did this brine for turkey as well as pork. I like the fact that I can tweak the servings in order to scale down the amounts for each type of meat (for example, I used the entire amount for my 20 lb. turkey, but used 1/8th of it for 1.3 lbs. of pork). Also, when using pork I take out the sage, celery seed and thyme and use garlic powder, onion powder and peppercorns instead. The basic brine ingredients–salt, sugar and soy work great in tenderizing and flavoring the meats.
This was ok, but I think I will try another brine for next Thanksgiving.
I tried this brine last year and my turkey came out very juicey. I will be playing with the receipe to see if I can make it a little more flavorful.
Excellent….Turkey comes out savory / juicy / flavorful. Will use this brine recipe again!
Best turkey I have ever had!
I used this brine for the first time this year because I didn’t have all of the ingredients for my normal brine. It was very delicious! I had to add more water to cover the turkey, but it came out delicious!
This is the first time in about 40 years that I brined a turkey, and it was delicious. The meat was flavorful throughout, everyone raved about their wonderful dinner. Very happy with the results.