Roasted Brined Turkey Video Recipe

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. How many of you are hosting this wonderful holiday in your home?

This year, I decided to do a Thanksgiving series of videos and the first one is the most important – turkey. My wonderful, talented husband was patient enough to help me film a really great collection of Thanksgiving recipes and tips for you, so I’ll be posting the rest of them soon, in plenty of time to get ready for the big day.

Roasted Brined Turkey Video Recipe
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 1 turkey
Ingredients
  • 1 turkey (12-20 lbs)
  • ground black pepper
Brine:
  • 1 gallon vegetable broth
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon peppercorns
  • 2 dry bay leaves
  • 1 gallon heavily iced water
  • a handful of raw garlic cloves (crushed or cut in half)
To stuff the cavity of the turkey:
  • 1 head of garlic, cut in half
  • 1 small onion, cut into quarters
  • fresh herbs (thyme, sage, parsley)
  • ½ of an orange, cut into quarters
  • 1 lemon, cut into quarters
For the roasting pan:
  • 3 onions, roughly chopped
  • 3 carrots, roughly chopped
  • 3 celery sticks roughly chopped
  • a handful of garlic cloves
  • 1 lemon, cut into quarters
  • fresh herbs (thyme, parsley)
  • 1½ cups chicken broth
Instructions
  1. Make the brine first. Heat up the vegetable broth, adding the salt, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaves, cooking until the salt and sugar dissolve. Cool.
  2. Pour the cool brine into a large container and add the ice water. If you don't have a large container, you can use a cooler. Submerge the turkey completely in the brine.
  3. Fill a large ziplock bag with ice and place it on top of the submerged turkey. Whenever the ice in the bag melts, replace it with fresh ice, making sure that the brine is always cold. Brine the turkey for at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours. I usually do it overnight.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  5. Take the turkey out of the brine, and pat it dry completely. Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the onion, garlic, herbs, orange and lemon. You can keep it simple and just use garlic, lemon and parsley.
  6. Place the chopped onions, carrots, celery, garlic, herbs and lemon into the bottom of a large roasting pan. Pour in the chicken broth.
  7. Place the turkey in the roasting pan on top of a rack.
  8. Roast the turkey at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the breast and 175 degrees in the thigh on an instant read thermometer. My turkey was 15 lbs and it finished cooking in about 2 hours.
  9. Let the turkey rest for about 30 minutes before carving.

Other Recipes Mentioned in the video:

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Traditional Challah Dressing With Cherries, Apples and Pecans

Thanksgiving Challah Herb Dressing-1-4Sausage, Fennel and Mushroom Sourdough Dressing

Sausage and Mushroom Sourdough Dressing-1-11

 

Other Turkey Recipes:

Brined Turkey

Easy, Fuss-Free Roast Turkey

Slow Roasted, Already Carved Turkey

32 Comments

    • olgak7

      No, I do not, Vera. The whole point of cooking the turkey in an oven bag is to keep it juicy. Brining the turkey does that very well, plus adds so much flavor to the meat too:). Also, the turkey skin gets so much more crispy without the oven bag.

  • Masha

    Olga! Thank you so much for all the hard work you do! I love your website! This video is awesome, so many great tips! I’m new to turkey cooking,and I’m excited to try this recipe at home next week. I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving with your family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Lana

    My mom has always prepared turkey for thanksgiving and it takes about 5 hours for her turkey to completely cook through. Now she has her turkey directly in the bottom of the pan so the turkey is submerged by the accumulated drippings. Would that method make any difference in cooking times?

  • Tina

    What a great video! Thank you Olga for getting my turkey cooking anxiety down! :0) I was wounding where did you buy that plastic bucket thing where you put the turkey in? It looks so handy for this. Thanks.

    • olgak7

      I’m so glad the video was helpful, Tina. I bought the container at a restaurant supply store. It’s definitely handy. I love using it for brining the turkey, and also for making huge batches of fruit drink, lemonade, etc. for big parties.

  • anna

    hi Olga! I want to try brining my turkey this year, i just noticed on the packaging it says the turkey is 3% basted in salt, vinegar, and turkey broth. i have the white honeysuckle brand. Do you think i can still brine it?

  • anna

    Hello olya love your site and all your recipes haven’t made turkey before and was so excited to do it this year and my brime came out too salty I haven’t put the turkey in it yet how can I fix it wanted to impress my family and I feel like it will be a disaster please help.

    • olgak7

      Hi Anna.
      Don’t worry, the brine is supposed to be VERY salty. It’s not a marinade, it’s a brine. Did you use kosher salt or table salt? If you used kosher salt and used the exact recipe instructions, the brine will be just fine. If you used table salt, there’s really no way to fix it unless you redo the brine.
      As the turkey soaks in the brine, the salt denatures the protein and allows the salt to enter the meat. As the turkey roasts, it loses moisture, but since it absorbed an excess amount, it still retains some of the moisture and stays nice and juicy. (And keeps the flavors too.) Surprisingly enough, there will only be about 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt per serving, so you don’t have to be nervous that you turned the turkey into a salt lick.

      Brining is a way to add lots of flavor to the meat. As the turkey is soaking in the brine, the salt is penetrating all the way to the center of the meat, not just the outside. By adding other flavors to the brine, all those flavors will take a trip with the salt into the meat.

      • anna

        Thankyou for such a fast reply now I’m not worried and yes I used kosher salt just didn’t think the brine would be so salty well I’ll let you know how it goes thankyou again:)

  • Lilly

    Olga,

    This recipe is amazing. Last night it was my first time baking a turkey in my life and I’m 28. The reason behind it is because I was always so scared to make a turkey on my own but after your amazing video I risked it and tried and I’m glad I did. It turned out amazing my family loved it ❤️

  • Nata

    Hi Olga, thank you so much for taking the time to make this helpful video. I, along with countless others I’m sure, really appreciate having a good recipe from a trusted source like you! Question: you have another post from 2012 where you brine the turkey and the start cooking it at 500F breast side down, and then flip it over, and lower the heat in another 20 mins to 350F. Just wandering what the difference is when you do it this way as opposed to roasting it at same temp the whole time without flipping it. And which way will yield a juicer bird?

    • olgak7

      Like I said in the video, I know that most people don’t want to deal with flipping a turkey over, so that is why I didn’t do it in the video. I like having the turkey really crisp all over, even on the bottom, so that is why I personally like to start roasting it breast side down. However, because the turkey is brined, it will be very juicy if you roast it breast side up the whole time.

      • Nata

        Thank you for your reply. Because you’re starting to cook at such a high temp in your recipe from 2012, does that lower total cooking time or will it still take approximately the same?

        • olgak7

          The timing won’t be much different, just because you’re mostly crisping up the skin on the other side while cooking the turkey breast side down and you’re not cooking it very long. The timing depends on a lot of things. The best bet is to use an instant read thermometer.

  • Natasha

    Olga I was wondering if I leave out the garlic in this recipe will it still have a nice flavor? My son has allergy to garlic.

  • tatyana

    Hi Olga, thanks for the wonderful video. i recently saw on your Instagram story that you were frying a turkey (in a elecric fryer) , wanted to know how it came out and would i just brine it and then just fry the turkey? Any tips? thanks so much for all you do! God Bless You and Your family!

    • olgak7

      Brine the turkey, just as though you would be roasting it.
      Pat the turkey dry, as much as you possibly can. Make sure it’s as dry as you can possibly get it. Let it stand at room temperature for about an hour. Heat the oil to 350 degrees before putting the turkey into the hot oil. Fry the turkey until it reaches 165 degrees in the breast meat and 175 degrees in the thigh meat. It’s really great!

      • Tatyana

        Thank you! What do u prefer, fry or oven? Downfall of frying the turkey- won’t get to make that yummy gravy … any good supstitute gravy recipe ? Thanks in advance

        • olgak7

          I prefer a roasted turkey. If you want to fry a turkey and want to make gravy too, you can roast some turkey wings in the oven along with the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, herbs and chicken broth and then you can use it to make gravy.

    • olgak7

      I have never tried using chicken broth, Lana, so I don’t know for sure, although I think vegetable broth is a much better option. The point of using vegetable broth is infusing the turkey with flavor from all he vegetables in the broth. Most commercial chicken broths don’t really have much vegetables in the broth, so it wouldn’t add much flavor besides a poultry flavor, which the turkey already will have.
      I use this recipe for the Vegetable Broth.

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