For the past 15 years I've gone full brine. Veg. Stock. Salt. Sugar. Peppercorn. Garlic. Ginger. 5 gallon bucket. Ice. Water. 24 hours. And it's been a juicy bird. Very juicy.
Maybe too juicy.
So this year it's time to go throwback to a technique that's about as bulletproof as there is. It's still brining. Dry brining. I want to taste pure roasted turkey again.
Get yourself a bird. Don't care what size. Take 1 tablespoon of salt per 5lbs of Turkey. If you have a 20lb bird. 4 tablespoons. If you want to add a little pepper, thyme, rosemary, and crushed sage to the salt. Go for it.
Some will tell you to rub a little butter and herb under the skin. These people are morons. Laugh at them.
Whatever your salt mix. Do this by Monday. Sprinkle that salt mix all over the bird. Liberally. Then wrap that bird in plastic and put it in the fridge from Monday until Wednesday night. Wednesday around 10 pm when you are good and tanked take the plastic off and let the fridge take every last bit of moisture off that soon to be crispy skin.
If you can't wrap the bird in plastic wrap. Salt the bird Tuesday and let that ****er sit until Thanksgiving morning. Don't touch it. It'll be just as good.
On the big day. Don't rinse a damn thing. Take that bird and put it on a rack inside a roasting pan or cookie sheet who cares. If you don't have a roasting rack make one one out of a few halved onions. Cooking is easy.
Cook that Bird at 425 for 20 minutes. Then lower the oven to 350 and throw a piece of foil on both breasts and roast to 160.
Sounds hard. It's not. You can over salt a dry brine so follow the 1/5 ratio. It's essentialy a short cold wet cure. But it's still a cure.
Trust me though. Do this its a great seasoned, juicy bird.
And if anyone is is interested in making a green bean casserole from absolute scratch with mushrooms shallots and panko crusted onion toppings let me know. I've got that too.