We're bargain hunters in nearly all aspects, so when we stopped by Winn Dixie the day after Thanksgiving and saw they had 20lb turkeys on sale for only $10 each... Well, we bought a few and now we need different ways to cook them!
(I'm sure you'll see at least 3 different turkey recipes on here before long. Same ole same ole gets boring after a while!)
We decided we wanted to smoke our first turkey. We're leaving it in the fridge to thaw for a few days, and then the day before Christmas Eve we're going to start brining it. Here is our recipe - perfect for Thanksgiving OR Christmas!
INGREDIENTS:
Water (enough to fully submerge your turkey)
1 quart Apple Cider (for large turkey)
1 cup Salt ***
1 cup Brown Sugar
Handful Peppercorns (whole, not ground)
Handful of Cloves or All Spice balls (I literally don't know what else to call them except "balls" haha)
4-5 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1-2 White Onions, rough chopped
1-2 Oranges, cut into slices
Fresh Rosemary (or other herb of choice)
Bay Leaves
As always, you can tweak this to your taste! You can swap the oranges for another citrus, and use apples or applesauce instead of the cider. You can change the veggies or add other veggies as well. This sounded like a good combination of Christmas-y flavors, so that's what we went with!
*** SALT! Some turkeys have already been brined, like ours was. I would use only a 1/2 cup of salt if this is the case for your turkey. If your turkey is Kosher, you probably won't want to brine it at all because it will just be too salty.
Brining your turkey before cooking it (no matter what method you use to cook) will make the meat tender and moist. Turkeys seem to have a reputation for being dry - thank God for GRAVY - but brining your bird beforehand (and cooking it properly) will eliminate that problem!
DIRECTIONS:
Mix your water, cider, sugar, and salt in your bucket. It will mix best if you heat a small amount of water with the sugar and salt, so the ingredients will melt in the liquid.
Add all remaining ingredients and stir well. You could also potentially set some parts aside and stuff the turkey with them (such as onions and orange peels) for it absorb even more flavor while it soaks.
Remove all those nasty bits from the turkey. Neck, gizzards, plastic, etc.
Plop the turkey in your bucket. Well, maybe not PLOP... But make sure your bird is breast side down. So many dirty jokes we could make here...
Fill the bucket with the rest of the water. Use cold water. You'll want the entire turkey submerged.
Let soak for the appropriate time, depending on weight, keeping ice on your turkey to ensure safe temperatures. If you have a large enough fridge you can store your turkey in there overnight, but we sure as heck don't have one of those!
Time to take the turkey out! Pat dry, inside and out. Do not rinse the turkey.
Air dry in your fridge if you have enough time. This will get the skin a nice crisp when it's cooked! 30 minutes to an hour will be just fine!
Cook that bad boy however you want!
Brining Time:
This will depend entirely upon the weight of your turkey!
Less than 15 lbs: 12-24 hours
16 lbs or more: 24 hours or up to 48 hours
When all of your ingredients are combined, it will look like a weird soup!