Turkey Brine

Psst - Hey did you realize that Thanksgiving is a month away? Thats right, we are quickly approaching the day of culiary magic. The day where families every where gather and have but one thought, from the moment they get up in the wee hours of the morning, to the moment the tryptophan kicks in, FOOD!!!! And what sits in the center of that table? Turkey!!

In our household, we prefer to go the deep fried turkey route. What other way can you cook an entire turkey in 35 min and still leave the oven open for all the sidedishes? Which ever way you choose to cook your turkey, fried, grilled, or roasted, there is always prep work, that needs to be done. Starting with brining your turkey to ensure the juiciest bird on the block.

Now, when selecting your turkey, be sure you don't have one that is not already injected or brined. It should say "natural" on it, otherwise you will end up with a bird that is too salty to eat.

Depending on the size of your turkey, the following recipe has always produced amazing results for us.

1 gallon of chicken stock

1 gallon ice water

4-6 cups of ice

1 1/2 cup of sea or kosher salt

1/4 c sage

1/4 c savory

15 garlic cloves (peeled and sliced)

In a large pot, bring to a boil stock, salt, garlic, sage and savory. Cook until salt is disolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temprature. Pour into a 5-gallon bucket, and add ice water. Be sure to remove any innards of the turkey, and add turkey to bucket, make sure the cavitiy is full of liquid and the turkey is fully submerged. Fill one or more gallon size ziploc bags with the ice, and place on top of turkey. Place in refrigerator. Allow 1 hr per pound of turkey for brining.

Remove turkey from brine. And rinse thoroughly. Pat turkey completely dry. Especially if you plan on deep frying!!

Season as you normally would, and cook using your prefered method.