Do You Wash Off Dry Brine Turkey?

Try a dry brine for your Thanksgiving turkey! It adds flavor and moisture, plus gives you wonderfully crispy skin.

Not sure how to handle the turkey this year? Why not add flavor with a dry brine? There are lots of benefits and it’s so easy to do!

First of all, let’s talk about what a brine is. A brine is typically a mixture of salt and water that is used to infuse meat and poultry with flavor while also helping it to absorb more moisture. This is my basic brine recipe and how to use it.

You might know that over the past few years I’ve become obsessed with brining and have become somewhat of an expert at it. In particular, I spent a good deal of time experimenting with chicken breasts to find the best way to brine them, and for the least amount of time, to get juicy chicken breasts, even on a weeknight. The results are, to summarize, that cold water works better than warm water, and that 45 minutes is the sweet spot for a wet brine on chicken breasts.

So now, I’ve turned to turkeys and I’m on a similar mission, to find out how to brine them in the most efficient way that yields delicious results. Our goal is to have juicy, flavorful turkey meat, with as little time and effort as possible.

To that end, I have developed an amazing wet brine for turkeys. It’s the easiest, most flavorful turkey brine out there, hands down. Why is that? You see, usually turkey brines involve boiling water with aromatics to infuse it all with flavor. Then you add the salt, and then you have to cool it down before adding the turkey. My brine instead has you put cold water, salt, and aromatics in the food processor to create an extra-flavorful slurry. It’s ready in moments and it adds an incredible amount of flavor to the turkey. You’ve gotta check that out.

Now, while I do think that that is the best brine out there, wet-brining a turkey with any brine does have some drawbacks. It can be a challenge to keep all that brine and a large turkey cold for long enough for the brine to have an effect. That’s why I highly recommend brining turkey pieces like this, instead of a whole turkey. And it’s also why I am recommending that you try dry-brining, which is what we’re going to talk about now.

A dry brine combines salt, herbs, and spices that are rubbed over the turkey before it’s cooked. Over time, the salt penetrates deep into the turkey muscles, loosening the fibers to keep the turkey moist, tender, and well-seasoned.

Although the herbs and spices aren’t necessarily carried through the muscle with the salt, they beautifully flavor the skin and create intensely-flavored pan drippings for turkey gravy. You can learn more about how a dry brine works here.

Crispy skin. Dry brining and wet brining in liquid can both result in a moist, tender turkey. But dry brining wins, hands down, when it comes to crispy skin. Dry brining takes a day or two to work its magic, but the crispy skin is well worth the wait.

No cooler needed. With a standard wet brine, the meat needs to be submerged in the salt water mixture. For a whole turkey, that usually means the fridge is out and you need to keep an eye on a cooler of ice water. With a dry brine, the turkey can be uncovered in the fridge which makes things easier.

Ready in advance. Because you can get it prepped up to 48 hours in advance, it can help spread out all the work over Thanksgiving week.

Do You Rinse Off Turkey?

You actually should never rinse off a turkey, or any kind of meat or poultry. The reason is that the water bounces off of the raw turkey in a fine mist that you can’t even see and potentially contaminates surfaces in your kitchen. So you’re not going to do that.

You might also be wondering if you should wipe off the dry brine before cooking it. I know the picture at the top of this page looks like there’s a lot of seasoning on there and that you would for sure want to wipe it off. However, that picture was taken mid-process and once you rub the seasoning in all over, and once it sits on the turkey for a long time, it is the thinnest of layers. Leave it on there to further season the turkey. It’s going to be delicious, trust me.

The only real issue with that seasoning on there has to do with the salt getting into your drippings which you might want to use to make gravy. I’ll explain what to do about that below.

After dry brining, you can cook the turkey with your favorite method and recipe. I like to roast my turkey with these instructions. But if you’d just like a quick guide, here’s what you need to know:

Generally, you’re looking at 13 minutes in the oven at 350°F per pound of turkey. For a 12 pound bird, that’s a little over 2 and 1/2 hours. An instant-read thermometer should get a reading of at least 165F from the middle of the breast and the middle of the thigh, don’t touch the bone with the thermometer. If the turkey skin gets too brown before it’s ready, you can tent it with foil. And then, I love to serve it with this delicious compound butter for turkey.

Making Gravy For Brined Turkey

Sometimes the pan drippings from a wet-brined or dry-brined turkey can be too salty. The best thing to do is to have some unsalted chicken stock on hand in case your drippings aren’t usable.

If your drippings taste fine, then you can make gravy the usual way, like in this gravy recipe. If your drippings are too salty, you can make gravy without drippings using the chicken stock. Since the chicken stock isn’t salted, you then can add some of your salty turkey drippings to your gravy as seasoning. Just note that if you’re going to be simmering your gravy for awhile, the salt will concentrate and you may need to add water to get it back to the original flavor. I can’t wait for you to try dry-brining a turkey. If you do, let me know what you think in the comments below. Enjoy!

How to Dry Brine a Turkey | Holiday Tips and Recipe Ideas | Whole Foods Market

FAQ

Do you need to rinse a dry-brined turkey?

Use paper towels and get the skin “as dry as possible” before doing anything else. And if you’re wondering, no—you don’t need to rinse the bird, whether it’s been dry-brined or wet-brined, before adding more seasoning and roasting.

Does dry brine need to be washed off?

Rinse off the salt or blot dry right before cooking. This removes excess surface salt for a purer meat flavor. Cook as desired, adjusting seasonings to taste.

What do I do after dry brining turkey?

After 12 to 18 hours, remove the turkey, dry carefully with paper towels, and roast. For crisper skin, brine a couple days in advance, and let your turkey air-dry at least overnight and up to two nights, uncovered, in the refrigerator on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.

Are you supposed to rinse off brine?

Always rinse the brine off before cooking, or they will be too salty. Also, don’t salt them after brining – save that for when they’re done (if needed).

Should I rinse my Turkey After brining?

We usually avoid rinsing the turkey after brining to prevent bacteria from spreading around the work station. The step is even less necessary when the turkey is dry brined. If you do rinse off the brine, be sure to disinfect the sink and the surrounding area before you do anything else.

Should you rinse a Turkey?

There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument. If you are concerned about the turkey being too salty, rinsing it may be a good option. However, if you are worried about the turkey drying out, you may want to skip the rinse. Brining is a great way to cook turkey if you want a moist, flavorful bird.

Do you need a sanitizer before brining a Turkey?

Use a sanitizer to fully disinfect the area. You’re now ready to move on to the next stage in seasoning and prepping the turkey for the oven or smoker. Bear in mind that you should cut back on the salt in the seasoning mixture when you’ve brined the turkey beforehand. What About Dry Brining?

Should you brine a Turkey before cooking?

Brining turkey before roasting or smoking it is a popular technique to help keep the meat moist and juicy. But a question that often comes up is whether you need to rinse off the brine before cooking the turkey. There are good arguments on both sides of this debate.

Can you eat a brined Turkey if it’s not rinsed?

But a brined turkey that is not rinsed would be too salty to eat. Brining slows down the growth of bacteria but does not kill it, said Linda Harris, a microbiologist at the University of California, Davis. She and other food scientists have been trying to get Americans to stop rinsing poultry since the late 1990’s.

Does brining a Turkey kill bacteria?

Cooking kills bacteria, so it’s safer not to spread it by washing. Brine keeps bacteria in check. The salt in the brine actually helps inhibit bacteria growth on the turkey while it’s soaking. So a properly brined turkey is likely safer than an unbrined one. It won’t get rid of all the salt.