Mom's Best Turkey Brine Recipe (Video)

Mom's Best Turkey Brine Recipe - impress your guests this holiday season with the best turkey you’ve ever served! This easy turkey brine is made with a handful of ingredients including water, onions, garlic, and some seasoning to give your turkey added flavor and incredible moisture in every bite!

The great thing about learning how to brine a turkey is knowing that while they all serve the same purpose, there are many different ways to flavor your bird!

It’s made with water, aromatics, and simple seasoning that you most likely already have on hand, which makes this a great recipe for everyone. Combine the ingredients, dunk your turkey and let the brine do the rest. We don’t even need to boil it first!

Jump to:

• Why You'll Love This Turkey Brine
• What is brining?
• Wet Brine vs Dry Brine
• When Should I Brine My Turkey for Thanksgiving?
• Turkey Brine Ingredients
• How to Make Turkey Brine
• What to Do After Brining Your Turkey
• Expert Tips for the Best Turkey Brine
• What to Serve with Thanksgiving Turkey
•  FAQs
• More Thanksgiving Recipes
• If You Make This Turkey Brine...
• 📖 Recipe

Why You'll Love This Turkey Brine

• No boiling required! This is probably my favorite part. Just mix everything together, add your turkey, and let the brine do its thing!
• Simple ingredients. You don't need anything fancy. Just water, kosher salt, garlic, onions, and a few seasonings.
• Juicy, flavorful turkey. Brining helps the turkey hold onto moisture while roasting, giving you tender, delicious meat.
• Perfect for Thanksgiving. You can prepare everything the night before, which means one less thing to worry about on Thanksgiving morning.
• A family recipe. This is my mom's turkey brine, and I love sharing recipes that have been part of our family celebrations. ❤️

And once your turkey is ready, you can use my How to Cook a Turkey in a Bag recipe for a delicious holiday dinner!

What is brining?

Bringing a turkey, or any kind of meat whether it’s chicken, pork, beef, or fish, is done by submerging the meat in salt water. The added seasonings help penetrate flavor right down to the bone, but the salt is what draws the moisture into the meat.

It helps the turkey absorb the moisture and retain it so that when we naturally lose a bit of the moisture during the cooking process, we have enough extra that the meat stays nice and juicy.

Wet Brine vs Dry Brine

Dry brine is when you add a layer of salt to the outside of the turkey to basically form a crust and then allowing it to rest in the fridge for anywhere up to 72 hours. What this does is the salt draws out the moisture and releases it back into the meat.

It also helps to form a nice outer crust on the meat.

As you can imagine wet brine includes water! It’s also a chance to use different seasonings and aromatics and while it’s a subtle flavor, and less concentrated than a dry brine, it’s still great for moisture and juiciness.

When Should I Brine My Turkey for Thanksgiving?

If you're making turkey for Thanksgiving, I recommend getting everything ready the day before.

For this recipe, I use an 18-pound turkey and let it sit in the brine for about 12 hours or overnight.

Here's how I like to plan it:

• Wednesday evening: Prepare the brine, add your fully thawed turkey, cover, and refrigerate.
• Thursday morning: Remove the turkey from the brine, discard the liquid, and pat the turkey dry with paper towels.
• Before roasting: Get your turkey ready using your favorite cooking method.

And that's it! One less thing to worry about on Thanksgiving morning.

My little tip: Make sure you have enough refrigerator space for your turkey and brining container before you start. An 18-pound turkey takes up quite a bit of room!

Didn't have time to brine your turkey? Don't worry! You can still make a delicious, juicy Thanksgiving turkey with my Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe with Stuffing. It's perfect when you're short on time!

Turkey Brine Ingredients

• Water & Kosher salt: The base of the brine is always highly concentrated salt water. You can adjust the level of salt to taste by adding some at first, and adding more to taste, if needed.
• Montreal steak spice: This is a spice I always have on hand for seasoning all kinds of meat. It’s a combination of herbs and spices that adds so much flavor to the brine.
• Aromatics: We’re adding sliced onions and whole garlic heads along with bay leaves and peppercorns. These are in most of our kitchens anyway, but if not they can be easily picked up at your local store. Since we discard the brine and use these things just for flavor, there’s no need for chopping anything too small.
• Turkey: I use an 18 lb turkey for this recipe. The amounts of each ingredient doesn’t need to change based on the size of your turkey. It’s the length of time that it sits in the brine that matters.

See the recipe card for the full information on recipe ingredients and quantities.

How to Make Turkey Brine

Step 1: Take your 5-gallon bucket and add the water, Montreal steak spice, onions, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorn, and salt. Do a little taste test and see if you need to add any more salt. Remember Kosher salt is different than table salt, so using the same amount of either one, usually means the kosher salt will be less salty.

Step 2: Submerge the whole bird into the brine and make sure the water covers the entire turkey. Place the bucket in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight.

Step 3: Remove the turkey from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. It is now ready to roast!

What to Do After Brining Your Turkey

Once your turkey has been sitting in the brine overnight, it's time to get it ready for the oven!

Remove the turkey from the brine, discard the used brine, and pat the turkey really well with paper towels.

Then you can cook it using your favorite method. If you need an easy one, try my How to Cook a Turkey in a Bag. I love this method because the turkey comes out juicy and tender, and it's such an easy way to make Thanksgiving turkey!

Now all that's left are the sides... which might actually be my favorite part of Thanksgiving. 

Expert Tips for the Best Turkey Brine

• Plan ahead for refrigerator space. Trust me on this one. A big turkey sitting in a brining bucket takes up A LOT of room. Clear a spot in your refrigerator before you start!
• Start with a completely thawed turkey. If your turkey is frozen, give it plenty of time to thaw in the refrigerator before you start brining.
• Check the package first. Before brining, look to see if your turkey is labeled self-basting, pre-brined, or enhanced with a salt solution. Brining a turkey that already contains added salt can make it too salty.
• Use a food-safe container. I like using a large food-safe bucket or a turkey brining bag. Whatever you use, make sure it's big enough for the turkey to stay completely submerged in the brine.
• Keep it cold. The turkey needs to stay refrigerated at 40°F or below the entire time it's brining. This is especially important when you're making it the night before Thanksgiving.
• Don't change the salt amount. I recommend sticking with the amount of kosher salt listed in the recipe instead of adjusting it by taste. And once the raw turkey goes into the brine, definitely don't taste it!
• Brine overnight. For my 18-pound turkey, I like to brine it for about 12 hours or overnight. It's so easy to get it ready the night before and have it waiting for you Thanksgiving morning.
• There's no need to rinse the turkey. Once it's finished brining, remove it from the brine, discard all of the used brine, and pat the turkey really well with paper towels.
• Dry it well before roasting. This is one of my favorite little tips! Getting the outside nice and dry helps you get that beautiful golden skin when the turkey roasts.

What to Serve with Thanksgiving Turkey

Now let's talk about the best part... all those Thanksgiving sides!

Once the turkey is figured out, here are a few recipes you can add to your Thanksgiving table:

• Green Bean Casserole – One of those classic Thanksgiving sides that always disappears fast.
• Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes – Creamy mashed potatoes without taking up another burner on the stove. Always a win on Thanksgiving!
• Rice Stuffing for Turkey – My mother-in-law's delicious rice stuffing made with crispy bacon, onions, and carrots. Such a family favorite for Thanksgiving! 
• Italian Marinated Mushrooms – Savory, garlicky mushrooms that are such an easy side dish for Thanksgiving. They're especially good next to turkey and mashed potatoes!
• Mediterranean Oven Roasted Vegetables – A colorful mix of roasted vegetables that's perfect when you want something a little lighter next to all those cozy Thanksgiving dishes.

And don't forget dessert! My Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate Crust is such a fun twist on classic pumpkin pie and one of those desserts that looks beautiful on the Thanksgiving table. 

 FAQs

More Thanksgiving Recipes

Planning your Thanksgiving menu? Here are a few more recipes you might want to save for the holidays!

• Bacon Jalapeño Poppers – A cheesy, crispy appetizer that's perfect for everyone to snack on while the turkey is cooking.
• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Hand Pies – Little pumpkin pies with a creamy center that are so fun for Thanksgiving dessert.
• Harvest Salad with Chicken – Apples, roasted butternut squash, pecans, and cranberries make this such a beautiful fall salad.
• Roasted Butternut Squash Soup – A cozy soup that would make a beautiful starter for Thanksgiving dinner.
• Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping – Perfect for Thanksgiving morning when everyone is waiting for the big dinner.

And if you're planning your Thanksgiving menu ahead of time, don't forget to save these recipes so you can find them when the holiday gets closer!

If You Make This Turkey Brine...

I would LOVE to hear how your turkey turns out!

Please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review below and let me know if you made it for Thanksgiving or another special dinner. Your reviews mean so much to me and help other readers find and try my recipes too!

And don't forget to take a picture of your beautiful turkey and tag me @munchkintimeblog on Instagram. I absolutely love seeing what you're making in your kitchen!

📖 Recipe

Happy Cooking!