How to Brine Turkey and Other Poultry

Chefs who brine turkey before roasting say it's a technique that makes the bird more moist and tender. If you're curious, here's Scott Cutaneo, chef-proprietor of the four-diamond, (AAA) Le Petit Chateau in Bernardsville, N.J., to show you, step-by-step, how to brine a turkey.

Hi! I’m Scott Catanio, I’m here for Howdini. Today I’ll be brining a turkey. Brining is such an important critical step whether its turkey, chicken or Cornish hen. It’s a salt solution that we have pre-treat our bird to actually break down the connective tissue and add flavor which adds moisture as well as great taste. Here we have sugar, salt, ice and a little bourbon. So for 12 to 14 pound bird, I’ve already preloaded my bucket with 2 gallons of water. As long as the container is clean you could use anything that accommodates the size of your bird. We have our water. We’re going to add our sugar, our salt. The sugar helps sweeten the bird because the salt will actually penetrate in to the meat. So we want to counter-act some of that acidity with the sugar. We’ll going to add some bourbon. Bourbon is also an acid that will help break down the connective tissue of the meat as well. You can use as much as you like. So here we’re going to whisk that and then we’re going to add our ice. Ice is a very critical step because we want to ensure that the temperature of the water stays below 40 degrees where bacteria could grow. We had our ice, we’ve already washed and pre-treated our bird, cleaned it, dried it. Now we’re going to add this to a bucket. Make sure that the turkeys completely immersed in the water with the salt, sugar and bourbon. We’re going to put it into a refrigerator and we’re going to check back after 6 to 8 hours from now. It’s been 8 hours. We’ve had our turkey in our brine. Now its time to remove it, dry it and prepare it for roasting. We want to rinse it off and have it dry. Make sure all the water is removed from the cavity. We’ll put it into a roasting pan, we patted dry. The brining is finished, its tender, flavorful and ready for roasting. I’m Scott Catanio for Howdini.