A Tasty Twist on Traditional Turkey: Tea Brining

One of the worst parts of the holiday season for many cooks is the Thanksgiving Turkey. Roasting a turkey is a time consuming and stressful experience for most people. Everyone wants a moist and flavorful turkey, but the process of getting there is fraught with pitfalls. The chances of overcooking or under seasoning your bird and being forced to serve an unpalatable meal looms every year. I refused to cook turkey for many years. It was just too much trouble for me.

But now, I have uncovered a surefire method to prepare a moist and delicious turkey without the stress and worry. No overcooked breast meat, no stringy and dried out messes to try to wash down with dressing and no deep frying or messy injections. What is my secret? Brining. In particular, tea brining.

What? What in the world is brining? Well, brining is a method of infusing extra moisture and flavor into your meat through the use of salt, water and spices or seasonings. The scientific explanations for why and how it work involve osmosis and cell redistribution or something like that. As an added bonus it will also draw out any impurities in the meat. All I know for sure is that it works. And if you follow my directions, you will have a bird like no other for your Thanksgiving feast!

Making The Brine

Ingredients

1 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoon black peppercorns

Juice from one lemon

8 - 10 tea bags any flavor you wish, I prefer Earl Grey

1 gallon iced water

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and place over high heat until it simmers, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, remove the tea bags and then refrigerate the brine until chilled.

Add a 14 - 16 pound turkey to the brining mixture, make sure the bird is completely covered by the liquid. Weight the bird down, cover tightly and refrigerate. After three hours, turn the turkey over, weight it down again, recover and return to refrigerator. After another three hours have passed, remove the turkey from the brine, rinse it with cold water inside and out and get rid of the brining mixture.

At this point, you roast the turkey as you would any other. The great thing here is that the turkey will have a nice, even flavor. Slightly salty and smoky but not overwhelmingly so. The brining will allow the breast of the turkey to have extra moisture so that when the thighs are done cooking, the breast is still moist rather than dry and stringy. This method works for turkey, chicken or pork with just some basic changes in the amount of time you leave the meat in the brine.

This Thanksgiving, give brining a try. You won't regret it!