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Simple turkey brine recipe

Published: 2 Dec 18
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Take your Christmas dinner up a notch and learn how to brine a turkey, ensuring a beautifully moist texture and even more flavour, by using this simple turkey brine recipe.

Easy

Test kitchen approved

5 mins plus overnight brine time

Take your Christmas dinner up a notch and learn how to brine a turkey, ensuring a beautifully moist texture and even more flavour, by using this simple turkey brine recipe.

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Ingredients

For a 5kg turkey, you will need:

8 litres of water
200g table salt
Handful black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
Knob of thinly sliced fresh ginger
200g labneh or thick greek yogurt
250g light Muscovado sugar
1 orange
8 tbsps maple syrup

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Method

For a 5kg free-range turkey, fill a large clean plastic container with 8 litres of water.

To create the brine, add 200g of table salt, some black peppercorns, a cinnamon stick, a knob of thinly sliced fresh ginger, 250g of light Muscovado sugar, labneh or yogurt, one whole orange (halved and squeezed) and 8 tablespoons of maple syrup to the container.
Stir the mixture until all the salt has dissolved.
Carefully lower your turkey into the brining solution. It should be fully submerged, so do add more water if you have to.

Cover the container with foil or a lid and leave overnight in a cool place.
Lift the turkey from the brine and dry with a paper towel an hour or two before it’s due to go in the oven.