How To Cook A Turkey ~Herb Roasted Whole Turkey Recipe With Buttermilk Brine Recipe ~ Moist & Flavorful!!! (2024)

FAQs

Why soak turkey in buttermilk? ›

The acid in the buttermilk leads to moist, tender meat throughout, while the sugars result in a gorgeous golden-brown skin.

Well, think of brining as your insurance. If you're concerned your turkey might be dry, brining will keep it juicy and moist, even if you overcook it a bit. BUT– you won't overcook it due to Secret #3. During brining, the turkey absorbs extra moisture that keeps it moist during and after cooking.

An intensely flavored buttermilk brine tenderizes the chicken while keeping it moist. Adding wet ingredients to the dry flour coating ensures an extra-craggy crust with lots of nooks and crannies.

Shoot for at least 16 hours but no longer than 24 hours. If you brine it any longer than 24 hours the turkey will be too salty.

Impart rich flavor and add moisture to your Thanksgiving turkey by adding a layer of butter under the skin before roasting. Learn how to do this simple (but genius) technique for a delicious Thanksgiving turkey.

Using salt in the brine to draw moisture into the chicken, buttermilk to tenderize and a heap of herbs for fresh flavor, this easy chicken marinade creates unbelievably delicious fried chicken.

To achieve a perfectly golden, juicy turkey, let the bird spend time both covered and uncovered in the oven. We recommend covering your bird for most of the cooking time to prevent it from drying out; then, during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, remove the cover so the skin crisps in the hot oven.

Oven-Roasted Turkey

We recommend starting the turkey in a 425 degree oven for 30-45 minutes before tenting the pan with foil and lowering the temperature to 350 degrees until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the bird.

Other popular brine additions include whole peppercorns, lemon or orange quarters, bay leaves, whole cloves, and cinnamon sticks.

Step 1: Mix together liquid, salt, and sugar (if using) until salt and sugar are fully dissolved. Step 2: Add the protein to the brine, making sure that it is fully submerged. Step 3: Leave the protein in the brine for an hour per pound.

Do you rinse meat after soaking in buttermilk? ›

Do you rinse meat after soaking in buttermilk? When marinating chicken in buttermilk, there's no need to rinse it before cooking. In fact, rinsing would wash away a lot of the flavor your just infused! Simply remove the chicken from the buttermilk and let the excess marinade drip off.

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.

Brining a turkey (or any lean protein) in a simple salt and water solution tenderizes the meat while adding flavor and moisture that lasts even after roasting. Follow the steps below to make a basic brine and ensure that this year's bird boasts the juiciest, most tender meat to ever grace the holiday table.

The purpose of a brine is to produce a more tender and flavorful turkey. According to research published in the Journal of Food Science , the salt in the brine dissolves a bit of the protein in the muscle fibers, and allows the meat to absorb the brine and retain moisture during cooking.

Brining your turkey in saltwater adds extra moisture to the lean bird, helping it stay juicy as it roasts (even if you accidentally overcook it).

The buttermilk has a tangy kick and it works well as a tenderizer. Just marinate for 1 to 4 hours and discard the marinade and cook."