How To Brine, Air Dry & BBQ a 4kg Christmas Turkey is a fail safe way to have a beautifully tender, succulent turkey to die for with crispy, browned skin at your Christmas table.
This is a two day process, which involves brining the turkey in a spiced and slightly sweetened salt bath for 24 hours then air drying it in the fridge. The brine bath tenderises the meat and the air drying dries out the skin that then enables it to develop a rich brown and crispy skin when cooked.
Ok, lets start … I’m using a 4kg turkey from ECO Meats Butcher here in Canberra and this fits perfectly into a 9 litre plastic tub (roughly 18cm high – 29cm long – 20cm wide) It’s preferable to have a lid but not absolutely necessary.
Tub size is most important as it’s going to be occupying valuable real estate in the fridge so make it as snug to the turkey as possible. Removing the veggie crisper in the bottom of the fridge and placing the tub there is a good way of utilising space for the 24 hours.
To work out roughly how much salt and sugar you need, you will need to work out how much water you will be using. Place the turkey in the tub and fill with water till it covers the bird. Remove the turkey (place in the fridge) and the remaining water will be your volume. You can either place a mark where the water level is and dispose of the water or place the tub into the fridge. It is important that you use cold water so the turkey doesn’t warm up in the water.
You really don’t need to be exact just eyeball how much water you have left. I had roughly 1/2 a tub of water remaining in the 9 litre tub so about 4.5 litres, which is just over the 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water ratio (3.8 litres = 1 gallon, but I rounded it up to 4 litres)
*Be sure to check out the extra tips that are included at the bottom of the page.
Brine Ingredients & Method:
1 cup of cooking salt per 4 litres so I added 1 cup & 2 tablespoons of salt.
1/2 cup of sugar
Spices – 1 tablespoon each of Juniper Berries, Allspice Berries, Green Cardamom Pods (lightly crushed) Black Peppercorns and 1/2 teaspoon of Cloves
Bring a few cups of water to the boil in a saucepan and add the salt, sugar and spices.
Stir till the salt and sugar have both dissolved. If you find that the salt hasn’t completely dissolved just add some more water. Leave to cool completely or place saucepan in sink with cold water to quicken the cooling.
Once the concentrated brining liquid has cooled down add it to the tub and top up with water to your mark, stir, then place in your turkey. Cover the tub and place into your fridge for 24hours.
Air Drying Procedure:
Remove the bird from the brining liquid and place on a plate or tray with a stainless steel rack or a clean tea towel.
Use paper towel to pat dry the top and sides of the bird and then place into the fridge, uncovered, to dry for 24 hours.
Cooking The Turkey:
Cook time: about 2 hours or till thickest part of thigh reaches 66°C / 150°F (it will continue to cook while resting)
Rest time: 1 hour
BBQ temperature: 180°C / 355°F – Pre heat the bbq for at least 30mins
Requirements: BBQ with a hood and an oven thermometer
Ingredients:
1 brined and air dried turkey
75g butter, cold and sliced into five pieces
Handful each of – Sage, Thyme, Rosemary
1 orange, quartered
A dusting of black pepper and garlic powder
Vegetables for a trivet – Carrots sliced in half length ways, Potatoes sliced in to 3rds lengthways, 1 onion cut in half
Method:
Trivet:
This is to keep the bird off direct contact with the roasting tray. VERY important.
Cut off the first two joints of each wing (the tip and the next one up containing the two bones leaving the meaty, 3rd part still attached to the body) The wings will be placed on the base of the roasting tray.
Next place the sliced carrots, potatoes, two orange quarters and onion in the tray and your trivet is done… and the makings of a delicious gravy!
Turkey:
Using your fingers, gently prise away the skin from the flesh on the breast and the top of each leg.
Insert the butter pieces into the cavities you have made and then add a sage leaf on each piece of butter.
Place the herbs, including the remaining sage and two orange quarters into the cavity.
Sprinkle on the garlic powder and black pepper.
Now time to cook!
Place the turkey into the centre of the bbq. Position the thermometer (do not use your bare fingers!) so you can monitor the temperature without opening the hood if you can.
Leave to cook, checking in a couple of times to monitor the temperature.
After about 1.5 hours check the internal temperature at the thickest part of the thigh, also baste the outside with the butter that will be gathering at the bottom of the roasting pan.
Monitor every 15 mins till you have reached 66°C
Remove from bbq and leave to rest for 1 hour.
Tips:
- If you haven’t used your bbq to roast before, it can be worth your while to do a test run. Place an oven thermometer in the centre of the bbq and turn on the two burners furthest away (one each side of the bbq). Have the burners on full/highest and leave for 30 mins with the hood down. If too hot then you know to turn it down. My BBQ sat at a stable 180°C with the two burners on the lowest setting. Even though the BBQ has a built in thermometer on the outside of the hood, I discovered after the test run that there was almost a 40°C difference between the two with the built in showing the internal temperature a much lower temperature so it really does pay to have one inside the hood.
- Got no fridge space then use an esky with ice water and a thermometer to monitor the temperature while it’s brining. Thermometers now have an alarm that will go off when it hits a pre set temperature threshold.
- Place a tea towel in the fridge where your tub will be placed. This will absorb any spillages when transferring it over. It is quite heavy.
- If you are having difficulty working out the amount of salt to water ratio just make this exact amount of brining liquid or double it if you know you will need more and then just pour in what you need and pour the rest away, no great loss.
- You can add whatever herbs and spices you like to the brine, just be careful with too much citrus.
- Trussing the legs and wings to the body of the bird, if that’s the presentation you want, is entirely up to you. Just keep in mind that it then changes your cooking time as the breast meat will be cooked through before the dark meat on the legs has had time to completely cook through.
- If you want to Make Gravy Ahead of time then check out this fantastic recipe from Jamie Oliver. Otherwise you will have a fabulous base to make one with your trivet ingredients.