How To Dry Brine and Roast a Turkey

A dry brine turkey is the easiest way to get a juicy, well-seasoned holiday bird without wrestling a bucket of salt water. You rub a citrus-herb dry brine under the skin and all over the turkey, wrap it tight, let it sit overnight, then roast it until it’s golden. No coolers. No ice. Not a bit of drama.

I want this to be the year you jump on the dry brine turkey train. I mean, if you haven’t already. Turkey is the star of the holiday table, so why not make this one your best yet? Let me show you everything I know about how to dry brine and roast a turkey.

This post was originally published on November 22, 2017. I updated it in November 2026 to tighten up the steps, add more food-safety tips, and answer more of your turkey questions.

What is a brine?

I always try to think of clever, approachable ways to explain food science.

Think of the hottest summer day you’ve ever experienced. Now put yourself outside in it. Say, El Paso, Texas, in July. That sun and heat make you sweat, which means you’re losing moisture. Stay out long enough, and you get dehydrated. Stay out way too long, and you die.

So it is with meats, especially lean meats like turkey. In the oven, they’re “sweating” out all their moisture. Leave them in too long, and they come out dry as a bone. Dead, like you.

Whenever we know we’re going to be outside sweating our butts off, we hydrate with electrolytes (salt) so our bodies hold onto water. A brine is Gatorade for your turkey. The salt works its way into the meat and loosens up its proteins, so they hang onto more of their own juices while they roast. More moisture, more flavor, less sawdust.

That’s epic. I expect a Pulitzer for that one, my friend.

What’s the difference between dry brine and wet brine?

A wet brine is salt (and usually sugar and aromatics) dissolved in water, and you submerge the meat in it. A dry brine skips the water. You rub the salt, sugar, and seasonings directly onto the meat.

Here’s the cool part. The salt in a dry brine pulls some juice out of the turkey at first. That juice dissolves the salt into a concentrated brine right on the surface, and the meat sucks it back up over the next several hours. Basically, the turkey makes its own brine. You get all the seasoning and juiciness without watering down the flavor.

You can flip almost any wet brine into a dry one. If your recipe uses large leaves, like bay leaves, crush them down to a powder first.

For me, the biggest difference is logistics. A wet brine means finding a vessel large enough to hold the bird, plus the liquid, plus the ice that’s invariably involved. A dry brine means your hands and some plastic wrap.

You know what? Let me tell you a little story…

Why should I dry brine my turkey?

For years, I swore by wet brining the holiday bird. Thanksgiving has cult status in my family, so I don’t mess around with the main course. Then I met a mutant turkey, and everything changed.

I always host military servicemembers for the holidays. One year, a buddy offered to buy the turkey if I’d cook it.

“Too easy!” I said. Then homeboy pulled up two days before Thanksgiving.

“Where’s the bird?”
“Oh! ‘He’s’ in Jr.’s car seat.”
“The hell? Why is raw poultry in your son’s car seat?”
“It’s still frozen. It’s safe.”
“You didn’t thaw it?!”
“Oh… I didn’t know I had to,” he said, opening the back door.

Brace yourself.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”

“The turkey! Thirty-two pounds, so we’d have leftovers.”

“That’s a freaking pterodactyl! It’ll take five days to thaw!”

“Well, you’re a ‘chef.’Make it happen.”

“First of all, don’t air quote ‘chef.’ I am a chef. Second, I’m not a Soldier, so watch your mouth. Third, you’re carrying that beast inside.”

Watching him stagger in with that animal brought me great joy. But there was no way it would thaw in the fridge in two days. So Hector scrubbed out our biggest cooler, set it in the guest tub, and we ran cold water over the bird for twenty-four hours. Mission “Thaw the Beast”: accomplished.

But where was I supposed to brine it?

Nowhere. That bird plus gallons of water wouldn’t fit in anything sanitary. So I rubbed my usual wet brine ingredients all over it instead. People said it was my best turkey yet.

Lesson learned: never ask a combat medic to buy your turkey, and wet brining isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

What do I need to dry brine a turkey?

First, get your hands on a normal-sized bird (NOT 32 pounds). Try to avoid turkeys injected with “a solution.” Check the label. That “solution” is usually a sodium infusion pumped into the bird to make it taste better. We don’t need all of that because we have each other. Kosher turkeys are also salted during processing. If an injected or kosher bird is all you can find, go ahead and grab it, but cut the dry brine roughly in half.

Here’s the rest of what you need:

• Half a batch of my Citrus-Herb Dry Brine
• The orange and lemons you zested for the dry brine (don’t toss them!)
• A small onion and a whole head of garlic
• Fresh poultry herbs: sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano (add parsley if you want)
• A tablespoon of vegetable oil
• Plastic wrap, heavy-duty aluminum foil, and butcher’s twine
• An instant-read thermometer

Most importantly, besides the turkey, you need a roasting pan with a rack.

How do I make the dry brine?

The linked dry brine recipe post gives you the full breakdown, but here it is in a snapshot:

1. Mix kosher salt, brown sugar, herbes de Provence, granulated garlic, onion powder, and black pepper with the zest of an orange and lemons.
2. Measure out 1 tablespoon of dry brine per pound of turkey.
3. Use it.

In the dry brine post, I also give options and swaps so you can make your own unique blend.

Can I make the dry brine ahead?

I actually encourage it. Mix it up and store it in a glass jar with a lid in the pantry for up to a month.

This dry brine is versatile, so don’t limit it to turkey. But this recipe is for a turkey, so let’s get to it.

The turkey pictured is 14 pounds, so I use 14 tablespoons. That’s 7/8 cup, or 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons. I round it up to a full cup, but you can round up or down based on how your blood pressure is doing that day.

How long does it take a turkey to thaw?

My horror story above should beg the question, “How long does it take to properly thaw a turkey?” My guidelines come straight from the USDA.

Refrigerator thawing: give your turkey 24 hours per 5 pounds.

• 8 to 12 pound turkeys: 2 to 3 days
• 12 to 16 pound turkeys: 3 to 4 days
• 16 to 20 pound turkeys: 4 to 5 days
• 20 to 24 pound turkeys: 5 to 6 days

So what if you didn’t plan ahead, or a combat medic brought you a dinosaur? Quick thawing is faster, but it also runs up your water bill.

Cold-water thawing: submerge the wrapped turkey in a sink or tub of cold water. Allow 30 minutes per pound, and change the water every 30 minutes.

• 8 to 12 pound turkeys: 4 to 6 hours
• 12 to 16 pound turkeys: 6 to 8 hours
• 16 to 20 pound turkeys: 8 to 10 hours
• 20 to 24 pound turkeys: 10 to 12 hours

One catch: the USDA says to cook a cold-water-thawed turkey right away. That doesn’t leave time for an overnight dry brine, which is one more reason to start thawing in the fridge early.

And, no, thawing a turkey in the microwave is not an option for anyone I hang with. Plan ahead.

How far in advance should I dry brine my turkey?

Dry brine your turkey for at least 12 hours. Turkeys are pretty meaty, so you want to give the salt time to do its osmosis thang.

There’s a membrane between the turkey’s skin and the breast meat. Starting where the breast comes to a point at the cavity, use your index (pointer) finger to separate it. Keep working your finger between the skin and the meat to loosen the two. Take care not to tear the skin, since everything in life is about capturing the perfect shot for Instagram (insert eye-roll here).

Once the skin is loose, shove 1/2 cup of the dry brine under it. Skip this step, and your turkey will be good but not amazing. With no barrier between the breast meat and the brine, the breast soaks up all that salt, spice, and herb flavor and holds onto its moisture to boot.

Use your hands to spread the brine around under the skin. Just give the bird a nice, deep tissue massage or something.

How long should the turkey dry brine?

Rub the rest of the dry brine all over the outside of the turkey, and hit the inside of the cavity, too.

I have a trick for marinating meats. It’s a lot like how I prep gravlax or my Pernil: wrap the hell out of it so the brine has nowhere to go. While the salt draws out the juices and the turkey sucks them back up, the wrapping acts like a bodyguard. No flavor escapes on its watch.

Wrap the bird tightly in overlapping layers of plastic wrap. Go wash your hands, then grab two sheets of heavy-duty foil. Wrap the bird again in the foil and plunk it onto a sheet pan. Let it sit in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.

There’s no need to go longer than 24 hours. Turkey is so lean that it absorbs as much flavor as it can hold in that time. Going over by 6 to 8 hours is okay, but don’t push past that.

What type of pan works best for roasting a turkey?

A roasting pan with a rack that sits inside is best. Roasting pans have tall sides, usually with handles on each end, so a big bird can release its juices without making a mess of your oven. Most are thick stainless steel, so they can go straight onto the stovetop afterward (gravy, anyone?).

Avoid glass roasting pans. They’re notoriously prone to shattering in high heat, and you can’t take them from oven to stovetop. The old-school black or blue speckled roasting pan with a lid was the cornerstone of every Black and Hispanic kitchen I ever walked into. I’m sure my Asian and White friends had them too.

For me, the rack is the most important part. It lets the heat circulate so the bird roasts and browns evenly. Without it, the turkey sits in its juices and the bottom skin turns rubbery instead of crisp. No rack? Make one out of chopped root veggies (potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery) or a rope of foil coiled up like a snail. Set the bird on top, and you’ve got a makeshift rack.

How do I prep the turkey for roasting?

First, move your oven rack to the lower half of the oven. Too close to the heating element, and the bird browns unevenly. Then preheat your oven to 325°F (163°C).

Unwrap the turkey and pat the outside dry with paper towels or a kitchen towel. You’ll be roasting for a few hours, so you want to wipe off any spices on the surface that might burn.

Leave the plastic binding on the drumsticks. That’s what holds the legs in a compact position so the bird cooks evenly.

What can I stuff the cavity of the bird with?

Stuffing the cavity with aromatics is another great way to add flavor to the meat. We’re not cooking bread stuffing in here, just things that perfume the bird.

Remember those zested citrus fruits I told you to save? Cut the orange and lemons into small wedges. Stuff half of them into the cavity.

Follow the citrus with a bundle of fresh herbs. I stack the sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano on top of one another and wrap the bundle tightly with butcher’s twine. Tie a knot and push the herb bundle into the center of the cavity.

Follow the herb bundle with a small onion cut into wedges and a whole head of garlic cut across its width. Finish with the rest of the citrus wedges.

Yes, all of this fits into my bird, but I’m not shy about getting in it.

How do I get a golden-brown turkey?

If by “perfect” you mean looking like it fell out of a magazine, you’re going to need brown food coloring, oil, and maybe some liquid smoke. Seriously. Food stylists make those turkeys look that way. Since we’re actually going to eat ours, we’re not doing all that.

Perfect to me means golden brown and properly cooked. For that, start by brushing the turkey breast and wingtips with cooking oil. Just 1 tablespoon will do.

Next, shape a piece of heavy-duty foil over the breast, down to the cavity. Leave the legs exposed. Cut small pieces of foil to cover the wingtips, too.

The breast and wingtips brown faster than the rest of the bird, so they start out covered. Toward the end of roasting, you’ll uncover the breast so it can catch up.

How long do I roast the turkey?

Go by the USDA roasting timetable at 325°F (163°C).

These are the USDA’s times for an unstuffed turkey. We’re only filling the cavity with aromatics, not bread stuffing, so the unstuffed times are the ones I go by.

• 8 to 12 pounds: 2 3/4 to 3 hours
• 12 to 14 pounds: 3 to 3 3/4 hours
• 14 to 18 pounds: 3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours
• 18 to 20 pounds: 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours
• 20 to 24 pounds: 4 1/2 to 5 hours

So my 14-pound turkey takes about 3 to 3 3/4 hours.

About an hour before the low end of that range (2 hours in for a 14-pound bird), take the pan out of the oven, remove the foil from the breast only, and slide it back in to finish roasting.

That timetable is a guide, not gospel. Ovens run differently, so start checking the temperature at the low end of the range, then every 15 minutes after that.

Ultimately, internal temperature is what matters. Insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, making sure it isn’t touching the bone. Then check the thickest part of the breast and the innermost part of the wing. When all three read 165°F (74°C), your turkey is done.

Pull the turkey out of the oven and let it rest under a foil tent for 15 minutes before carving. That gives the juices a chance to settle back into the meat.

How many people will my turkey feed?

That depends on how greedy your family is. All of us are insane when it comes to turkey, so we only get three meals out of a 14-pound bird.

If you want leftovers, plan on 1 1/4 pounds of turkey per guest. If leftovers aren’t your thing, scale down to 1 pound per guest.

• 8 guests: 8 to 10 pound turkey
• 10 guests: 10 to 12 1/2 pound turkey
• 12 guests: 12 to 15 pound turkey
• 14 guests: 14 to 18 pound turkey

The lower number is for the no-leftovers crew. Clearly, the higher number is for my crew.

How do I serve this dry brine roast turkey?

Though we sometimes have it, my family isn’t huge on gravy. For us, it just gets in the way of the flavor. Plus, this turkey doesn’t need it.

Carve the turkey how you normally would and serve it with your favorite sides. Here are the ones I always make for the holidays:

• Boozy Spiced Cranberry Sauce
• Slow Cooker Collard Greens with Smoked Turkey
• Arroz con Gandules
• Five Cheese Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Save room for dessert. My Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Pecan Praline Topping, Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust, and Maple Pecan Pie with Bourbon and Chocolate Chunks are all on rotation, and a glass of Coquito never hurt anybody.

Want a Puerto Rican spin on the holiday bird? Try my Pavochón with Mofongo Stuffing.

What’s the best way to store leftovers?

You want this turkey to taste just as good tomorrow, so don’t leave it sitting out. Get leftovers into the fridge within 2 hours of pulling the bird from the oven.

Serve what you’ll eat, then pack the rest of the meat into food storage containers. Keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days, and reheat only what you plan to eat in one sitting. Reheat it in the microwave on high until steaming hot. Or don’t. Cold turkey is totally a vibe, and I definitely recommend it.

Can I freeze leftover turkey?

If you can’t get through the leftovers in 3 days, freeze them! I know we can’t (or shouldn’t) eat a 14-pound bird that fast, so I pack half of the leftovers into freezer bags right away.

Frozen turkey keeps for 2 months. When you’re ready to eat, thaw it overnight in the fridge. Reheat it in the microwave, or warm it in a skillet with a splash of water until it’s heated through.

Can I use this dry brine technique on other meats?

Don’t limit your dry brine to turkey. Stick with 1 tablespoon per pound, and you can use this technique on just about any meat. Try it the next time you roast a whole chicken, pork loin, or pot roast. It’s more versatile than you might think.

Be sure to pin this recipe to your holiday boards and share it with your crew. But don’t let the combat medic pick up the bird. Let them take the day off.