Brined Thanksgiving turkey

We used a 10.8 pound fresh turkey from our local butcher.  It was the moistest turkey we ever made.

Ingredients:

• turkey
• kosher salt
• honey
• sugar 
• spices (optional - use anything you like)
• water
• 2 2.5 gallon zip lock bags for an 11 pound turkey

Wednesday

5:00 p.m.     Prepare the brine.

11:30 p.m.   Put turkey in brine – refrigerate.

Thursday

8:30 a.m.     Remove turkey from brine.  Dry, place uncovered in refrigerator.

1:00 p.m.     Cook turkey.

                           

1. We prepared the brine using a cold water method, placing the salt and sugar in the water a few hours prior to putting the turkey in the brine.  The salt dissolved.  We used:  
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 - 1/3  cup mix honey and sugar
• 1 gallon water.
2. Right before we put the turkey in the brine, we added a few spices (we couldn’t really taste these in the cooked turkey):  bay leaves, a few cloves, about a teaspoon each of rosemary, sage, and thyme. 
3. We removed the organs from the turkey cavities and washed and patted dry the turkey.
4. We placed the turkey in double 2.5 gallon zip-lock bags.
5. We poured the brine into the bags and sealed them so that as much of the bird as possible was covered by the brine. We put the bird/brine into a big pot (in case the bags leaked) and put it in the refrigerator.
6. The bird remained in the brine in the fridge overnight for about 9 hours.
7. In the morning, we took the turkey out of the brine, rinsed and dried it, and threw away the brine mixture.
8. We put the turkey, uncovered, into the refrigerator to sit for 4 hours.  It was recommended that it sit uncovered for 8 hours to produce a more crispy brown skin.  (I’m not sure if this has anything to do with brining.)
9. We put the turkey in the oven (upside down – again, not sure this has anything to do with brining) at 325 degrees.  It took 3 hours plus to reach 165 degrees.  It got very brown and crispy, so we put a loose foil tent over it the last 45 minutes to an hour.  Next time we may try to turn it the last hour to brown the breast side.
10. We let it rest 20 minutes before carving.

It was fantastic!  Three sites we reviewed when trying to figure out how to do this:

• http://www.slashfood.com/2007/11/09/some-turkey-brining-dos-and-donts/ 
• http://www.slashfood.com/2009/11/11/turkey-brining-101-how-to-brine-that-bird/
• http://southerncuisine.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_brine_a_turkey_recipe_and_directions