Updated on November 20th, 2023
Here is delicious apple brine for turkey, chicken, or pork. If you have never tried brining before, it may be time to start. This brine helps to keep the meat from becoming overcooked. This brine will make the turkey or chicken very moist and not so easy to overcook. This brine also gives the meat a nice and slightly sweet flavor. Don’t worry though; this is a very mild brine. This is enough brine for a 14lb turkey. Give this a try for the holidays or for a fantastic home dinner. Enjoy.
Turkey Brine Recipe
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 quarts apple juice
- 1lb brown sugar
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 3 quarts water
- 3 oranges (sliced into quarters)
- 4 ounces fresh ginger (thinly sliced)
- 6 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 15 whole cloves
- 6 bay leaves
Instructions
- Bring apple juice, salt, and sugar to a boil over high heat. Stir well. Skim the foam. Turn off heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Add water, oranges, ginger, garlic, cloves, and bay leaves. Mix well.
Pour brine over turkey to cover and brine for 24 hours.
Ooh.. I read here quite often. I have you on my google reader. But I think this is the first time I’ve commented.
But THIS looks amazing! I’ve never brined before. This will make me start. Im adding the ingredients to the grocery list. Its a main meal this month!!!
Okay, then how do we cook it? I’ve never even heard of this before, it sounds good, but what’s the next step?
Is it to be refrigerated during the 24 hrs of brining? And it wasn’t specifically stated in the description but this just gets the meat ready to be cooked by whatever means you like (roasting, deep frying (if turkey or chicken), grilled or barbecued). And change the ingredients a bit more toward pickling spices and you can make your own corned beef at home (corned ribs just fall off the bone, too). Corned beef usually takes 5-7 days depending on the size of the brisket.
MK – Great time to start brining. It really does make a difference and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for commenting 🙂
Pam- Okay, I don’t actually get into cooking methods in this recipe. This would be for baking turkey of course. There should be instructions on the package for cooking the turkey but please note, brined turkeys normally do not take as long to cook. So it would be wise to keep checking the temp.
Ed- Yes, it must be refigerated. I usually bake the turkey, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t grill or deep fry as well. I have always wanted to try deep fried turkey before!
some brines tell u to rinse first to get rid of the salt. would u do that in this case as well? i did a half turkey on the grill before, and it was delish, a whole turkey would be tricky (depending on the size). would use alot of gas too.
but am making turkey for mothers day and would like to give this one a whirl. i luv the spices and oranges. my other brine only had salt, sugar & water.
arleen – Yes, you could rinse the salt off, if you are worried about it being overly salty. Either way, make sure to pat dry the bird before baking.
I have grilled, smoked, and fried brined turkeys. They all turn out delicious. I wouldn’t cook a turkey that hadn’t been brined anymore. They are just so much better with little effort. Chef, your recipe is almost exactly the same as mine which I adapted over time through experimenting. Guess I must be doing something right!
Great article on Turkey Brine. I am always looking for new recipes to try out and add to my website. I tried my firt brine recipe a few years ago and now I’ve have tried quite a few. This one with the apples looks good.
One thing that I like to do is also inject my turkey with a homemade marinade and then soak it in the brine for 24 hours. And then I deep fry my turkey. OMG! Talk about delicious…
Thanks again for sharing.
Kevin
There are articles that question whether or not brining is worth all the trouble as far as improving taste. Some say that brining waters down and overwhelms the natural turkey flavor.
You should do a test study and see which one produces the best results and let us know. Personally, my mother has gone through all the trouble of brining with a salt, whiskey and sherry mixture with good results. However, I’m no expert and we never did a side by side study to know if we are able to credit the brining process for making any big difference.