Oh welcome to food house let's talk turkey roasting now I don't want to talk about herbs I don't want to talk about citrus we're not even gonna talk about aromatics or marinade ejective and we're certainly not going to talk about cheesecloth all we're gonna talk about is salt and thyme everything else is gravy well not literally but you know you're flavoring ingredients are all up to you but here is a basic roasting technique you can build upon that will get you beautifully tasty birds inside and out okay we're going to dry broth yes it's infinitely easier than wet brining forget the big pot forget finding space for that big pot forget the mess of heating and the worry of cooling dry brining works by a similar process you introduce salt the bird releases moisture then when it gets thirsty again it absorbs that yummy now salty turkey juice the result is moisture and flavor but unlike wet brining it's pure Turkey it's efficient and it's easy well the thing is it takes three days put your turkey in a plastic bag and sprinkle in one tablespoon of salt for every five pounds of Turkey this is a 20 pound bird so I'm using four tablespoons and a little extra won't kill you 1 tablespoon was on the breast one on each thigh and one for the back of the cavity and the leaves get the air out and seal the bag well give it a little massage in the bottom of your fridge it goes you might want to put a sheet pan underneath if you think it might leak now rotate the bird every 12 hours or so after a while you'll notice liquid forming in the bag that's good and do this however many times you rotate but the last rotation be two breast side down that way the juice is the best opportunity to get back into the meaty parts by now the salt has had time to work its magic take the turkey out of the bag discard what's left and for the final 12 hours leave the bird uncovered and breast side up in your fridge then bring the bird up to room temp one to two hours before cooking next pour boiling water over it crazy I know then trust it smear it with butter into a preheated 450 degree oven Oh preheat your roasting pan temp I'm keeping it bare-bones but I bet whatever you're thinking of adding to the pan under the skin or in the cavity or your basting liquid sounds amazingly delicious after half an hour drop the temp to 325 I'll ballpark the total cooking time at 12 to 15 minutes a pound but don't ruin Thanksgiving use a thermometer and pull it when the thigh registers 155 that's totally food safe and when you let it rest it should climb to a lovely 165 and not a Fahrenheit more Wow okay so maybe it seems like an involved process but dry brining is the unsung hero it does wonders to the skin denaturing proteins to help browning and does wonders for the meat packing it with juicy flavor even if you skip the hot water the butter the refrigerated air drive the tempering of the meat dry brine for awesome juicy tasty turkey