Turkey - Dry Brining

At Dish Gracepoint, we're all about streamlining and saving time/work. Brining is great, but it adds extra steps (and it's a bit messy). Jim Kwak sent me this article on dry brining and in theory it's an excellent technique: http://www.latimes.com/theguide/holiday-guide/food/la-fo-calcook18-2009nov18,0,6560622,full.story. You could do this in about 5 minutes.

Application:

• Unwrap the frozen turkey (at least 3 days before use), you probably want to do this as soon as you get it.
• Measure 3/5 tsp salt per lb turkey. (a 15lb turkey would be 3 tablespoons).
• Measure about 1/4 tsp dry herb/seasoning per lb (15lb turkey = 1.5 tablespoon).
• Mix salt & herbs in a bowl and rub onto the turkey. It'd be nice to get the herbs under the skin, but you can just rub it on the outside of the skin to save time.
• Double bag 2 large trash bags and place the turkey in the bags.
• Try to seal the bag as best as you can (to prevent juice from leaking into fridge)
• Thaw in fridge for 3 days or so. Rotate the turkey once or twice during this time.
• When the turkey is fully thawed, it will be seasoned/brined from center to skin.

I personally like an herb mix called Poultry Seasoning. You can pick it up at Safeway. It's a mix of Thyme, Sage, Marjoram, Rosemary, Black Pepper and Nutmeg.