This is hands down the best brined turkey I’ve ever made. Apple cider brined turkey is definitely worth the time to make.
Ingredients
Note: If you want to do a whole turkey, just double this recipe.
1whole turkey breast, 5-6 pounds
1quartapple cider
½cupkosher salt
½cupsoy sauce
¼cupbrown sugar
1tablespoonblack peppercorns
1tablespoonSzechuan peppercorns
4whole star anise pods
3garlic cloves
3scallions, sliced
3inchesfresh ginger, sliced thick
3dried shiitake mushrooms
1cinnamon stick
A few sprigs of cilantro
10cupscold water
For cooking:
1green apples
1lemon
Instructions
Mix the cider, salt, soy sauce, and sugar in a medium pot and bring it to a simmer to dissolve the salt and sugar.
Add all the other brine ingredients except the turkey and the cold water. Let the brine simmer for about 5 minutes. Then kill the heat and let the brine slowly cool to room temperature.
Mix cold water in with brine and submerge turkey breast in brine. If you don’t have enough brine to cover the whole turkey breast, just make sure the actual breast meat is submerged in the brine.
Stick this in the fridge overnight to brine.
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 475 degrees. Rinse off turkey breasts with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brine.
Slice apples into ¼ inch slices. Add two slices of apple and the lemon (cut into eighths) into the cavity of the turkey.
Set turkey, breast side up, in a roasting pan on a bed of the sliced apples.
Cook turkey breast at 475 for 30 minutes. Then remove and insert digital thermometer.
Turn oven heat down to 350 degrees and cook turkey until it registered 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast, probably about another 75-90 minutes. If you don’t have a probe thermometer, I would check the temperature after 60 minutes and go from there.
Once the turkey is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Slice off each breast and slice them across the grain into ⅛-¼ inch slices.