Is It Safe to Brine a Turkey?

Posted in Food Safety,Our Blog on November 18, 2025

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and with so many people cooking turkeys differently every year it always brings up questions about food safety and if we are doing things properly. Today we check out some ideas and take a deep look at the question: is it safe to brine a turkey?

I have always heard of people brining turkeys but have never tried it before. It is becoming more and more popular as people start to experiment with methods of cooking such as smoking. This apparently adds a level of moisture and flavor to the more bland bird than what I imagined but really how safe is it? What does the process consist of? How did we get here?

Improve Cooking by Brining a Turkey

Shady Brook Farms gives us some help when it comes to these questions:

Cooking a whole turkey, especially a large one, takes 2½ to 5 hours. The lean parts of the bird, such as the breasts, often cook within the first hour and end up overcooked before the rest of the bird is ready. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to solve this problem, and that’s brining your turkey before cooking. Brining locks water and salt inside a turkey so that the meat stays moist and tender after it leaves the oven. It also infuses the turkey with loads of flavor, leaving you with juicy, tasty meat.

WET BRINING VS. DRY BRINING

The correct answer to how to brine turkey depends on the type of results you want. For the juiciest and moistest turkey, wet brining is your best option. Wet brining involves soaking your turkey in a bath of saltwater and refrigerating it for 24 to 48 hours.

Wet brining will increase the turkey’s moisture. That extra moisture helps ensure that the meat doesn’t go dry during cooking. The salt in the brine will also flavor and tenderize the meat so that it takes less time to cook.

For the tastiest turkey with crispy skin, go with dry brining. Dry brining, also called salting, involves coating all parts of your turkey with salt & seasonings and letting it rest in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.

The salt will extract the turkey’s existing moisture and flavor it. The turkey will then reabsorb this moisture, which will break down muscle proteins and prevent them from releasing moisture during cooking. The end result is a moist, tender, and highly flavorful turkey.

Things to Consider

Below are some other differences to consider before choosing wet or dry brining:

• Space: Wet brining takes up a lot of fridge space for one to two days, making it unideal if your fridge isn’t large enough to hold a tub of brine and turkey.
• Time: Compared to wet brining, dry brining takes less time to deliver impressive results. However, a dry brined turkey will not be as moist as a wet brined turkey.
• Cooking Mess: Wet brined turkey releases a lot of moisture during cooking, which can leave a mess in your grill or oven.

Please be reminded that you should not brine pre-salted, enhanced, or self-basting turkeys. Since such turkeys already contain seasonings, brining could lead to too salty meat.

Note that while frying a wet brined turkey is possible, the meat’s high moisture content may lead to a lot of splashing oil. Also, since brined turkey cooks quicker than regular turkey, start checking the bird’s internal temperature at least an hour before your regular estimated cooking time.

How Safe is Brined Turkey?

Fresh turkeys can only be kept safely for one to two days, in the refrigerator. Let’s use a fresh whole turkey in our example and follow the four steps to safe food preparation:

CLEAN

• Begin by washing hands with warm water and soap for a minimum of 20 seconds.
• Also wash and sanitize surfaces such as countertops and sink using a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach in 1 gallon of water. Let the solution stand on the surfaces for a few minutes; then air dry or pat dry with clean paper towels.

SEPARATE

• Do NOT wash the bird prior to brining. Washing raw poultry can cause cross-contamination — raw juices that can contain harmful bacteria spilling onto other foods or splashing on countertops.
• Prepare the brine by mixing ingredients until all of the salt is dissolved.  If your brine recipe calls for heating the mixture, be sure to cool it to room temperature before using it. Then place the turkey in the brine and place in the refrigerator. Don’t leave the turkey sitting out at room temperature while brining.
• Place the bird breast down in a large container made of food-grade plastic, stainless steel or glass, or a brining bag. Be sure the container will fit in your fridge.
• Add brine, covering the entire turkey. Carefully secure the container with a lid or cover, so as not to splash other foods or surfaces inside your refrigerator.
• Place the container in the refrigerator for the period of time specified in the recipe. The amount of time will depend on the type of brine you use; however, do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40°F or less).
• Remove turkey from brine after the recommended time.

NOTE: If you must rinse the turkey and clean out the cavity, first take the time to remove dishes, dish drainers, dish towels, sponges and other objects from around the sink area. Then cover the area around your sink with paper towels. Place the roasting pan next to the sink, ready to receive the turkey.

Clean the sink with hot soapy water, rinse well and fill it with a few inches of cold water. Even if the cavity is partially frozen, use cold water to rinse the cavity. Cold water is still warmer than the frozen cavity. Run the water gently to prevent splashing. Make sure the water is coming out the other end of the cavity. If it isn’t, the neck or giblets may still be in there.

And that’s it! No need to scrub or rinse the rest of the turkey. Hold the turkey up to let it drain into the sink and gently place the turkey in the roasting pan. Remove the paper towels, clean the sink and the area around the sink with hot soapy water, and proceed with your preparations.

Whether you are brining, basting, or just letting someone else cook the turkey this Thanksgiving we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving from those of us at Make Food Safe.