How To Prepare the Turkey:
To brine properly, we must be working with a fully defrosted and raw turkey so if you purchased a frozen turkey go ahead and defrost it fully in the refrigerator or under cold running water.

How to Prepare the Turkey Brine:
1. In a large pot pour in 1 gallon of apple cider (reserve the second gallon for cooling the mixture), kosher salt, and the honey.
2. Add in two cinnamon sticks, seven cloves, and sliced fresh ginger.
3. Using a channel knife, cut ribbons of orange peel. You can also use a zester or even a cheese grater to zest the orange and add it to the turkey brine. Slice the orange in half and squeeze the juice into the pot.
4. Slice up the red and green apples and add them to the pot.
5. Bring the pot to a boil and stir well until the salt dissolves.
6. Remove the brine from the heat and allow the brine to cool to at least room temperature before placing it in the refrigerator.

Using the Brine On the Turkey:
7. In a 5-gallon bucket place the whole turkey, breast side down. (You will rotate it once during the burning process.)
8. Add the remaining 1 gallon of Apple cider to the 5-gallon bucket.
9. When the brine is cool it may be added to the 5-gallon bucket. The turkey is officially brining. Place the entire 5-gallon bucket into a garage refrigerator and brine overnight or up to 24 hours. The turkey may be brined for up to two days in this apple cider turkey brine with good results.

**For larger turkeys, we recommend rotating the turkey once during the brining process to ensure that all meat is properly brined.

10. When you’re ready to move to the next step of your cooking process remove the turkey from the brine and dry it with a paper towel. Discard the brine down the sink after removing the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Your garbage disposal should be able to take care of the soft fruit.

Rinse the 5-gallon bucket and your sink with hot soap and water quickly to prevent cross-contamination of raw poultry to your other holiday dishes.

Smoking A Brined Turkey:
Prepare your barbecue smoker or pellet grill with wood, pellets, or wood chips. Apply our turkey slather or your favorite turkey rub and insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast meat.

We recommend smoking at 250 degrees, over indirect heat until the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

We have full directions for our turkey butter slather and directions for the best way of smoking on a pellet smoker here.