Dry-Buttermilk-Brined Turkey

Author Notes

Buttermilk-brined meat is food science in action. The technique, which likely hails from the Southern tradition of soaking chicken in buttermilk overnight to tenderize it before dredging and frying the bird, was recently repopularized for turkeys by Samin Nosrat. In 2020, Nosrat adapted her buttermilk-marinated roast chicken recipe from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat into a Thanksgiving main for The New York Times. “The buttermilk and salt work like a brine, tenderizing the meat on multiple levels: the water it contains increases moisture, and the salt and acid it contains disables proteins, preventing them from squeezing liquid from the meat as the bird cooks,” Nosrat writes in the book. While the result is indeed a gorgeously golden-brown-skinned, super-tender turkey, submerging that huge bird in buttermilk is an ordeal, to say the least.

Personally, I never wet-brine turkeys. Buckets of liquid and raw poultry just feels like a disaster waiting to happen, so I always dry-brine my Thanksgiving birds in a blend of salt and pepper, sometimes spices or dry herbs. When contemplating how to achieve the tender meat and stunning color of a buttermilk-brined turkey with the simplicity of dry brines, it hit me: buttermilk powder. Also known as dry buttermilk, this incredibly convenient shelf-stable product is a baker’s dream. Instead of buying a new quart of buttermilk every time I need a cup for a recipe, I keep the dehydrated stuff—available online and at many supermarkets—in my pantry at all times. Wouldn’t you know that when mixed with salt and pepper, rubbed on a turkey (or chicken, for that matter) and left to cure overnight, the result is the same tender-fleshed bird, with none of the liquidy mess! Blessedly, dry buttermilk also contains all the sugars of regular buttermilk, meaning that you’ll achieve the same deeply caramelized skin. In fact, it gets so golden so fast, you may think the turkey is done after its first 30 minutes in the oven (it’s not).

I don’t think this turkey needs gravy, but if your Thanksgiving table isn’t complete without it, check out a number of gravy recipes here.

Believe me when I say this is the most tender, most low-stress roasted turkey I’ve ever made.

*Technically, a brine is a salt and water mixture; a “dry brine” is really just salting in advance. So a buttermilk mixture into which one submerges a piece of meat is in fact more of a marinade than a brine. What should you call a dry brine consisting of powdered buttermilk and salt? I don’t know, so let’s not get hung up on terminology and just enjoy the ride.

Note: I tested this recipe with Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is about half as salty by volume as Morton’s kosher salt, so if using the latter, use ¾ teaspoon of salt per pound of meat. —Rebecca Firkser