I Tried Brining My Turkey with This Unexpected Ingredient and Now I Can’t Imagine Making It Any Other Way

Pickles are having their moment in the spotlight. You can see it everywhere, including on the Dinogo website, where you'll find an array of pickle recipes and quirky articles like Disney World’s controversial pickle milkshakes and Jimmy John’s new Picklewich sandwich. But could it be that pickles—or more specifically, the tangy brine they’re soaked in—hold the secret to creating a perfectly juicy Thanksgiving turkey?

Curious to find out, I decided to brine my turkey in pickle juice for 24 hours using a recipe from Bubbies Fine Foods, known for their premium fermented and pickled products. The result was a gorgeous, golden-brown turkey with incredibly tender meat—and a subtle hint of pickle flavor in some areas.

Why Use Pickle Juice for Brining Poultry?

Normally, I wet brine my Thanksgiving turkey with a simple salt solution, so using pickle juice seemed like a natural choice. Pickling brine contains both salt and vinegar, which are excellent tenderizers that help break down connective tissues and fibers in meats like chicken and turkey. The pickle juice helps the turkey lock in moisture, leading to a juicier, more flavorful interior.

If you’re concerned about the turkey absorbing too strong a pickle flavor, this recipe might not be for you. While the pickle juice added a hint of tangy brightness, the flavor was very subtle. My husband and I only noticed it in certain parts of the turkey—mainly the dark meat and the breast where I tucked in pickle slices under the skin. Otherwise, most of the turkey had a mild, salt-seasoned taste, with notes of herbs and citrus from the brine ingredients (peppercorns, mustard seeds, celery seeds) and the stuffing (lemons, onions, and a fresh bundle of dill, thyme, and rosemary). It wasn't overly pickley at all.

How to Prepare a Pickle Juice-Brined Turkey, Based on Bubbies' Recipe

Feel free to adjust this recipe to match your taste preferences and what ingredients you have on hand.

Ingredients

• 15-pound turkey
• 6 cups pickle brine (such as brine from approximately 3 jars of Bubbies pickles—use either kosher dill or bread and butter chips)
• 6 cups water (or more to cover turkey)
• 1 cup salt
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon peppercorns
• 2 teaspoon celery seeds
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch of fresh dill
• ½ cup butter, melted
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Place the turkey into a large pot. Pour in the pickle brine and enough water to fully submerge the turkey (amount will vary depending on the size of your pot and bird). Add salt, brown sugar, mustard seeds, peppercorns, and celery seeds.
2. Ensure the turkey is completely covered by the brine; you may need to place a heavy object on top to keep it submerged. Cover the pot and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
3. Preheat your oven to 500°F and set up a roasting pan.
4. Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it well. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels (the drier it is, the crispier the skin will be). Stuff the turkey’s cavity with quartered onions, lemons, garlic, and dill. Use your fingers or the back of a wooden spoon to gently lift the skin on the breast. Tuck the wings under the bird and tie the legs together with kitchen twine.
5. Brush the entire turkey generously with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Roast the turkey for 30 minutes at 500°F, then cover with foil (to avoid burning the skin) and reduce the temperature to 350°F.
6. Continue roasting until the turkey’s internal temperature reaches 165°F in the thickest part of the breast. (Note: cooking times may vary depending on turkey size and oven type, so it's best to use a meat thermometer; insert it into the thickest part of the thigh, making sure it doesn't touch the bone, and set the target temp to 165°F).
7. Remove the turkey from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes. Optional: brush with more melted butter before serving.

Helpful Tips and Variations for Preparing a Pickle-Brined Turkey

• Mix up the pickle brine. You can use both brine from cucumbers preserved in vinegar and cucumbers fermented in water and salt (the latter are known for their probiotic benefits and are often sold in the refrigerated section of grocery stores). I used a combination of both brine from fermented kosher dill pickles and vinegar-preserved bread and butter pickles. You can also get creative and incorporate other types of brine (think: jalapeno or pepperoncini juice). 
• Opt for a jug of store-bought brine. Saving enough pickle juice to brine a turkey without wasting pickles is challenging. Instead of buying jars of pickles and using their brine, you can also purchase a 64-ounce jug of Mt. Olive Pickle Juice, which is available at select Walmarts and via Amazon.
• Submerge your bird: Ensuring your turkey is completely covered in brine is the key to thoroughly tenderizing your turkey inside and out. To keep mine submerged, I put a plastic bag filled with some canned goods on top of it.
• Don’t skip the butter: Brushing the turkey’s skin with melted butter helps it brown to golden perfection. It also helped me to start the bird at 500 degrees F before lowering the heat to 350 degrees F. I was worried the high heat would burn my turkey—but after 30 minutes in the oven, it had a gorgeous golden exterior.  
• Get inventive: I tucked some spicy pickle chips under the skin of one breast, which enriched one side of the turkey with some extra pickle flavor (a recommendation from Bubbies). That portion was fun to slice for sandwiches. But you can definitely go all out and tuck pickle slices under the skin of the entire turkey and garnish it with more pickles; or fill the cavity with extra dill. After all, we are in our pickle era.