Let’s not blame family members, friends—and most importantly, ourselves—for the sad roast turkeys of Thanksgiving dinners past. Learning how to season a turkey is much like seasoning anything: a skill perfected over time. The trouble is, most of us only cook a turkey once or twice per calendar year (and who can remember what seasoning tack they took 11 months ago?!). The perfect turkey requires more attention than an everyday roast chicken. That can come via a dry brine, compound butter, aromatics tucked into the carcass, and a glaze with something sweet—ideally, all of the above. And when in doubt, double down on the gravy.
If you’re majorly crunched for time, salt, black pepper, and high heat are all you really need for flavorful turkey. But with a bit more prep time, you can deliver a lot more oomph. Consider the steps below building blocks. Stack one on top of the next to build layers of flavor, but a word of caution: Be thoughtful when pairing ingredients across steps (more on this below). Before you get started, make sure your bird is thawed—this can take a few days—and pat it dry with a paper towel.
1. Begin with a brine.
Turkeys are big birds. Brining is essential to ensure the meat is seasoned throughout. While some cooks prefer wet brining, after years of testing—not to mention making turkeys for our own holiday celebrations—the Epicurious test kitchen team confidently recommends dry brining as a superior method. It’s far less messy, results in supremely juicy turkey meat, and delivers golden, crispy skin without waterlogging the bird. To do it, simply rub kosher salt (do not use table salt, which contains anti-caking agents that can lead to bitterness) over the whole turkey, inside and out, and let the bird rest in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least 24 hours. Consider a turkey brine your first line of defense against dry white meat. (Note: If you’re using a kosher turkey, which are pre-seasoned, don’t salt it.)
You’ll use about 2 to 2½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 to 1½ tsp. Morton kosher salt per pound of turkey, explains Zoe Denenberg in her guide to dry brining. For a 14-pound turkey, that’s around ½ cup kosher salt. But you don’t have to stop there:
2. Make it a dry rub.
Salt is key, but you can also add flavorings at this stage. Combining the salt with white or brown sugar will help the skin caramelize. Aim for ¼ the amount of salt, so 2 tbsp. sugar for a 14-lb. bird.
From there, create a spice blend of your choosing. This is not the time for soft, fresh herbs like parsley or cilantro. For a traditional poultry seasoning, mix dried thyme, sage, rosemary, marjoram, nutmeg, and freshly ground black pepper. Add umami punch with onion powder, ground dried mushrooms, tomato powder, asafetida, or straight MSG. Alternatively, you could borrow from this recipe for a turkey rub with garlic powder and smoked paprika or use a spice blend you love (baharat! Pastrami-spice! Trinidad curry powder!) to imbue the turkey with tried and true flavors. Unless you’re sure everyone at your table is a spice fiend, avoid bracingly spicy chile powders like Ancho and cayenne pepper. Add ¼ to ½ cup mixed ground spice; just combine it with your sugar and salt and then pack it all over the turkey, inside and out.
Let the brine do its thing for at least 1 hour per pound of turkey but no more than 3 days total. Transfer the turkey uncovered to the refrigerator so the skin starts to dry, which helps with browning.
3. Butter up your Butterball.
Butter is your second insurance policy against a dry Thanksgiving turkey. One stick of unsalted butter (remember, you just salted your bird) on its own will do the job. But we’re aiming for flavor here, so consider turning half that stick into a compound butter—essentially softened butter mashed with ingredients like fresh herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) or citrus zest. If you used lots of flavors in the dry brining process, keep the compound butter simple like this one with thyme and garlic. You can prepare it a few days ahead and pack it tightly in plastic wrap or an airtight container.
Any herbs rubbed onto the outside of your turkey run the risk of burning. To prevent this, split the butter in half, then carefully create a space between the turkey breast meat and skin (Andy Baraghani shows us how it’s done) and slip the half with herbs under the skin of the turkey, over the breast and thigh meat. Rub the herb-free butter all over the outside of the turkey. If you prefer not to use dairy, try slathering your bird in roasted garlic mayonnaise—yes, mayonnaise.
4. Fill the cavity with aromatics.
No Thanksgiving is complete without stuffing, but we prefer to bake ours in a separate dish—technically, that makes it dressing, but call it what you like. With the turkey cavity now vacant, you can add aromatics like a quartered onion, a few smashed cloves of garlic, orange, apple, or lemon wedges, and a couple of hearty herbs. Do this before tying the legs together, and remember to remove it before carving.
5. Glaze, never baste.
Turkey is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of bird. Once it’s in the oven, you can spend your cooking time working on side dishes or setting the table, but don’t stray too far. Consider adding a last hit of flavor with a glaze. This is different from basting (brushing or spritzing your turkey with stock or pan juices, a practice we find results in flabby, splotchy skin). Glazing creates a sweet-savory shellac, making for the crispiest skin possible. If you don’t care to wing it, try this maple-butter one from Chris Morocco, Claire Saffitz’s glaze with sherry vinegar and brown sugar, or a cider glaze for some fall-fruit flavor. Before deciding, think about what might pair nicely with the flavors you’ve already added to your turkey.
6. Don’t skip the gravy.
Gravy is nonnegotiable; it brings all of the flavors of your Thanksgiving meal together, and it’s the final line of defense against any dry bits of turkey. Making turkey stock, which is the bulk of the work, can be done in advance and stored in the fridge for two days or in the freezer for up to six months (it’s also key to this leftovers soup). On T-Day, all you need to do is strain your perfectly seasoned turkey drippings, add them to the stock, and thicken it with a roux. There’s no need to get creative here; gravy is about reinforcing your earlier work. If you’re a gravy newbie, let chef instructor Frank Proto walk you through it.
