The 11 Best Herbs & Spices for Turkey Brines

Want to make the most amazing turkey brine? It all starts with the herbs and spices you use. Let me share with you 11 different ones to consider. My spice recommendations all come from Burlap & Barrel Single Origin Spices as they are my favorite spice company.

The end of this post you will find my recipe for a dry brine for a whole turkey or turkey breast.

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Ever since I cooked my first turkey, I have always been about brining. It's the best way to add flavor to your turkey. To make a truly epic brine you need to know what herbs and spices are best. I want to help guide you to those so you can cook the best turkey you have ever had.

Herbs

Let's talk with starting with what herbs I think are best for a turkey brine.

• Sage
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Bay Leaves

If I was forced to pick just one I would for sure pick sage and rosemary, those go really well with turkey. Fresh sage and rosemary are two herbs I always have still in a herb garden when Thanksgiving rolls around. My vasil would have bite the dust when the first frost had come weeks before hand. To me, rosemary and sage are just the flavors of fall.

Bay leaves are another herb you can add to the mix, but I don't use them in the way most people do. A lot of recipes just call for you to throw a couple bay leaves in. I never really got much flavor out of doing that. I found some ground bay leaves that I love from Burlap & Barrel. That have two options that

• Caribbean Bay Leaves
• Laurel Bay Leaves

The Laurel is going to be what you normally think of bay leaves while the Caribbean reminded a lot of file (which comes from sassafras tree), which is what you would put into gumbo.

I find that the ground bay leaves I can actually taste them. It incorporates so much better. Give them a try if you haven't felt like adding bay leaves in the past did much for you.

Fresh or Dried?

So the bay leaves I was just talking about are ground and dried. When making a brine should you pick only fresh or only dried herbs? It's really up to your own personal preference. I normally go with dried herbs because they are easier to mix together with my salt and spices when I am making a brine.

But if you got some fresh herbs in your garden still want to use them by all means. You don't need to go buy dried herbs instead, that would be a waste of money.

If you choose to use dried rosemary, let me recommend the Limestone Rosemary from Burlap & Barrel. This rosemary is from France where it's grown in Limestone-rich soil.

For dried sage, check out their Anatolian Sage from Northern Turkey.

Did you know you can make a brine without any liquid? Learn about dry brines and check out my review of Alton Brown's Spatchcocked Dry Brined Turkey or my Air Fryer Dried Brine Turkey Breast.

Spices / Powders

We got the herbs covered, let's talk about the spices yet. I am also including "powders" in this list that aren't true spices, such as garlic powder.

• Peppercorns
• Allspice
• Sweet Paprika
• Coriander
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Cured Sumac

Freshly cracked pepper must for me. I believe every household should have a whole peppercorns in a pepper grinder. That's the only way to experience pepper's complex flavor. The pre-ground stuff just won't do.

Here are some recommendations if you want the best tasting peppercorns.

• Zanzibar Black Peppercorns - Known for it's lemony flavor, these peppercorns won a good medal from Monde Selection.
• Robusta Black Peppercorns - These peppercorns have a classic pepper kick but with bold flavor coming from being allowed to fully ripen on the vine. The name comes from the peppercorns being grown along side Robusta coffee in Vietnam.

Allspice is an ingredient you more often find in baked goods, but I have seen plenty of turkey brine recipes that utilize it. It adds a warm, sweet flavor. You can buy whole allspice and grind it yourself or if you want a ground version check out the Sweet Allspice from Burlap & Barrel.

Coriander is the seed pods from cilantro. It tastes quite a bit different. My favorite one is Red River Coriander from Vietnam. It adds a citrusy element to the brine making it a great sub for lemon peel or zest. Cured Sumac is another spice that does the same thing. It's used a lot in Middle Eastern cooking.

Garlic powder and onion powder can be added to a brine as well. They can be of course found in every grocery store but there are my favorites (of course from Burlap & Barrel again!)

• Purple Stripe Garlic Powder
• Toasted Onion Powder

Brine Kit

If you are looking to keep things simple and easy and just go with a brine kit where the salt, spices, and herbs are already prepared for you, the kit I recommend comes from Redmond Real Salt. They send me some to try last season and I thought it was the best one I have tried. I am a huge fan of their salt and it's what I have been pretty exclusively using the last 6 months.

Dry Bine Recipe

Early in this post I shared some links to some dry brines. I prefer this method as I think it's so much easier to get rid of the liquid all together. It's so much easier to just put the turkey in the fridge instead of having to keep it soaking in a bucket of brine with ice. Also the skin of the turkey will be a lot crispier. The downside of a wet brine is that the skin has all that moisture in it, hindering it from getting crispy.

It does take longer but if you set it up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving you will be in great shape, plus you can worry about other things the night before instead. Let me share with you what I use for my dry brine.

Need help planning out your Thanksgiving feast? Check out my Thanksgiving Timeline for some tips to reduce your stress and plan ahead.