How Much Salt to Dry Brine a Turkey (and When to Start)

This is for the person who has decided this is the year they dry brine the turkey, opened three recipes, and found three different amounts of salt. One says half a cup. One says a tablespoon per four pounds. One says “generously.” Nobody wants to serve a salty turkey to eleven people, and nobody wants to do two days of prep for a bird that tastes like it had none. Most of the disagreement comes down to two things: which brand of salt the recipe writer had in the cupboard, and whether the turkey was already salted before you bought it.

How much salt, by turkey weight

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service gives one rate for dry brining poultry: 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, or seasoned salt, for every 5 pounds. It doesn’t name a brand, and that matters, because kosher salt flakes are different sizes and a tablespoon of one holds much more salt than a tablespoon of another. Here is the same FSIS rate in grams for the two brands most US stores sell, using the serving weights printed on their own labels.

Where the grams come from. Morton’s own label for Morton Coarse Kosher Salt lists a 1/4 teaspoon serving as 1.2 g with 480 mg of sodium, so a tablespoon is about 14.4 g. The Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt box lists 1/4 teaspoon as 0.7 g with 280 mg of sodium (as shown on retailer listings; Diamond Crystal itself describes the salt as lower in sodium by volume than table salt), so a tablespoon is about 8.4 g. Same spoon, about 1.7 times as much salt from the red box.

Both columns are a normal amount of seasoning: roughly 0.4% of the bird’s weight with Diamond Crystal and 0.6% with Morton. FSIS’s rate doesn’t say which one it means, so pick by taste. If your family finds restaurant food salty, aim for the Diamond Crystal grams whatever box you own. That works out to about 2 teaspoons of Morton Kosher per 5 pounds instead of a full tablespoon.

Converting a recipe written for a different salt

A recipe that gives salt by volume was tested with whatever the writer keeps by the stove. Many recipe writers say which brand they used; if yours does and you have the other one, convert it:

• Recipe says Diamond Crystal, you have Morton Kosher: use about 1 3/4 teaspoons of Morton for each tablespoon of Diamond Crystal (a little over half).
• Recipe says Morton Kosher, you have Diamond Crystal: use about 1 3/4 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal for each tablespoon of Morton.
• All you have is table salt: Morton’s iodized table salt label lists 1/4 teaspoon as 1.5 g, so a tablespoon is about 18 g, more than twice Diamond Crystal. Use under half the volume a Diamond Crystal recipe asks for (a scant 1 1/2 teaspoons per tablespoon), and expect fine grains to be harder to spread evenly.
• The recipe gives grams: use the grams and ignore the brand. A kitchen scale settles this argument for good.

If the recipe doesn’t name a brand, don’t guess from its volume. Weigh out the grams from the table above for your turkey’s weight and use the recipe for everything else: the herbs, the pepper, the citrus zest.

When to start, for Thursday, November 26

FSIS calls dry brining a two-day process in the refrigerator: the salt pulls moisture out of the meat, dissolves in it, and the brine is reabsorbed. Working back from Thanksgiving 2026:

• Thursday, November 19 or Friday, November 20: a frozen 14–20 pound turkey goes into the fridge to thaw. FSIS allows about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds; the exact day for every weight is in our thawing guide. The salt has to go on a thawed bird, so count back from Tuesday, not Thursday.
• Tuesday, November 24: salt the turkey. Rub the salt (and any herbs, pepper or zest) over the whole surface, including the back, thighs and inside the cavity. Put it in a food-grade plastic bag, press the air out, seal it, and set it on the bottom shelf in a pan. Don’t use a trash bag.
• Tuesday night and Wednesday: FSIS says to massage the salt into the skin through the bag every 8 to 12 hours. A phone alarm for morning and bedtime covers it.
• Thursday, November 26: take it out of the bag, pat it dry with paper towels, and roast in an oven set no lower than 325°F until a thermometer reads 165°F in the thickest part of the breast and the innermost thigh and wing.

Running late? Salting on Wednesday still seasons the meat; you just get less of the effect. Don’t push past the two days FSIS gives. A fresh (never frozen) turkey bought early also counts against that window: FSIS says raw poultry can stay in the fridge up to 2 days after it is thawed or bought fresh, and FSIS’s turkey guidance is to buy a fresh one only 1 to 2 days before cooking, so for a dry brine buy it Tuesday and salt it the same day.

No room in the fridge for a bagged 18-pound turkey on top of everything else? The dry brine is the space-saving option, since it skips the bucket of liquid. If it still doesn’t fit, a cooler kept at 40°F or below works as a second fridge, and the garage doesn’t.

Turkeys you shouldn’t dry brine

Read the front and back of the wrapper before you open the salt. FSIS requires bone-in poultry that has been injected or marinated with a solution to be labeled “basted” or “self-basted,” with a statement like “injected with approximately 3% of a solution of…” and the ingredients, which usually include salt. Many frozen supermarket turkeys carry that line. Words to look for:

• Basted, self-basted, pre-basted, enhanced, or “contains up to __% of a solution”: salt has been added at the plant. Don’t dry brine. Season with herbs, pepper and butter, no extra salt.
• Kosher: kosher birds are salted as part of koshering (Empire’s packaging, for example, says “soaked, salted and rinsed”). The salt contact is short and the birds are rinsed and soaked afterwards, so they are lightly seasoned rather than fully brined, but adding a full dry brine on top risks a salty turkey. Most cooks skip it on a kosher bird.
• “Natural” or “minimally processed” with no solution statement, or a fresh turkey from a farm or butcher: unsalted. This is the bird the dry brine is for.

The same check applies to a turkey breast for a small Thanksgiving: many are sold enhanced. If you do want to dry brine a plain breast, the per-pound rate is the same.

Three mistakes that make it salty (or bland)

• Rinsing the turkey afterwards. It doesn’t remove much salt, and FSIS does not recommend washing raw poultry because it splashes bacteria around the sink. Its dry brine steps go straight from the bag to patting dry.
• Salting a salted rub on top. If your herb butter, seasoning blend or “turkey rub” already contains salt, that is part of the total. FSIS’s rate allows seasoned salt instead of kosher salt, not as well as.
• Salting the gravy as if the bird were plain. Drippings from a dry-brined turkey are saltier than usual. Make the gravy, taste it, then decide; if you’re making the gravy ahead from wings or a store-bought stock, use unsalted stock so the drippings you whisk in on Thursday don’t tip it over.

One thing the dry brine doesn’t change: the turkey is done at 165°F on a thermometer, not when the skin looks brown. A dry-brined bird often browns faster, which is when people pull it early. If you’re hosting for the first time, the full Thanksgiving timing plan puts the salting, thawing and roasting on one calendar with everything else.

Common questions

How much salt do you use to dry brine a turkey?

USDA FSIS says 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for every 5 pounds of turkey. That tablespoon weighs about 8 grams if it is Diamond Crystal and about 14 grams if it is Morton Kosher, so for a 15-pound turkey it is 3 tablespoons: about 25 g of Diamond Crystal or about 43 g of Morton. If a recipe was written for Diamond Crystal and you have Morton, use a little over half the volume (about 1 3/4 teaspoons of Morton for each tablespoon of Diamond Crystal), or weigh the salt.

When should I start dry brining a turkey for Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026. FSIS describes dry brining as a two-day process in the refrigerator, so salt the thawed turkey on Tuesday, November 24, and roast it Thursday. Overnight (salting Wednesday) still helps. A frozen turkey has to be thawed first, so a 16-pound bird needs to go into the fridge about Thursday, November 19 or Friday, November 20.

Do you rinse a turkey after dry brining?

No. FSIS's dry brine steps go straight from the bag to patting the turkey dry with paper towels, and FSIS does not recommend washing raw poultry because it splashes bacteria around the kitchen. Pat it dry and roast it.

Can you dry brine a Butterball, kosher or self-basting turkey?

Check the label first. A turkey labeled basted, self-basted, enhanced or injected with a solution already has salt added, and kosher turkeys are salted as part of koshering. Skip the dry brine on those, or season them lightly with herbs and pepper and no extra salt. Many supermarket frozen turkeys, Butterball included, carry a solution statement, so read yours.

Is Morton kosher salt saltier than Diamond Crystal?

By the spoonful, yes. Morton's label lists 1/4 teaspoon as 1.2 grams with 480 mg sodium; Diamond Crystal's lists 1/4 teaspoon as 0.7 grams with 280 mg sodium. A spoonful of Morton Kosher carries about 1.7 times the salt of the same spoonful of Diamond Crystal. By weight they are the same salt.

Sources: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Poultry: Basting, Brining, and Marinating (last updated May 20, 2024), Turkey from Farm to Table, Let’s Talk Turkey and Washing Food: Does it Promote Food Safety?; Nutrition Facts serving weights for Morton Coarse Kosher Salt, Morton Iodized Salt and Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. Gram conversions and 2026 dates are our arithmetic from those figures. Checked October 31, 2026.