How to Dry Brine

You’ve heard of brining, but do you know how to dry brine? Meet an even easier way to make juicier, more flavorful beef, poultry, pork, and more!

What Is Dry Brining?

Dry brining is a relatively new term to describe something that professional cooks have known about for years—that is, salting long in advance of cooking or “pre-salting.”

While a “regular” brine is a solution of salt and water—here’s my post with more info about brining that—a dry brine is just salt. Both might include other flavorings, like seasonings and/or sugar, but salt is the key.

How Does A Dry Brine Work?

As with a wet brine, a dry brine works on two basic principles—osmosis and diffusion. Salt draws out a food’s liquids via osmosis. In a wet brine, that liquid mixes with the brine that the food is soaking in, while in a dry brine, that liquid mixes with salt on the surface of the food, dissolving it and essentially creating a highly concentrated wet brine. Ultimately, through diffusion, the brine is reabsorbed into the food.

The Benefits Of Dry Brining

As with wet brining, one of the benefits of dry brining is more flavorful food. Turkeys, yes, but also other poultry, pork, fish, and seafood, and even beef. Why is the food more flavorful? Simply because seasoning (salt), gets into the food and flavors it through and through rather than just on the surface.

Another benefit of any kind of brining is juicier, more tender food—because that salty liquid that soaks in also starts breaking down tough muscle fibers.

One big benefit of dry brining over wet brining, however, is simply that it’s easier. No need to find a big pot or plastic garbage bag to house your Thanksgiving turkey and the gallons of salty water surrounding it. Simply arrange your salted turkey on a rack, arrange the rack on a rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate.

Another benefit is flavor, but undiluted flavor. Not that a wet-brined turkey—or anything else—will taste watery, but compared to a dry-brined turkey the flavor of a wet-brined one will be somewhat muted, less full-flavored.

A third benefit of dry brining versus wet is browner, crispier skin. Because once the moisture in the food draws out, mixes with the salt to become a concentrated salt solution, and then is drawn back in, the meat’s surface is drier than before. That means poultry will get a browner, crispier skin, but it also means that steaks and chops will get a nicer seared crust.

How To Dry Brine

It really is as easy as sprinkling your food with salt and then letting it sit while the salt does its work. If there’s a lot of moisture, you can quickly pat the surface dry with a paper towel before salting, but I don’t find it super necessary.

How much salt? It depends. For a steak, chop, chicken breast, or fish fillet, only as much as you’d sprinkle on before cooking normally. For a big roast like a turkey, pork loin, or beef rib roast, that means a pretty heavy coating.

Think of it this way: if you sliced that rib roast into steaks, how much salt would you sprinkle on each of those steaks? Add it together and you’ll see that a heavy coating on the outside isn’t so crazy.

Another rule of thumb that helps with whole chicken and turkey—use about 1 tablespoon of coarse kosher salt or 1 and 1/2 teaspoons finely ground salt per 4 pounds of bird. I prefer kosher salt because it’s inexpensive and easy to sprinkle evenly, but you can absolutely use whatever kind of salt you’re most familiar and comfortable with.

Sprinkle the salt evenly all over the meat. Try to get it under the skin as well, where you can, and into the cavities also.

After salting, set your food aside, ideally on a rack so air can circulate all around the food, and ideally the rack is on a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan, to catch any liquids that might drip. Leave the food uncovered while it’s brining. Exposing the exterior to the dry air helps with the crisping discussed above.

How Long Do You Dry Brine For?

As with wet brining, the bigger the food, the longer the brine. Steaks, chops, and fillets can sit unrefrigerated for 45 minutes with their dry brine on. Alternatively, put them uncovered in the fridge for up to 6 hours. Larger roasts and whole chickens and turkeys should rest in the refrigerator for 12 to 72 hours.

Another way to tell how long: the food will be dry on the surface. If it’s wet, that means the liquid that was drawn out of the food has dissolved the salt, but hasn’t yet been reabsorbed. So the seasoning won’t yet be through and through, and the process won’t yet result in a crisped, brown skin.

Cooking Dry-brined Foods

When it’s time to cook, do it just as you would if you didn’t brine. In other words, roast your turkey, grill your steak, or pan-sear your pork chop. (But if the recipe you’re following calls for salt, omit it.)

And most importantly, don’t rinse your food before cooking. It won’t be overly salty because you didn’t add more than you would’ve anyway, and rinsing will just make the surface wet, preventing browning.

For more detail and more of the science behind dry brining, see this great article on Serious Eats.

Some good recipes to try dry brining: Classic Roast Beef, Whole Grilled Chicken, Pan-Seared Salmon, and Air Fryer Pork Chops. And, here are full instructions and ingredient amounts for how to dry-brine a turkey with lots of flavorful herbs. The salt not only flavors it all, but helps to get the skin extra-crispy!

Podcast Episode: Brining

This post originally appeared in July 2020 and was revised and republished in August 2022.