Brining poultry
People seem to think that putting your bird (or even a couple of breasts) into a brine for several hours is difficult, or macho, or excessively fancy. Actually, it's very easy, and it makes a huge difference in how your white meat comes out.
I had thought for years that I was not a fan of white meat, because it was so often stringy, dry, and tough. I thought other people were crazy for not liking dark meat, which was so tender, juicy, and full of flavor.
All you have to do to get a perfect Thanksgiving turkey, or a succulent and luscious chicken breast, is to soak them in salt water for a while. The only tricky part is knowing how much brine to use for your shape and size of meat, because you have to make the brine first, then put the poultry into it. Brining works by osmosis. The meat draws in the salt and sugar, which then causes the water to follow. Breasts can plump considerably after brining. Then, during cooking, they stay moist. The brine solutes (salt and so on) also flavor the meat. Brined meat does not need to be salted further.
Kosher or self-basting whole birds are already brined, so do not brine them further.
Recipe:
My recipe uses 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 Tbsp whole black peppercorns per quart of water. Very simply, that is 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup sugar, and 8 Tbsp peppercorns per gallon of water. I boil a small amount of the water, add the solid ingredients, stir until salt and sugar are dissolved, then stick it in the freezer to chill. I top off the total amount with refrigerator-cold water. Another alternative is to top off the total amount with water and ice. Meat and brine should be kept in a covered nonreactive (nonmetallic) container, always refrigerator-cold. Plastic food storage containers or plastic bags work well for a refrigerator. For very large birds, another option is to put bird and brine into a closed beverage cooler with plastic bags full of ice.
The peppercorns are just for flavor. If you like, you can experiment with herbs, crushed lemons, spices, and so on. The meat will take up these flavors with the water that it absorbs.
Note that salt should be added by weight. Table salt is about twice as dense as kosher salt, so you would use half as much.
Breasts:
A quart of brine is enough to cover two or three large chicken breasts in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Keep cold for 6-8 hours, then drain and rinse thoroughly. If you need to, you can stick the rinsed breasts back in the fridge until cooking time. If you leave them in the brine too long they will taste too salty.
Whole turkeys:
Whole turkeys vary widely in size and weight. One way to figure out how much brine you will need is to take the bird (frozen or very cold), put it in the container that it will undergo brining in, and fill it up with very cold water until the bird is covered. If you are using a garbage bag to hold the brine up against the water, gather it together and push the air out. This will push the water up around all sides of the bird. Keep the bird and brine sealed and chilled for 1-2 days, proportional to the size of the bird.
Other sizes of poultry should be brined along this time scale, proportional to their size and weight. So a whole chicken should brine for about 12 hours, for example.
Since the ingredients aren't expensive, it's a safe bet to make too much brine and save the extra in the fridge for another day.