This Honey-White Wine Turkey Injection Marinade will add a subtle sweet and savory flavor to your turkey, while keeping it moist and juicy during the cooking process.
Why use a turkey injection marinade
Large turkeys, meaning turkeys over 15 pounds, have quite a bit of mass. Breast meat, in particular, benefits from a little extra moisture. This honey-white wine turkey injection marinade imparts a delicious buttery flavor and will help keep the meat moist during the cooking process. Planning to cook your turkey in a smoker? You’ll need want to use this recipe!
What you’ll need:
- Butter: We recommend using unsalted butter for this recipe. This way, if you decide to brine your turkey, you won’t be adding any extra salt.
- Wine: This recipe calls for dry white wine. We recommend using either Chardonnay or a Pinot Grigio. The chances are that you will be cooking a turkey for the holidays, so the rest of the wine left in the bottle won’t be wasted.
- Honey: Look for raw or pure honey for this recipe. If you don’t have honey on hand, substitute with real maple syrup, agave, or brown rice syrup.
- Salt: If you plan to brine the turkey, remove the salt called for in this recipe.
- Cinnamon
- White pepper
- Powdered Rosemary or Marjoram: If you cannot find the powdered version of these herbs, pulverize them in a spice grinder or use a mortal and pestle.
Making Honey-White Wine Turkey Injection Marinade
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add wine and honey. Cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes until mixture is well combined. Add remaining ingredients, stir through, and remove pan from the heat. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before using.
- If you are planning to use this mixture as an injection and baste, then reserve half of it for later.
- Using a meat injector, draw in some of the liquid and inject marinade into the meatiest parts of the bird. Slowly inject marinade and move over 2 inches and repeat the process throughout. Lightly blot away any spillage with paper towels.
- Season and cook as directed.
- Discard any remaining marinade that has come into contact with the raw turkey.
Turkey injection basics: It is important to use this injection marinade in a thawed, raw turkey. According to the USDA, the best way to thaw a frozen turkey is in your refrigerator. It will take up to 24 hours to thaw 4-5 pounds of mass, so if your turkey is 12 pounds, plan on 3 days in the refrigerator. If it is 20 pounds, plan on 4-5 days. Set the turkey on the lowest level of your refrigerator, away from other foods. You can also thaw your turkey using cold water or your microwave. Read more about it HERE.
How do you use a turkey injection marinade?
Draw some of the injection marinade into the syringe. Slowly inject a little at a time into the breast, thigh, and drumstick areas. There might be some flow back, especially if you are injecting too much liquid. Blot it away with a paper towel, and continue working. Normally, injection marinades are applied about 30 minutes before you plan to cook the bird. You can certainly inject the turkey an hour or two beforehand, but it is important to place the bird back in the refrigerator. Discard any remaining marinade that has come into contact with the injector and the raw turkey for food safety reasons.
Honey-White Wine Turkey Injection Marinade
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered rosemary or marjoram
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add wine and honey. Cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes until mixture is well combined. Add remaining ingredients, stir through, and remove pan from the heat. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before using.
- If you are planning to use this mixture as an injection and baste, then reserve half of it for later.
- Using a meat injector, draw in some of the liquid and inject marinade into the meatiest parts of the bird. Slowly inject marinade and move over 2 inches and repeat the process throughout. Lightly blot away any spillage with paper towels.Season and cook as directed.
- Discard any remaining marinade that has come into contact with the raw turkey.
Notes
Nutrition
Not the Turkey Injection Marinade you were looking for? Try my list of the Best Turkey Injection Marinades.
3 responses to “Honey-White Wine Turkey Injection Marinade”
Much of the injected liquid leaked out before I got the turkey breast on the smoker. However, I had reserved about half before injecting, and used it on three separate bastings.
This is now my go-to turkey breast recipe. However, I will drip/drizzle the solution rather than baste in the future, as basting resulted in a bald spot in the rub. Still, the best smoked turkey breast I’ve ever done.
David,
Glad this turned out for you. It is true that with poultry, an injection is going to leak out a little. As for basting, you could try using a spritz. Put the solution in a spray bottle and spritz a few times. It won’t displace the rub, but it will add flavor and moisture to the surface.
I used this in a chicken and it was probably the best chicken I ever had. Will definitely be using this at Christmas for the turkey!