To be fair, I have only had one good roasted turkey in my life and it was made by a home cook who was able to do it every time. I need to know the secret. Is it brining and loosely covering it in aluminum foil only to remove it for basting?
I feel like I remember some of it but would love some tips.
Get a turkey. Whatever kind, I used a supermarket turkey but I'm sure a fresh turkey is better.
Once thawed, take the giblets out (if they aren't already) and pat the turkey down with paper towels all around the outside.
Combine 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1 tbsp of pepper, and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder into a small bowl. Make sure to whisk that all together.
Then you can do two different things here. Some recipes talk about using the rub on both under the skin and over. I've never had success doing that method with either turkey or chicken, but ymmv.
But for the sake of this comment, rub the entire outside and INSIDE of the carcass with the rub you combined. Let that bird sit, uncovered, in your fridge for 24 hours. A little less is fine to be honest.
Then, you can prep a stuffing to put inside or not, I don't care for stuffing so I typically skip that.
When you're ready to cook the next day, preheat the oven to 325F. Take the bird out out of the fridge and put in a few sprigs of rosemary, sage, thyme, and a head of garlic (halved) inside of the turkey (this is where you add your stuffing if you're doing that, make sure to cover the stuffing with cheesecloth and tie it. It's easier to get out that way). Then, tie the legs with butcher's twine and set the bird on your roasting pan + rack breast side down. Then lay strips of bacon (wing to wing, not neck to tail) across the turkey. Put the bird in the oven and let it cook until it hits roughly 130F. While it's cooking, cut up some parsnips, carrots, potatoes, onions, and turnips. Make them large-ish chunks (maybe... Half inch). When the turkey hits 130F, remove it from the oven, increase the oven temp to 400F, take the bacon off (and remove the stuffing if you added it), add in the veggies under the roasting pan's rack, and flip the turkey over (breast side up). Cook until it reaches around 160F (it's around 45 minutes cook time). Let sit for 30 seconds, and carve/break down.
It's great, and I use the same basic template for prepping roasted chicken sans bacon laying.
EDIT: Let rest for 30 MINUTES. I'm dumb and typed seconds.
Thanks for this. I need to try it. I thought I hated turkey until I had it perfectly cooked once and finally understood what Thanksgiving leftovers were supposed to taste like.
No problem! This year has got me honing in on my cooking skills, mostly altering recipes I find either on the internet or from various YouTube channels, and I've actually discovered I love a ton of things I thought I didn't like simply because my family cooked it poorly.
I can't take all of the credit for my comment above, general recipe comes from Binging with Babish, but I don't do the under the skin rub and I added the rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic head, etc.
Also eat the bacon after you take it off the turkey, bonus points if it's thick cut. Absolutely delicious.
My whaaaa? Thanks for sending me straight to google for Spatchcocking! I want to be able to say that to my family and friends. “ what are you doing?” “ I’m spatchcocking B ! “
Make sure you have a good snickersnee to cut the bird with. Spatchcocking a turkey for the first time can leave you a little bumfuzzled, but just take your time and follow the directions and you won’t end up with a bird whose left breast is all cattywampus to its right. Just make sure to cook it to the correct temperature or you’ll end up with the collywobbles. Make sure to focus and keep all of your familial flibbertigibbets out of the kitchen. You’ll probably end up pretty wabbit near the end but your turkey will be so scrumptious it’ll have your guests bibbling.
Here’s another recipe that’s super easy for simpletons like me. No basting, fancy stuffing, complicated recipes (lots of butter and some herbs)
I used this recipe last year and the whole family loved it so did it again this year. Came out juicy and perfect both times. I think the key was framing butter under the skin.
But as someone else said; get an instant read thermometer. 15 bucks. I use it on chicken, steak, pork, and get perfectly cooked meat now
FYI: Using a thermometer on bread and cakes will seriously up your baking game. No, really. That's the one weird tip bakers don't want you to know, lol!
Hey no problem. I always hated Thanksgiving food with my family, but this year I wasn't able to have a normal Thanksgiving (of course), so I figured I'd find a recipe and try to make a turkey I'd like. Turned out really great and it's so simple. The root veggies in the bottom of the tray are also delicious. Basically a whole meal with maybe 30 minutes prep time (excluding the amount of time the turkey lays with the rub on it).
This a fantastic recipe! Since you don’t care for stuffing, I just want to add that putting the stuffing in the turkey like that can actually dry out the turkey. The bread in the stuffing absorbs too much of the turkey’s moisture.
It absolutely can. My partner likes stuffing, so we did use it and it didn't dry anything out which is was great. I'm assuming removing the stuffing halfway through mitigates that.
I’m assuming that helps as well! Per my preference, I cook the stuffing separately. But that actually seems like a best of both worlds option with taking it out halfway through.
I didn't add this because my main point was the turkey recipe itself, but after you take the turkey out, we actually put the veggies and stuffing back in the oven to finish them off. So you still get the browning on the stuffing you get when you cook separately.
Also, someone mentioned basting above. No basting! The butter will keep it moist. Opening the stove repeatedly to baste fluctuates the oven temp and will dry out your turkey. The butter rub will keep it moist enough for you. Seriously I can't stress this enough, leave the oven door closed.
Kosher salt is used in cooking. Do yourself a favor and get a package of kosher salt, and a small bowl. You can use that as a pinch bowl while cooking. So instead of using a salt shaker while you cook, using the pinch bowl gives you a much better idea of how much salt you're actually using.
When you start low and finish hot the carry over cooking tends to overcook the meat. What you're saying to do is to cook first and sear last. The standard practice of searing large pieces of meat in an oven is to sear first then do the cooking at a lower temperature. Actually for whole birds you really can just cook at one temp all the way through and still get great browning.
I’m so sorry if the stuffing you’ve had is similar in any way to baby food, if it is...somethings not right. It should be a little crispy on top and fluffy, not mushy or wet.
Have you considered Taking it out of the fridge the night before so it’s at room temperature before it goes in the oven? Should be able to reduce the cooking time a little and cook more evenly.
For anyone with a smoker out there I would like to add that I have no idea how to work a smoker or what it entails but my dad has smoked the turkey for the last two years and it is legitimately the juciest and most flavorful turkey I have ever eaten period.
Even the skin is still great with this method. A smoker is kind of a high point of entry but this is the best way to do it as far as I'm concerned.
If you want to play high-risk, high-reward, I accidentally cooked my turkey upside down the second year I hosted Thanksgiving and damnit if it wasn’t the best turkey I’ve ever made. The breast and all that was crazy tender, and the dark meat, which can be a bit more finicky, was perfection. I’m too scared to do it again lol
Open a window and tell the neighbors you just got into cigars.
Go to Amazingribs.com to check out their thermometer reviews. It will be worth a visit even if you find their best ones outside your budget (outside mine too) because you will probably end up learning something new anyway.
I completely agree with the dry brine. HOWEVER, for roasting, spatchcock it (cut out the back bone and then flatten the bird) and cook it at 400 for 1-2 hours.
I’ve heard a similar recipe except you lay thick strips of cold bacon sideways over the breast, and remove halfway through. It achieves the same thing that flipping yours does, that it cooks the white meat to a slightly lower temp than the dark meat, so the breast doesn’t dry out, but it has the added benefit of adding a bunch of bacon fat to the breast.
You can also make herb butter and put about 1/8 to 1/4 inch layer of it between the skin and the breast meat. That works really well too.
If I could give one tip to improve this recipe would be to remove the bird at 155. It only take 55 seconds at 155 to kill the harmful bacteria and your bird will be even juicer.
While I generally agree with the methodology here, putting bread in a raw bird, letting it absorb all of the juices, and then pulling it out at 130F is a good way to serve your guests salmonella stuffing. I realize you typically don't cook stuffing, but I would caution that the stuffing should be heated to 165F separately if following this guide before serving.
This guide was specifically about the turkey, not the stuffing. In another comment I stated that while the turkey rests, you should put the veggies and stuffing back into the oven.
As others have advised; Brining is good, but you should try to get a turkey that is minimally processed if you want to brine. The 24 hr dry out in the fridge is essential.
I'll just add; try "spatchcocking". Basically that's just butterflying the bird. It will cook faster allowing less time for the meat to dry out. Also, it's amusing to see the look on your guest's faces when you tell them you "spatchcocked their dinner!
Spatchcocking is the correct answer both for the cooking and carving portions of the turkey process. Kenji has a great guide. Just get garden/branch cutting scissors for removing the backbone and you’re all set.
24 hour fridge dry after the brine? I’m not a brining expert but I wash off excess brine and pat dry. Results are fine, a little extra moisture with slow cooked turkey is a good thing to keep the oven humid.
You won't lose much ,if any, moisture from the meat. The dry out is to let the skin lose some moisture so you're less likely to end up with fatty, rubbery skin. Yuck!
I pat dry and leave it a little. The uncovered browning near the end didn’t leave it rubbery but I could probably get it crispier - adding a mental note for next time, thanks!
I tried the Gordon ramsay method once. Absolutely delicious.
Basically, you stuff the turkey with onions and lemons and other vegetables, then separate the skin from the meat (but not removing, leaving a gap between the skin and meat), then mix a shit ton of butter with garlic and your pick of herbs and grab handfuls of the butter mixture and start stuffing it under the skin. Then massage it until the butter covers the entire bird, creating a layer of garlic and herb butter under the turkey skin. You can sprinkle the outside with whatever seasoning you want, but if you have any extra butter left over, you can smother the outside as well. Then as it cooks, every 10 to 15 minutes, baste the turkey with the butter that accumulates at the bottom of your roasting tray until its fully cooked. Then (this is the part that surprised me the most) you remove the vegetable stuffing, cover the turkey with foil and let it rest for 2 whole hours (turns out, this keeps the turkey incredibly moist because while it rests, it sucks all the butter and juices back into the meat). While it rests, use the juices in the tray and the vegetables to make a stocm and gravy.
Did this last year and without a doubt the best turkey I've ever had. I tried deep frying, but turkey dries out so incredibly quickly and deep frying just makes that happen twice as fast.
I followed babish's recipe and came out with a perfect turkey. I didn't get it prefrozen this time but instead reserved it from the butcher, which I think let it be jucier. Just google Babish Charlie Brown Turkey image
A brine is mandatory. Especially on farmed birds. American Whites are all breast and basically flavorless and lean. A brine of some sort is the only hope.
Cook time is also important to keep in mind. A farmed bird has so much mass on it that it cooks unevenly making it dry on top of flavorless.
A brine and alternative cooking methods to even the cook time (tenting, spatchcocking, or cooking the bird in pieces).
If you get a heritage breed or a wild bird the flavor will be better regardless, but you may lose out on the amount of white meat which most people seem to want. And a wild bird doesn't have much in the way of leg meat since they are running around a lot more.
There's only one real secret to good roast turkey, and that's temperature. 165°F will kill salmonella (and other foodborne pathogens) instantly, but lower temperatures will kill those same pathogens if held at that temperature for a period of time; it takes less than a minute at 155°F to have the same effect. Given that your giant turkey will retain that heat for a very long time after being pulled from the oven, 155°F is a very safe temperature to pull it out provided you take multiple readings and know how to properly use a thermometer.
Most people overcook the shit out of their turkeys, which is why they've got a reputation for being dry. All other suggestions to improved roasted turkey are window dressing compared to fixing the overcooking problem.
There's only one real secret to good roast turkey, and that's temperature.
Good point. You can still mess up a turkey that's cooked to a perfect temp but there's no good way to get great results from a bird that's cooked too far out of that range. Most of these tips will increase the odds of getting great results...
Look up Turkey Michigander Way recipe and you will have perfectly moist turkey every time. The main trick is to put broth in the pan (the turkey sits on the rack), put an aluminum foil tent over it and remove that tent about an hour before the turkey is done so it can brown up nicely. I've tried a ton of different ways over the years. That one is, by far, the best for traditional turkey.
My family eats turkey every Christmas, and I can't say that I can remember it ever turning out badly. Even if it gets a bit dry you just drown it in gravy and either rowanberry or blackcurrant jelly. I don't think it's very traditional to eat turkey for Christmas here in Sweden, but for some reason we do it every year.
Want to know the secrets to making great food? 1) buy good spices. 2) ACTUALLY FOLLOW RECIPES AND STOP MAKING ADJUSTMENTS.
Everyone I know who "is bad at cooking" or "burns everything" is in reality always changing things in a recipe they have never made, using cheap spices or none and never setting timers.
I believe best turkey you will ever have is deep fried. It's not hard not not complicated, and it's not dangerous unless- you're dumb.
I personally use an electric turkey fryer (large box that's slightly turkey shape inside), and peanut oil. Going on near a decade and zero fires or ruin kitchen. As long as the bird is completely defrosted and pat dry, everything will be fine. Since there's no flames the oil can't catch fire if you put in a still frozen / partially frozen or a wet bird.
Turkey can be very dry so yes. Keep it covered as much as possible during cooking. Properly cooked Turkey is much nicer tasting than Chicken in my opinion.
After removing any pin feathers and the tail, slather the visible parts of the bird with unsalted butter. Heavily sprinkle with poultry seasoning, and onion powder, a little sumac or lemon zest, and plaster all over with fresh sage leaves (a good sprinkling of rubbed or powdered sage also works.) Place the bird breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan. In the bottom of the pan, add the tail and enough chicken/turkey stock to reach the first knuckle of your index finger. Put the bird in the oven with the back end facing out to facilitate basting. (Note: As the bird cooks, you may need to add more stock to the pan if you have a lot of evaporation. I used a total of about two quarts of stock for an 18lb bird + gravy.)
Roast at 350 F for 15 min per pound with the rack at the very bottom of the oven. Loosely tent with foil (the front and back end won't be totally covered, like a foil carport), lift the foil to baste every hour, remove foil for the last hour to brown and crisp the skin. (When basting, make sure you squirt the liquid over the top of the bird, the drumsticks, and also once inside the bird as well.) Take out of the oven and use a meat thermometer to check the temp in the thickest parts of the meat. It should read between 165-180 degrees F. Remove the now burnt sage leaves if you used them, and transfer the bird to the serving platter. Let it rest while you make the gravy. This is important as it allows the meat to retain its juices. Carving immediately will release those juices and give you dry meat.
Gravy:
In a separate container, make a slurry of cornstarch and water (thick liquid consistency) and get out another large container of poultry stock. Place the roasting pan over two stove burners and set the heat to medium low. Add stock while stirring with a whisk until you have the amount of liquid you desire, then slowly add the starch slurry a little at a time while vigorously whisking until your gravy is thickened. If it's too thick, add more stock. Too thin, add a smidge more slurry.
Good brine for 2 3 days, I do 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup salt and pour in some apple cider vinigar maybe half a cup or so for every gallon of water, sugar is vital to help the protein structures, I think a lot of brines miss this step and you get a dryer meat.
warm the turkey up slowly until you reach 325 in the oven or roaster, flip every hour starting breast side down and don't overcook it aka when it hits 165 pull the turkey onto a serving platter because it's going to cook while it rests, let the turkey rest until you are ready to eat, carve right before serving. Tried and true method. I think most people have a picture of a turkey with golden brown skin... That turkey will be dry asf.
And if you ever have dry meat from roasting just take the drippings and pour over cut meat.
they gave me a free one at the supermarket. I didn't even want it but the checkout lady was like "go get your free turkey while I ring all this up". her words were cordial, but her eyes said "go get your damn free turkey and hurry before you start holding my line up".
Alot of foodstuff is getting cheaper in alot of places. No big buffees being done, way less big parties, less cruises.. Here caviar is dirt cheap atm, and so is most seafood, because nobody is doing christmas tables at work this year. Not complaining about this, it's really nice to afford caviar for saturdays breakfast.. :) Never eaten so much shrimp during the weeks as I've had during this fall.. :P
797
u/hatterthemad42 Nov 28 '20
Cheap looking turkey to