{"id":318,"date":"2017-10-11T04:50:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T04:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2017-10-25T20:04:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:04:54","slug":"best-of-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Best of… Turkey!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A holiday turkey is one of those dishes where you do it so infrequently that it’s hard to remember all the steps, even with a recipe, to turn that bird into a succulent meal. \u00a0As guests arrive, you’re nervously looking at the temperature- is it behind or ahead of schedule? \u00a0If underdone, you risk sending your family home with a stomach-ache… if overdone, then it’s a tough, dry and your mouth feels like you’ve eaten sawdust. \u00a0What if the breast is done, but the thighs are 20 degrees behind? \u00a0What about the gravy?! \u00a0What if the white meat is still pink?!<\/p>\n

Yep, been there, done that. \u00a0And with that, there’s (hopefully) experience gained. \u00a0So here’s how I do the Turkey and gravy now…<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Turkey- a frozen turkey will take about 4 days to thaw in the fridge, but I like to put it into an ice bath to thaw more quickly. \u00a0Once it’s thawed, I take out the neck and giblets and make a turkey stock.<\/li>\n
  2. Brine. \u00a01 cup of kosher salt to a gallon of boiling vegetable stock. \u00a0Add in some peppercorns, brown sugar, and spices as you see fit.<\/li>\n
  3. Let the brine cool down to room temp, then in a large stock pot (or bucket, cooler) pour in the brine, add turkey, and another gallon of ice water. \u00a0I’ll top it off with ice so the brine covers bird. \u00a0I usually let the bird sit in the brine overnight.<\/li>\n
  4. Aromatics- in a glass bowl, I’ll put in a quartered apple, 1\/2 onion, and a cup of water. \u00a0Microwave for 5 minutes.<\/li>\n
  5. Bird prep- pull bird out of the brine and rinse off. \u00a0pat dry and cover with butter or canola oil. \u00a0Place in roasting pan (the ones with a pull out rack works great!) breast side DOWN. \u00a0stuff in the aromatics.<\/li>\n
  6. Pre-heat oven to 500 and put big bird in for 30 minutes. \u00a0Then drop temp down to 350.<\/li>\n
  7. After an hour, pull bird out of over (be quick so that you don’t lose too much heat) then flip bird over so the breast side is UP. \u00a0The reason is to get the thighs and drumsticks a head start as they take a bit longer to cook. \u00a0Insert thermometers- one into the deepest part of the thigh, and another into the deepest part of the breast.<\/li>\n
  8. Overall, the bird is done when it’s 165, but this means no bacteria can survive even for a second at this temperature… but if the temperature is at 150 for 3 minutes, it will have the same effect on bacteria. \u00a0So, watch the breast and thigh temperature. \u00a0When the breast hits 150, and if the thigh is over 165 (170-180 is ok since the dark meat can handle the higher temp, and in fact, might be more pull apart from the bone tender) then pull bird out, cover with foil and let it rest for at least 20-30 min. \u00a0It’s also great to have an instant read to check a few place in the breast and thigh to confirm the temperature.<\/li>\n
  9. Usually time is also a good guideline- 14 lb bird should take around 2-2.5 hours. \u00a0Apparently the brine reduces the cooking time, although I’ve never experimented with this. \u00a0The amount of aromatics might have an effect, so I never stuff cavity full.<\/li>\n
  10. Gravy- Once the bird is on the cutting board covered in foil (here is where the removable rack comes in handy), then the pan and drippings go back onto the burner. \u00a0I try to remove some of the fat from the drippings, but hey, it’s the holidays. \u00a0I’ll have about 2\/3 cup of flour ready, and a few tablespoons of drippings back into the pan. \u00a0Turn on the heat, slowly add flour, and make the roux. \u00a0Whisk like crazy, and add in the rest of the drippings and the turkey stock until it’s smoooooth and a nice consistency- not too thick, not too runny. \u00a0Salt\/pepper to taste, and if you really want to jazz it up, you can add in some red wine and finely chopped up turkey giblet.<\/li>\n
  11. Carve the bird, add in the mashed sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, and rice to round out a nice meal!<\/li>\n
  12. Thanks to Alton Brown for the brine recipe, and a few other ideas from various blogs and recipes!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Addendum- One other thing to try is dry brine, so basically cover the bird, inside and out, with kosher salt\/pepper\/spices for 2-3 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A holiday turkey is one of those dishes where you do it so infrequently that it’s hard to remember all the steps, even with a recipe, to turn that bird into a succulent meal. \u00a0As guests arrive, you’re nervously looking at the temperature- is it behind or ahead of schedule? \u00a0If underdone, you risk sending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foodrestaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}