The time for giving
thanks is upon us again which is kind of ironic as we should be
giving thanks everyday for the people in our lives that are most
important to us, but often we get so involved in our own little world that we often take our friends and family for granted.
However, since the mid 1940's the fourth Thursday of the month has
been a national holiday here in the United States where we are
reminded that we should slow down and take the time to thank God for
the blessings of family, friends, and prosperity that he has bestowed
upon us. It is a time to get together and share or good fortune and
bounty with our friends, family. Yes, it is time to eat
turkey, talk politics, and watch football!
I know, I know, some
of you have been tortured over the years with dry overcooked turkey
that was as tough as shoe leather that you chewed with a smile
praying silently to yourself that if God has any mercy, then aunt
Martha will not be cooking the turkey next year. Our maybe you are
silently sulking in the kitchen because the turkey you worked so hard to
prepare just came out wrong and well, your embarrassed. That's ok,
because in this article I am going to teach you how to roast turkey
that will have both you and your family fighting over the leftovers.
To do this we are going to follow three easy steps. The first step
includes brining the turkey to add moisture and flavor, the second
step is cooking the turkey low and slow (325 degrees) in a covered pan or bag to preserve
that moisture, and the third and final step is allowing the meat to
rest sufficiently before carving to help redistribute the juices throughout the meat. If
you follow these three easy steps you will have a perfectly roasted
turkey everytime.
Thawing Your Bird
If you are like most
of us, you will purchase a turkey from your local grocer that is
frozen. Before you can brine your turkey, it has to be thawed. The
only truly safe option to thaw your bird is to place it in the
refrigerator several days before you wish to brine it. Now, depending
on the weight of the turkey, it could take up to 5 days for a frozen
turkey (20 to 24lb bird) to thaw in the refrigerator. Fortunately,
must of us will purchase a 8 to 14lb turkey which will thaw in about
2 to 3 days in the refrigerator. I place my turkey in the same pan in
which I will be roasting it in and place it in the fridge to thaw
before brining. Once the turkey is thawed, do not forget to remove
the neck, giblets, and the sauce packet if there is one before
beginning the brining process. Keep them if you want to make gravy,
but I generally just feed the neck and giblets to the dog that way
everyone gets to enjoy thanksgiving.
The Brine
This recipe is for
two gallons of brining liquid which should be sufficient for any turkey under 16 pounds. An 18 to 20 pound turkey may need 3 gallons
of brine. When brining your turkey, place the turkey in your
container breast side down and add the brine, there should be enough
liquid to cover the bird completely. To ensure optimum flavor, I
believe that the turkey should be brined for 24 hours, so you must
plan accordingly. This is my basic all-purpose turkey brine, it is
simple, easy and a good foundation to build on. This is what I use
every time I cook a turkey whether roasting in the oven or deep
frying. If you want to add dried fruit, oranges, apples, or a variety
of other spices and aromatics to this brine feel free to do so, just make sure you keep the water, salt and sugar ratio the same. For more information on
brining chicken, rabbit, or turkey check out my article 'Brining: Adds Flavor and Juiciness to Chicken, Turkey, and Rabbit' on our
blog.
Basic Turkey Brining Recipe
2 gallons of water
1 cup kosher salt
½ cup brown sugar
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic,
minced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon black
peppercorns
While your bird is
thawing in the fridge, measure out two gallons of water, then remove 2 quarts (64 ounces) and place in a medium sized saucepan. Add
all the ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and stir
to ensure that the salt and sugar are thoroughly dissolved. Once the
salt and sugar are dissolved, remove the saucepan from the heat and
allow to cool. Combine the cooled concentrated 2 quarts of brine with
an additional 6 quarts (192 ounces or 1 ½ gallons) of water to the
container in which you are going to brine your turkey and place it in
the fridge so that it is nice and cold and ready to use when the
turkey is completely thawed.
Remember the turkey
needs to be kept cold during the brining process or those nasty bacteria may begin to grow and multiply. I
place my birds in an old Styrofoam cooler with the brine and place it
in the fridge. If you do not have a cooler, any type of container
will do as long as the bird can be completely submerged in the brine. I have used plastic 5 gallon buckets with good success as well, you just have to have enough shelf space for something that tall.
Chef's Note: I
know some people have used plastic bags for brining, but I have to
admit I have not. You need to take care if you wish to use some form
of plastic bag as a gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds,
add a 12 to 14 pounds turkey (total weight 20 – 24 pounds) to that
and it you are not careful you could end up with quite the mess in
your fridge and kitchen if the bag breaks.
The turkey should be
turned at least once during the brining process, however, I usually
turn my bird every six hours to insure that the brine can infuse into
every part of the bird. When the 24 hours are up and your ready to
start cooking the bird, make sure you rinse it with cold water to
remove any residual brine from the turkey. Remember the cavity of the
bird may contain liquid so make sure it is rinsed and drained
thoroughly.
Chef's Note:
You do not want to use a self basting turkey for this process as
self basting turkeys already have a flavored liquid infused into the
turkey. Brining a self basting turkey could result in a
bird that is too salty to eat.
Roasting The Turkey
As I have mentioned
before, a brined turkey is a juicy and succulent turkey, and when
cooked properly should never be dry. I have been roasting chicken and
turkey's for many years and I must admit I started out pretty much
following the standard 'Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook' (circa
1962) instructions for roasting a turkey, but often found the cooking
times were way to long as they generally included cooking times for
stuffed turkeys. Because I do not stuff my birds, it takes less time
to bake a whole turkey. Below I have listed the approximate cooking
times and techniques that I use when roasting a whole turkey, they
are simple, concise and they work.
Once the bird has
been brined, remove it from the brine and rinse it throughly. I then
generally cut up one large onion into chunks and place it in the
cavity with 2 cloves of garlic. You can add additional aromatics if
you wish, but I like to keep it simple. I then place the turkey in
my enamel ware roaster and place it in the oven. I have included
three variations on how to roast your turkey below. The oven
temperature and times are the same for all methods, but there are
slight variations in technique depending on the type of pan and
method you use.
Inverted Baking Rack
(No Lid)
I do have a roasting
pan with a 'V' rack that allows you to place the turkey breast down,
but it does not have a lid. I was given this roasting pan as a gift,
I tried it once, but I prefer to cook my turkey's in a covered
roasting pan with a lid. I have not used it since, I guess I need to
send it to Goodwill, but I haven't gotten around to it. So what is
the advantage, of placing your turkey, breast side down, well in
theory this allows the turkey to self baste in it's own fat and
juices keeping the breast from drying out. To roast a turkey using
one of these racks you cook the bird breast side down until the last
45 to 60 minutes, then you flip it breast side up to finish it and
allow the breast to brown. Once you flip the bird over you may want
to brush the breast, legs and thighs with some melted butter to help
the skin brown up and crisp. If the skin and top of the legs begin to
brown too much you can cover them with foil. Personally, this is
more work than I want to do on thanksgiving, turning a 12 to 14lb
bird that is almost completely cooked is a messy affair. For me it is
simply not work the effort, but if you have one of these pans and have never tried
it, go for it. Many people I know swear by these but they they are
not for me.
Covered Roasting Pan
This is my preferred
method, I use a plain old blue two piece (top and bottom) enamel ware
roasting pan without a rack. To keep the turkey off the bottom of the
pan, I rough cut some onions and stalks of celery (4 – 5 inches in
length) and line the bottom of the roasting pan with these aromatics.
I know this is old school country cooking, but this method is easy
and there is no pesky rack to clean when the turkey is done. In
addition, it allows me to remove the celery and the take my emulsion
blender and puree the gravy and onions in the bottom of the pan to
make brown onion gravy with. If you have a covered roasting pan with
a rack then use it. I do not, and have never felt the need to buy one
as my old turkey roaster has never let me down.
If you are using a
covered roasting pan, place the turkey breast side up and bake. After
about 90 minutes remove from the oven and take a ½ stick of butter
peel back part of the paper and rub it all over the turkey breast
legs and thighs and return it to the oven (you can melt the butter
and brush it on if you prefer). Remove the turkey from the oven
during the last 20 to 30 minutes and coat again with butter. Return
it to the oven, if you want a browner crispier skin then leave the
lid off the roasting pan, otherwise cover it and put it back in the
oven.
Brown Bag Method
When I was quite a
bit younger, I used to roast my turkey's in an old aluminum roasting
pan stuffed into two brown paper bags (i.e. double bagged) that you
stapled shut and then placed in the oven. My grandmother roasted her
turkey's using this method, they owned a country grocery store and
paper bags were in abundance. I called this the “bag it and forget”
it method. Take your turkey and brush the whole turkey with melted
unsalted butter (btw, I use unsalted butter in all my cooking) then
place it in your pan, then slide the pan into the brown paper bags,
fold and staple shut and cook using the guidelines as listed below
depending on the weight of your turkey. Until about 15 years ago this
was my preferred method, but it is hard to find large grocery store
paper bags these days, so I started using an old enamel ware turkey
roaster.
This method requires the least fuss, like I mentioned you simply bag it and forget about it. Just
in case you wondered paper does not burn until it reaches 451
degrees so there is no chance of starting a fire when cooking a turkey this way using the times and temperatures listed in this article. Now, the USDA does not recommend roasting your turkey this
way due to the unknown quality of the inks and glues used in making paper
grocery store bags. Do as you wish, it never hurt us when I was growing up and If I could
still get the large paper grocery store bags I would roast my turkeys
this way.I keep looking but everyone here has gone to plastic....Bummer cause this method is very easy.
Cooking Times And
Checking For Doneness
Below, I have listed
the cooking times that I use to estimate the amount of time it will
take to roast a whole unstuffed turkey in the oven. Every oven is
slightly different, and you will see that there will be some variation in
the cooking time depending on the size of your turkey and the
accuracy or efficiency of your oven. The best method to determine
whether your turkey is done is to check the internal temperature of
the meat with a thermometer. Insert your meat thermometer into the
meat of the thigh being careful not to touch the bone, it should read
at least 170 degrees F, then check the breast and make sure it reads
at least 165 degrees F. You should begin to start checking the turkey
for doneness when it reaches the minimum cooking time as indicated
below. Remember that a turkey is a large bird and it will continue to
cook once it is removed from the oven so your internal temperature
may increase by 5 degrees before it starts to cool. Testing for
doneness using the 'paper bag method' requires you to stick the
thermometer through the paper bag to test the meat. Finding the
breast is easy enough, but you may have to do some feeling around to
find the area between the thigh and the leg. So what do you do
when you do not have a meat thermometer? Well you will need to make a
small cut between the thigh, the leg, and the breast and check the
color of the juices. If the juices are clear, then your turkey is
done, if you see any pink or red colored juices then the bird needs
to go back in the oven until the juices run clear.
You will note that
I cook my turkeys on low heat and for a longer amount of time.
Cooking low and slow is the second step that will help to ensure that
your turkey is nice and juicy. The following table should help you to determine how long you will need to cook your individual bird regardless of the type of pan or method you choose.
8 to 12lbs, 3
hours to 3 hours and 45 minutes at 325 degrees.
12 to 16lbs, 3 hours
and 30 minutes to 4 hours and 45 minutes at 325 degrees.
16 to 20lbs, 4 hours
and 45 minutes to 5 hours and 30 minutes at 325 degrees.
20 to 24lbs, 5 hours
and 30 minutes to 6 hours and 30 minutes at 325 degrees.
Once you know the
turkey is done, the next step you need to follow to ensure your
turkey maintains it's moisture is to allow it to rest. This is an
important step that is often overlooked by many home cooks. Meats such as roasts,
steaks, and poultry benefit from being allowed to rest or sit
undisturbed for about 20 minutes to allow the juices and moisture in
the meat to redistribute themselves equally throughout the meat
before cutting or carving.
Conclusion
Timing is important
if you what to have your turkey ready for thanksgiving. You need to
give yourself plenty of time to get the bird ready, or you and your
family might be eating something else that day. Remember your average
turkey 10 to 14lbs will take 2 to 3 days to thaw, add one day for
brining. That means you need to get your turkey in the fridge 4 days
at a minimum before thanksgiving, 5 days would be better. Keep in
mind, the bigger the bird, the longer it takes to thaw.
While this recipe is pretty basic, you can add
additional aromatics (apple, lemons, cinnamon sticks, cloves, anise
etc...) to your brine if you want but it is important to maintain the
same water to salt and sugar ratio.We would like to wish you and your family a blessed thanksgiving. As always, if you have
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