Awesome Turkey
As requested by the QoS’ mother, here’s my recipe for turkey. This is a trial and error recipe, not a new idea, so this is really the final version of this for me. The rub is a little bit different, notice the lack of sage for instance. Also, I’ve fallen in love with bags for the turkey. They really prevent drying out, because it’s as much a braise as it is a roast. The olive oil does just as good a job as butter for crisping up the skin, and I like the flavor more. I don’t use stuffing, and don’t know how it would impact this. Large pinches and small pinches are of the whole herb, grabbing by the stem. Since this is usually for a big event, go ahead and spend the money on fresh herbs.
Rub
1 cup olive oil
1 “large pinch” mint
1 “large pinch” cilantro
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 “small pinch” parsley
1 frozen turkey, thawed
Hardware
Roasting dish
Roasting bag
Directions
•Thaw, rinse, and pat dry the turkey
•mix everything in the rub in the food processor
•brush the rub on the turkey, drizzle all the oil over the turkey and leave the spices in the cavity
•put the bird in the bag, in the pan. If it does not have a thermometer already in it, add your own
•cook on 360F until the thermometer pops, or 170F in the thickest parts
•let the bird rest on the counter for at least 20 minutes, in the bag. I don’t know why, but it seems to matter. Collect the juices with a ladle or baster for gravy.
6 Responses to “Awesome Turkey”
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November 17th, 2005 at 9:24 am
The turkey is awesome.
Uh, delicious too.
November 20th, 2005 at 9:09 pm
This rub recipe for the turkey sounds good, I am going to try it on the turkey breast I have bought. There’s just going to be the two of us this year so we decided to have just turkey breast.
November 20th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
Ahh, small Thanksgivings don’t sound like a lot of fun, but then again, when I think about my family too much, maybe they do…
Anyway, hope this works out for you. Let me know how it was.
November 21st, 2005 at 12:27 am
The last time I paid attention to how the bird was cooked, we had good luck with a relatively short, high-heat blasting. Not a lot of subtlety there, but it worked out pretty well.
November 21st, 2005 at 10:19 am
Mint and cilantro are interesting choices. I will have to try this on the after the holiday sale bird! (My crew is still reeling from the salsa version and I’ve already got the turducken for this year!)
November 11th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Okay sort of fell into this recipe/cooking method but it makes for a wonderful bird.
First: disassemble the turkey. Butterfly the bird. Cut out the backbone, then removed the keel bone in the breast. This will allow the bird to lay flat.
(Best source for how to butterfly a bird comes from Alton Brown at Foodtv.com, look under Good Eats. His recipe originally refers to a chicken but it works just as well on a turkey.)
Since you will be laying the bird out flat you need something to cook it on. Look in your oven and take out the broiler pan. Now to keep the bird from sticking to it you want to lay it on a bed of veggies. I use potatoes, onions and apples.
Using a mandolin slicer cut up several potatoes, Onions and apples. Layer the rounds covering the entire top of the broiler pan. What you want to happen is for the juices from the bird to run over the veggies and drip down into the pan. Keep in mind the parts of the veggies not covered by the bird tend to over cook, but they can be discarded and the portions covered retained for serving.
While the bird is laid down on top of the veggies, you can lift up the skin and put a mixture of garlic, herbs and butter between the skin and the meat. This lets the flavors penetrate the meat.
Put a probe thermometer in the breast and cook until done.
The juices can be recovered from the broiler pan for gravy. If it looks like the wing tips and the ends of the drumsticks are getting to well done you can cover them with a bit of foil.
Cooks up very fast compared to a broiler bag.