Turkey recipies???

[Mark Singer]

What is your best Turkey recipe? I have about 25 people coming over...I will do one in the BBQ and one in the oven..sugestions:rolleyes:

[Tim Morton]

I generally get the most compliments on my Turkey when I turn it upside down and stuff it with citrus fruit. Nothing fancy just keep the bird on a rack in the pan. I keep the probe in the breast meat and pull it out of the oven at 150-160. This seems to cook the turkey more evenly. Downside is that you will need to flip it over and butter the skin at some point to brown it up if you are going to be presenting the bird on the table.

[Karl Laustrup]

Mark, check out this recipe from Alton Brown. I tried it about 3 years ago and it's just about the only way I make a turkey anymore. Always juicy and moist. It does take a bit of prep time, but well worth it IMHO. :)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_8389,00.html

Karl

[Jim Becker]

The Alton Brown method is excellent. But what Tim talks about is also wonderful...'done them both ways!

[jeremy levine]

ANother vore for Alton Brown.

[Art Mulder]

Never heard of Alton Brown. Sounds like a lot of work.
There must be more to it than just "juicy"? Juicy is easy. Does the brine give it some outstanding flavour?

I just did a turkey on this past Sunday, an 10-12lb bird.
- defrost in the fridge for a few days
- rinse it out
- stuff the cavity with some chopped onions
- slap it into an oven bag and put it in the roasting pan
- brush olive oil on the carcass
- sprinkle on a mix of your choice of spices. I think we used marjoram, thyme, parsley, maybe rosemary, all about 1tsp plus 1/2tsp paprika
- close up the bag, poke a few holes at the top of the bag,
- jam in the thermometer and pop it into the oven - 325

Here's a similar recipe (http://www.cooksrecipes.com/poultry/simple_turkey_recipe.html).

No basting needed. So juicy that the meat nearly falls off the bones.
Serve with cranberry sauce and MMMmmmm good.

[jeremy levine]

Never heard of Alton Brown. Sounds like a lot of work.
There must be more to it than just "juicy"? Juicy is easy. Does the brine give it some outstanding flavour?
....

Yes much like chicken in soup, the turkey exchanges some of its water and replaces it with some of the brine.

[Michael Cody]

What is your best Turkey recipe? I have about 25 people coming over...I will do one in the BBQ and one in the oven..suggestions:rolleyes:

Another Alton Brown fan... only difference is I do mine on the gas grill instead of the oven.. I throw in some water soaked hickory & oak chunks into the smoking box and it takes 2-3 hours... turkey is super moist and and brushing the skin w/olive oil gets is toasty browned ... plus the little bit of smoke adds a nice touch. It's also fantastic as written, but my kitchen is quite small and I only have one oven, so I try to cook big meals on the grill as much as possible. I move a lot of recipes out of the oven to the grill or using charcoal in my 3 cast iron 12" dutch ovens. You ought to try my family xmas dinner of dutch oven Italian sausage lasagna!

I've almost stopped cooking any big piece of meat w/o brining it first. Pulled pork Boston butts, brisket, turkey, even whole chickens come out nicer when brined first. I have to admit Alton Brown on the food channel got me started on this and I find his recipes almost always outstanding and reasonably easy to do. His jerky recipe is super simple, etc. and just plain tastes great.

[Keel McDonald]

Fried in a turkey fryer. It's by far the best turkey I've eaten!!!

[Aaron Koehl]

Brining a bird is definitely the way to go.

Here's Wolfgang's recipe--same method as Alton but just a touch more flavor. Combines an overnight brine with an herbed butter distributed underneath the skin, stuffed with whole citrus fruits and onion, and then roasted over an aromatic Mirepois.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_25005,00.html

Produces a perfectly browned bird, juicy, succulent, and delicious.
The turkey stock and gravy is very similar to my Mom's method.

Not sure how fancy you want to get in the kitchen, but this recipe is actually easier than it reads. I am admittedly a bit of a foodie, however.

[Dan Mages]

What is your best Turkey recipe? I have about 25 people coming over...I will do one in the BBQ and one in the oven..sugestions:rolleyes:

I have done this several times with chickens, but should be basically the same process for a bird 5x the size. A turkey no larger than 15 pounds is recommended.

Is the BBQ charcoal or gas?

If it is charcoal, than you are in business. A hinged grate for adding extra coals to the indirect fires is a must. If it is not, this is a good excuse to get one. Or even better, get a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.

Brine the turkey or apply the rub of your choice. As I discovered the hard way, you cannot brine a kosher turkey.


1. Use lump natural charcoal, not briquettes. Natural charcoal gives much better flavor.
2. Use large chuck smoking wood. If you have cherry scraps, those will work perfectly. Otherwise, apple hickory or mesquite all work well. Hickory can get overpowering if you are not careful.
3. Set up the grill for indirect cooking (two piles or baskets of coal on opposite ends of the grill). Heat the grill to 250
4. Insert a probe thermometer into the breast of the beast. Set it to 150.
5. Rub the breast with some olive oil. It will help crisp it.
6. Place two large chunks of smoking wood in each pile or basket.
7. Place the turkey in the middle of the cooking grate and walk away. DO NOT open that lid unless you absolutely have to!!
8. Smoke that critter for half an hour per pound at 220-250.
9. Add more coal if the temp drops below 220.
10. Once the turkey hits 150 degrees, open up the vents and let the fires get rip roarin hot to crisp up the skin and cook until the critter is 165 degrees.
11. Remove from the grill and let sit for 20 minutes before carving.

Enjoy!!

My favorite rub adapted from the cookbook Get Saucy by Grace Parisi

2-4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1.5 tbs ancho chili powder
.5 tbs chipotle chili powder
.5 tbs cumin
1/2 tsp coarsely ground pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano. Mexican variety preferred.

mash the garlic & salt in a mortar and pestle until it forms a paste

In a small pan, heat the oil and add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Allow to return to room temperature before applying it to the beast, preferably under the breast skin for better absorption. Allow to get happy for 4-6 hours before grilling.

Gobble gobble

Dan

[jeremy levine]

I

Brine the turkey or apply the rub of your choice. As I discovered the hard way, you cannot brine a kosher turkey. ... FYI all kosher poltry has been salted to some extent hence the brine has little to no effect.... on the other hand it pre-seasons the bird.

[Doug Shepard]

Fried in a turkey fryer. It's by far the best turkey I've eaten!!!

If by that, you mean a deep fryer, I've got to agree. I got to have some leftovers last year from my next door neighbor. He's up early every Thanksgiving setting up a deep fryer out in his driveway. Plunks the whole bird in and lets it cook for hours. That's the best turkey I've ever had. I dont even want to know how much colesterol was involved though.

[Frank Fusco]

For forty plus years, I have done ours in the standard Webber kettle grill. We like the results to much we usually have one or two at other times of the year done this way.
I stack charcol briquets on either side, get them going and just set in a large bird my wife has stuffed.
The bird is basted with peanut oil a couple times during the cooking. Even a large bird takes only 2 1/2 hours. They always come out properly cooked and still moist and juicy. For me, it's hard to give thanks for a turkey that had been dried out. (we need a "yuk" similie for here)
It really couldn't be simpler.

[Jim Hinze]

What is your best Turkey recipe? I have about 25 people coming over...I will do one in the BBQ and one in the oven..sugestions:rolleyes:


Mark,

If your interested, I have a recipe for a "brine" turkey. It is quite excellent. My wife got the recipe from the Queer Eye show 2 years ago and we've made it every thanksgiving since..

I don't have it here at work but will be willing to post it later tongiht when I get home.

The basic premise is you develop a brine of fresh & dried herbs, kosher salt, and burbon .. let the turkey soak for 24 hours (or maybe a little longer), rinse and bake.

Excellent!!!!!!!!!

[Mark Singer]

FYI all kosher poltry has been salted to some extent hence the brine has little to no effect.... on the other hand it pre-seasons the bird.
Jeremy,
I am not sure I am getting Kosher poultry (a nice Jewish bird;) ...but like my mother always said Vy Not?:confused:

[Mark Singer]

Jim,
It sounds great!

[Craig Coney]

here's my recipe.. repeated requests year after year for it.

Prep your bird normally, stuff it, cover the breast in bacon strips, place in a deep roasting pan, pour 1/2 bottle of chardonnay wine or reisling wine over it & baste every 1/2 hour after the first hour of cooking. Take off the bacon about 2/3 of the way thru & leave in the bottom of the pan. Keep basting. The turkey will be a golden brown, juicy, & tasty.

I'll have to try the bourbon & brine sometime though.

[Jim Hinze]

Brined & Roasted Turkey (QE style)
This brine will handle a 12-15lb turkey, just upsize the amounts if you have a larger bird

2 gallons cold water
2 cups burbon
2 cups + 2 tbsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar (or honey)
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp freshly ground white pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped herbs (thyme, parsley, rosemary, dill, etc)
butter or olive oil

To Brine
Start the brining method the day before you plan to cook the turkey. Start with a fresh or completely thawed turkey. Wash the bird inside and out and remove the giblet bag and kneck.

in a large stockpot (or bucket) disolve 2 cups kosher salt in 2 gallons of cold water. Add 1 cup of sugar (or honey) and stir until the salt and sugar are completely disolved. Add the burbon.

Herbs and spices may be added to the brine to enhance the flavor. Add several crushed bay leaves, severay sprigs of dried thyme or other herbs if desired.

Place turkey in brine solution breast down, cover and chill overnight.

Remove turkey from brine, rince inside nad out under cold running water, pat dry with towel.

Roasting instructions

preheat oven to 325 degress. As a guideline, roast the turkey 10-12 minutes per pound.

Place turkey on shallow roasting pan, tie legs together and tuck wings underneath the bird.

Coat the skin with butter or olive oil. Cover the breast loosely with aluminum foil. Add 1 curp of water to the bottom of the roasting pan.

Roast the turkey until the internal temperature reaches 180 or the thigh juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

[Barry Beech]

This is how I do ours (it's a variation of brining):

I smoke mine but it would work just as well on a grill.

Take a room temperature bird and with a meat injector, inject it with salt water. For the salt water I just take about 2 cups warm water and dissolve as much kosher salt as I can.

I then inject as much of the salt water into the turkey.

I dry the outside of the bird and rub it with olive oil and sprinkle Tony Cachere's Creole seasoning on the turkey.

I then smoke it until done at 225.

Wonderful and juicy.

[Joe Pelonio]

We normally do two 12 pounders in the gas grill, with brine, so I highly recommend it. This year we have less people so are doing one larger
and with the weather the way it's been may end up using the oven, if we have power, otherwise I'll just get wet.

BTW, there were proces listed in the paper for restaurants and grocers that sell the meals all ready to go, and I was suprised to see them running
$30-100, with most about $50. Just a little tempting, we'd have to deal with a revolt.

[Scott Donley]

Just a reminder, take the plastic bag of giblets and neck out BEFORE cooking. If you need more info on this you will have to ask my daughter and her borfriend, they fixed dinner last year.;)

[skip coyne]

Ive done mine on a water smoker for about 15 years or so very moist , everyone loves it

with the water smoker its what you put in the water that flavors the bird , I use a couple of cups of wine , onions and whatever other spices I get my hands on .

I usually cut up a couple of onions a and a grapefruit ( we have a tree ) and throw it in the cavity .

I usually smoke a ham a long with it .

something else to try is cheese . take provolone or swiss , chunk it up in a tin pie pan and smoke it for the first hour or so .

great to nibble on while the turkey is cooking

[John Shuk]

I start with a good quality fresh turkey.
First I brine.
I Slit the skin and place butter strategically.
Salt pepper rosemary on top and under skin.
Then I half fill the cavity with pearl onions.
The onions really impart a nice flavor.
I follow the rules for tenting and basting but I find the real key is to pay close attention to tempurature. I have one of the digital oven thermometers and allows me to really keep on track with things.
http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Digital-Oven-Thermometer-Timer/dp/B00004XSC5/sr=8-3/qid=1163809625/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/102-4834832-9203300?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden

I like to take the bird out about 15 degrees shy of the target and let it reach it while resting.

[Andy Hoyt]

Take two DeRauds, a dash of Laustrup, a smidge of Leetch, four Hoyts, and an ounce of Hart. Beat them unmercifully until silent. Then add a skoshe of Becker. Stand back, and wear protection. Garnish liberally with Fitzgerald when done.:D

[Karl Laustrup]

Take two DeRauds, a dash of Laustrup, a smidge of Leetch, four Hoyts, and an ounce of Hart. Beat them unmercifully until silent. Then add a skoshe of Becker. Stand back, and wear protection. Garnish liberally with Fitzgerald when done.:D

I concur, although I'm not too sure what in the world those ingrediments would produce. Although a little heavy on the Hoyt, I do think it is a recipe for the age[s][d]. ;) :D


SKOL!

Karl