Thanksgiving Turkey...suggestions please!

For the last few years my mom has had to work thanksgiving day, and my little brothers go to their dads for the morning/early afternoon, so that means that I am home all day and I get to make the whole Thanksgiving dinner. I love cooking so this is an awesome oppertunity for me once a year to have the whole kitchen to myself and just get to cook and create. I normally make a large turkey, stuffing, Green Bean casserole, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce (has to be from the can!!), rolls, risotto, gravy, a relish tray, pickle appitizers, and a couple of pies...normaly a chocolate and then a pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving day is my day...I am a ninja in the kitchen...I am in the zone, and I have my own little traditions....I get up, get the turkey ready to go in the oven (but don't put it in the oven untill about noon), asseble the green bean casserole, and then snuggle on the couch with a hot cup of apple cider to watch the thanksgiving day parade.

So....my question to you fellow Thanksgiving ninja's....how do you prepare your turkey? I have a few Idea's floating around in my head....I am thinking of putting a bundle of herbs (parsley, rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme) in the cavity along with several cloves of garlic and wedges of lemon. Then making a basting "sauce" with chicken stock, and all the ingreadients that I put in the cavity, and rubbing some garlic infused olive oil on the bird before roasting it, and then just before it is done, when I uncover it to crisp up the skin, rubbing a halved clove of garlic all over the skin to infuse it again with the garlic flavor.

I'd love to hear your plans for the turkey!!

I made a roast chicken a long time ago that was delicious.  I roasted a head of garlic and mixed it with just a bit of salt and oil to make a paste.  I then stuffed this under the skin.   You could probably do a similar method with some herbed butter chilled and cut into rounds or chunks and stick under the skin.

I don't stuff my turkey or add any ingredients.  I have a roaster from the 1950's that's the best ever.. I won't know what to do if it ever gets ruined or lost!  All I do is clean out the cavity, rinse the bird off... rub it down with some oil and cook it.  It always comes out juicy and golden brown... mmmmmmmmmm I can't wait!!

I roasted 2 heads of garlic, mush the paste up with herbs and spices, and then use it as a rub under the skin.

Something I never do (even before I was calorie conscious) is baste with butter or oil.  I prefer to let my turkey sit in a water bath.  It keeps it so moist!

All I can say is I want to have Thanksgiving dinner at your house!

my favourite is a brined turkey.  you soak the bird in a brine for 2 - 3 days (refridgerated; it gets fussy if you have a frozen bird) before cooking.  the brine breaks down the muscle tissue so that it's oh-so-tender and never ever dry (like, you can't even dry out the leftover breast meat, no matter how hard you try).  it also cooks a little faster.

i stuff it with a standard sausage meat stuffing, with pecans if no one's allergic.  french bread, lots of sage, oregano, and rosemary, onion, etc.  i also love oyster stuffing, but that's not for everyone.

if you want the brine recipe, PM me (the one i have is a secret from a famous SF restaurant, courtesy of family).

I was going to say I like brined turkey as well.  But I am also interested in Pgeorgian's brine recipe ;)

I agree with the Brine.  I take 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt put it into boiling water unitl it is disolved.  I also add in fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic cloves (with the out side skin, there is more flavor that way) and let it cook for about 15 minutes.  Let the brine cool and put the turkey in the brine (make sure the whole thing is covered) and let is sit for 1 hour per one lb.  You can over brine something for sure so keep that in mind.  you also need to rinse the Turkey really well after it is Brined to get any excess salt off of it.  You can always skip the sugar and add honey, or maply syrup or something like that.  The salt and the sugar is the key to the brine I have found.

I just cooked 4 turkeys two weeks ago (fried one, oven one, rotisserie, and a oiless fryer (those things are sweet) and all of them were great but in my opinion the only thing that really matters on Thanksgiving is if the Gravy is good.  after about 18 tries over the years this year i finally got the Gravy right and it was FANTASTIC.  Especially because I was cooking the giblets with onions and what not and while the turkey in the oven was cooking i basted the turkey every half hour with the liquid from the cooking jiblets.  The oven turkey was amazing.

I like to throw a few stalks of celery, a yellow onion, a red onion, two cloves of garlic, a nasty parsley bunch, a few carrots... I like my cavity to look fit to burst with root veggies like the kind you'd use to flavor a stock.  I like to press dried herbs into the places beneath the skin, and then rub the outside with olive oil.  I baste once.   When it's cooked, I take out the veggies and then fill it with cooked and baked stuffing.

It's never dry, always delicious and flavorful, but it's definitely not an overpowering or "savory" turkey.  I don't like anyone to tire out on what is the main course.

Of course, I use the pan drippings for my gravy.  And that yellow onion is a special treat for my onion loving self.  Mm-mm-good!

This sounds wonderful and I'm really interested in brining a turkey this year.  Would you please send me the recipe.  Thanks so much!! Enjoy your turkey day especially the turkey and plan for what special treat you'll endulge in. 

I too would love to try brining a turkey, ( and your nummy recipe).  I'm sold!  Thanks so much for sharing! 

I have three grown sons and have always cooked both a ham and a turkey. Last year I rotisseried the turkey and it came out so good that this year I am trying the Cajun injection.

We are in the south so there is always collard greens and cornbread stuffing. In the past I have also made sausage, apple raisin and oyster stuffing. Sausage seems to be the boys favorite but now I just make a basic veggie/bread dressing along with the cornbread.

2 gravies, Ham and turkey

Cooked fresh sweet potatoes with apples

I've learned over many years that when baking the turkey that slow roasting isn't needed, cooking at proper temp for the length of time per pound is sufficient and the turkey comes out great.

I purchased extra turkeys for after the holidays and want to try the brine aproach. I can, freeze and make a stock out of the extra turkey. I still have some that I home canned from last year. It's great for a short cut meal.

Hi there! I love your idea for your turkey, really sounds yummy. Last yr. I brined a 20+lb w/Kosher salt, fresh herbs, a little wine and some sugar, for about 12 hrs. I've been roasting turkeys for a many a yr, but I had never brined one. Boy was that a treat! It was so juicy I did'nt want any gravy.  This year I will be cooking 2 turkeys. I will brine one and deep fry the other.

sdpeterso2

i'll be doing 2 birds on the bbq grill.  the first i chop fresh garlic and basil and mix with olive oil and lemon juice and rub the mixture under the turkey skin and marinate overnite.  put a few lemon wedges in the cavity.

the second i inject with a cajun terryaki marinade and marinade overnight.

when grilling them i put a coffee can with beer and spices in it in the cavity cook upright with a drip pan under each bird.  Same idea as a beer can chicken but on a larger scale.  the turkey is so moist it's nearly falling apart by the time it's fully cooked.

yum I love to cook I know we will try this one. I'm salivating How long does it have to cook per lb?

sdpeterso1

That is so funny (regarding gravy making) because it took me about 22 tries before I Pro-fected my giblet gravy, (thanks to Paula Deen).

In our home, we grow our own turkeys so the first thing we have to do to prepare the turkey is harvest it and then pluck it and then soak it in brine.  Then on the second day, we add herbs to the brine and let it soak for a couple of hours.  Then we remove it from the brine and heat it from the inside out for a while with boiling water in the cavity.  Then we stuff it with sausage, walnut, cranberry stuffing and bake very hot for an hour and then turn the heat down and cover it.  then we cook it slowly for a while and when the meat thermometer indicates its time, we remove the cover and turn up the heat again.  We are hoping to make two kinds this year...the regular baked one and a deep fried one.  anyone have ideas for deep frying? we have never done that before.

I do the brine/kosher turkey as well, I just soak it overnight and can cook it at a higher temperature and faster. I have some not so healthy sausage dressing/stuffing (whatever you call it) green beans and mashed tators and of course cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

I'm doing the 100 calorie pumpkin pie tarts to help my calorie counting this year. :D

I do a glaze brown sugar and honey it's really good

could i get your wonderful brine recipe???  would love to try it. Thank you.

I too usually brine my turkey,  however this year I think I might try something different. I am a huge brining enthusiast, but I like the simple, traditional prep of this recipe. I saw this on America's Test Kitchen a few days ago and the end product looked amazing. (I suppose you could still brine the turkey- my brine recipe is apple cider, water, brown sugar, and salt)

It's a traditional turkey prep called Barding (which we have probably all unknowingly done to food at some point). Basically, it is covering the bird in some type of delicious, salty meat (like bacon). Due to the fact that the fat renders into the bird much more slowly than butter or oil, it keeps the bird moist and protects the breast from drying. Here's the thing though. ATK does not recommend using bacon because it gives off too smokey of a flavor- the trick is to use salt pork.

Take a rinsed/dried bird, place it on a pan w/ rack, and prick the breast and legs with a fork. Fold 2 yards of cheese cloth into an 18", soak in a quart of water. Slice 1 lb of salt pork into 1/4" slices and lay over the breast and legs of the bird. Since the salt pork is basically unsmoked bacon, you get all the benefit without an overly smokey turkey.

Remove cheese cloth from water and cover the bird with it, leaving cavity and leg bones exposed. Pour the remaining water over the bird. Cover same area with foil and cook at 325 until breast meat reads 140°F. Remove bird from oven and raise temp to 425. Remove foil, cheese cloth, and salt pork (the bird will be unsightly and pale at this point) and place back in oven until breast meat reads 165°F and turkey is golden brown.

What you end up with is a perfectly flavored, moist turkey. The recipe doesn't call for any type of pepper or herbs, but I am sure you could add some under the salt pork.  I think I am going to try this method for Thanksgiving 2k9!