The Best Thanksgiving Turkey
This is the best way I've ever made a turkey dinner! I got the brining part from an Alton Brown recipe. I will never roast a turkey without brining it again.
This is the best way I've ever made a turkey dinner! I got the brining part from an Alton Brown recipe. I will never roast a turkey without brining it again.
- brine:
- ingredients
- coating:
- • 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
- • 1 cup kosher salt
- • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- • 1 gallon apple juice
- • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- • 1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
- • 1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
- • 1 gallon iced water
- aromatics:
- • 1 red apple sliced
- • 1/2 onion sliced
- • 1 cinnamon stick
- • 1 cup water
- • 4 sprigs rosemary
- • 6 leaves sage
- • olive oil
- • herbes de provence
- Carbohydrate 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0 g
- Saturated Fat 0 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (0g)
- Sodium 0 mg
- Sugar 0 g
- Trans Fat 0 g
- Calories 0 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
- Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
- A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
- Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
- Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Make a paste of olive oil and Herbes de Provence. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with a paste made of herbes de provence and olive oil, making sure to put some of the herb mixture under the skin of the breast.
- Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. A probe thermometer should be inserted into the thickest part of the breast and a thigh. Internal temperature needs to be 160-165. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.
Roasting an entire poultry carcass without drying out the breast meat requires rethinking standard oven procedures. Unlike chicken, which benefits from rapid dry roasting because of its smaller mass, a massive fourteen to sixteen pound bird demands deliberate moisture management. Wet brining achieves this by submerging the protein in a saline solution, allowing salt-induced osmosis to retain water during the thermal cooking process. Critics often argue that wet brining results in a spongy texture, but combining a standard six hour soak with a high temperature initial sear counters that risk. Heating the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit for the first thirty minutes crisps the skin rapidly before dropping the ambient temperature to 350 degrees for the remainder of the 2 to 2.5 hour roasting window. Accommodating a bird of this scale in a residential kitchen requires a dedicated five gallon food grade bucket and enough refrigerator clearance to keep the temperature safely below forty degrees throughout the brining period. Steeping aromatics such as apples, onions, and cinnamon in the microwave releases their volatile oils quickly before stuffing them into the cavity alongside fresh herbs. Applying a paste of olive oil and herbes de provence directly underneath the breast skin guarantees flavor penetration past the outer barrier. Inserting a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the meat guarantees safety by verifying that internal heat reaches 160 to 165 degrees.
