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Help me prep a turkey (1 Viewer)

ghostguy123

ghostguy123

Footballguy
23 pound Turkey if that matters.  I am sure there are videos and links all over the internet, but I would prefer to ask you fine gents instead.

We are basic.  We do not do fancy.  I am really just looking for a nice simple and easy way to prep.

We never had to make the turkey before, but some unforeseen circumstances have forced our hand.

If you have a good link that fits what we are looking for lemme have it.  Thanks.

 
I only do the carving, my wife does the cooking. But I do know for certain she's been using this brine for a few years now and the turkey always turns out incredible. I know it takes patience, a ton of basting while cooking and application of tinfoil on strategic parts of the bird to prevent burning the outside.

 
1.   Remove the neck and giblet packet from inside the bird..  some also have little plastic pieces that need to be removed as well..

 
Parrothead said:
1.   Remove the neck and giblet packet from inside the bird..  some also have little plastic pieces that need to be removed as well..
Click to expand...
I have cooked a turkey in my over before w/ the neck and giblet still in the bird.  It was my first time roasting a turkey.  Still tasted great, but the neck and giblet were tossed even though they were cooked.  

:popcorn: for this thread.  

 
ghostguy123 said:
23 pound Turkey if that matters.  I am sure there are videos and links all over the internet, but I would prefer to ask you fine gents instead.

We are basic.  We do not do fancy.  I am really just looking for a nice simple and easy way to prep.

We never had to make the turkey before, but some unforeseen circumstances have forced our hand.

If you have a good link that fits what we are looking for lemme have it.  Thanks.
Click to expand...
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_roast_turkey/

best way for people who don’t do it often - roast breast side down. 

If you’re feeling like playing with flavor, dice an onion and a couple banana peppers with a couple cloves of garlic, and mix with some of the banana pepper pickling juice, paprika, and salt, and  make slits in the breastbone. fill the pockets between the skin and meat of the legs and the slits in the breastbone with the mixture. 

 
before you cook it.

Get some butter.

Rub it all over the bird.  (make sure you make sexy sounds why doing this)

Sprinkle any type of seasoning you would like.  I usually use a little goya.

Rub butter and seasoning in (still make the sound).

Let sit for ~ 1.

Cook.  Make a foil tent around bird.

 
in a bowl melt a stick of butter, to it add a tbsp of salt and pepper.  stir and rub bird.  dust bird with adobo seasoning.  with a knife, stab holes in bird and stuff with spanish olives.  put bird in a turkey bag and throw in a mirapoix.  seal bag and poke some holes in bag.  350 for 3.5 hours, the last half hour baste bird in juice.  simple fall off the bone goodness.  breast side up.

 
ghostguy123 said:
23 pound Turkey if that matters.  I am sure there are videos and links all over the internet, but I would prefer to ask you fine gents instead.

We are basic.  We do not do fancy.  I am really just looking for a nice simple and easy way to prep.

We never had to make the turkey before, but some unforeseen circumstances have forced our hand.

If you have a good link that fits what we are looking for lemme have it.  Thanks.
Click to expand...
take 1 cup kosher salt,  1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1 TBS  italian seasoning  mix in a bowl set aside

with a thawed turkey,  unwrap- remove the giblets inside the cavity     should just have a bird with nothing in the cavity at this point.   Rinse and pat dry.    put on a baking sheet,   use the salt mixture now, and pat it liberally all over the outside of the bird and the inside, spread it around.    pull up the skin on the breasts from the cavity area, put some of that salt mix on the breast meat under the skin.    take the entire thing and put it in the fridge over night, do not cover or wrap-  just open.

next day when its time to cook, preheat oven to 500,  when you get to temp, put in bird, set timer for 30 minutes.  (works even better if you have a convection oven, if you do, then use the convection function)    after the 30 minutes, reduce temp to 325,   for a 23lb bird using Convection you'll need 2 to 2.5 hours of cooking time.    for a 23lb bird using regular oven you'll need 4 1/2 hours approx.   

take bird out, lightly cover it with tinfoil, then a couple of kitchen towels and let it sit for 60-90 minutes on the counter.   use this time to prepare whatever other foods you are going to eat.

ETA:  forgot to say to butter the bird all over the breast and thighs and then lay 6-8 pcs of  raw bacon over the breasts before you throw it in the oven.   THis will keep the breast meat from over browning while also adding flavor.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
NRJ's super easy method:

What you need:

  • a roasting pan, It can be one of the throw-away ones from the grocery store. 
  • some oil (vegetable works fine)
  • tin foil (recommend the extra-wide heavy-duty kind, because it holds its shape better)
Steps:

  1. Remove hidden bags of giblets etc.
  2. Rinse your bird in the sink. 
  3. Pat dry with paper towels
  4. coat the entire bird with oil (you can add seasonings if desired, but it will still have a good natural roasted flavor without any additional seasoning)
  5. place in pan and make a tin foil "tent" over, but not touching, the bird
  6. cook for recommended time, according to weight
  7. with 20-30 minutes of cook time remaining, remove the foil tent, which will allow the skin to get nice and brown and crispy





 
Henry Ford said:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_roast_turkey/

best way for people who don’t do it often - roast breast side down. 

If you’re feeling like playing with flavor, dice an onion and a couple banana peppers with a couple cloves of garlic, and mix with some of the banana pepper pickling juice, paprika, and salt, and  make slits in the breastbone. fill the pockets between the skin and meat of the legs and the slits in the breastbone with the mixture. 
Click to expand...
Big fan of breast side down. 

Some mitts are helpful when flipping breast side up for browning.

 
xulf said:
Put it in an oven bag to keep it moist.  The reset is irrelevant. 
Click to expand...
Oven bags :wub:

I love these so much. I cook everything in them. Everything from rack of lamb to simple chuck roasts. Throw all your veggies in the bottom of the bag and they get cooked too. It's your entire meal. Plus I am a huge clean freak and they keep the inside of the oven crystal clean. Just tonight I threw down a sick rack of lamb in an oven bag. I even do ribs in oven bags. The reason I make such a big deal about it is that I don't think anyone hardly even knows what these things are. Just a trick I learned from my old man, from one bachelor to another, might have been the only good advice he ever gave me.

 
Remove giblets and neck.  If wife around take the neck [redacted].  Rinse turkey and pat dry

Rub liberally with salt and pepper and under the skin (really get in there, make it look like you are re-enacting  a scene from Videodrome.  Leave bird uncovered in fridge overnight 

next morning get some room temp butter (mix in favorite seasoning) rub all over bird  and under skin

preheat oven to whatever butterball website says and cook accordingly 

let rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.  Eat bits of turkey and maybe a whole wing or leg while you wait

Try making gravy from drippings while 6+ beers deep after lions loss and splatter gravy all over youself.  Listen to family complain and argue and kids whine.

Serve turkey, make awkward small talk as needed, switch to bourbon, bury face in phone and ignore family the rest of the night 

 
Salt to poultry is as essential as it gets in cooking. Thus a brine. A sufficiently brined bird cooked to 165° needs little else.

 
Breasts up!

Some people like to cook breast side down because they think fat and juices will percolate down and keep the breast moist. Juices simply can't travel very far through muscle fibers that confine them. Especially since the fibers in the breasts run horizontally, not top to bottom. And they are not straws. They are sealed on the ends. And the breast is not an empty jug waiting for juices to flow in. The breast meat is already saturated with fluid. When you sleep on your stomach, your breasts don't swell do they? And if the juices could flow, pressure would push them up, away from the heat, like the liquid in a glass thermometer.

And where would these juices come from? Visualize an upside down turkey. The breast is maybe 3" thick at most. What is directly above it? The cavity! No juices there!

If you turn your bird upside down because you want fat to baste the breasts, alas, breasts have little fat. It's in the skin, which would be below the breasts if the bird was upside down, so melting fat would just drip out, not bathe the meat.

Finally, if you cook breast down, you smush the breasts and put marks on the skin, and if you put the bird in a roasting pan, , the skin will probably not brown properly. Ugly.

Link

 
Parrothead said:
1.   Remove the neck and giblet packet from inside the bird..  some also have little plastic pieces that need to be removed as well..
Click to expand...
duh....yep. Then boil the pieces and use the broth for gravy, soup, …..anything. If you are stuffing the bird then add them.

If you are not stuffing the bird then reconsider...

wikkidpissah said:
two words: brine
Click to expand...
simple soak  in saltwater. 

 
You guys not using smoked paprika on the dry brine...what's the matter with you?

Tony's, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, equal parts thyme, rosemary, sage.  Rub that bird and cavity like you paid for it by the hour.  Fridge overnight.  

Stuff that bird in the morning with onions, celery, carrots, half a lemon, half an apple...I jam a clove or two in the lemon, add peppercorns and an allspice berry or two. Those are your aromatics. 

I'm using an electric Turkey roaster this year (think giant crock pot) but oven fine. 

Use that Turkey neck and giblets (no liver) to make Turkey stock the night prior.  Onions, carrots, celery, garlic, olive oil...rough cuts. Heat those up in the oil, add the giblets/neck, cover with cold water and add 1 cup white wine. Bay leaf, peppercorns, Tonys....bring to a boil, simmer for 1.5 hours, strain and cool.  There's your stock for gravy and soups.

 
Judge Smails said:
This.  On my last several I've been a big fan of doing a dry brine.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/dry-brined-turkey-with-classic-herb-butter-recipe-1973633
Click to expand...
From this recipe:

Unwrap the turkey and remove the neck and giblets (reserve for gravy). Rinse the turkey under cold water and pat dry. Combine 1/3 cup salt, the sugar and 1 teaspoon pepper in a bowl. Rub all over the turkey and inside the cavity. Put on a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate, uncovered, at least 8 hours or overnight. Rinse well and pat dry. (A dry brine is a good choice if you're short on fridge space.)
Click to expand...
Why rinse it and pat dry here?  I don't get that.

 
You don't want the salt to dissolve. The birds skin will dry out in the fridge which leads to a crispier skin when you cook it

 
Yeah I just copied a dry brine recipe as an example without looking at the details.  I use kosher salt and just let it dissolve into the bird.  Don't pat dry.  My bad for the link

 
Judge Smails said:
Yeah I just copied a dry brine recipe as an example without looking at the details.  I use kosher salt and just let it dissolve into the bird.  Don't pat dry.  My bad for the link
Click to expand...
No worries, I was just confused by that part.  I think we're on the same page.  I'm looking for a bit more flavor than just 'salt' when I rub it down today but will also use kosher salt in the mix.  Tomorrow I'll take it out, let it get to room temp, coat it with olive oil, a little more of the dry rub, stuff the cavity with some goodies and this year, I'm using a turkey roaster, which I'm excited to try out.  Will probably add some more veggies and a little turkey stock to the bottom of the roaster too.

God I love Thanksgiving.

 
Boiled the brine (salt, brown sugar, and spices) last night, placing the bird in it tonight, and smoking it on the Traeger tomorrow (thinking of using maple). Did it similarly last year and it was outstanding.

 
dickey moe said:
Boiled the brine (salt, brown sugar, and spices) last night, placing the bird in it tonight, and smoking it on the Traeger tomorrow (thinking of using maple). Did it similarly last year and it was outstanding.
Click to expand...
several of my friends like me have a Traeger.  What recipe did you use? Whole bird or spatchcock?

 
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