Gameday Eats Thanksgiving Special: Let's Talk Turkey (and Bourbon Carrots)
Here we'll focus in on one narrative surrounding the centerpiece of 88% of Thanksgiving dinners in America, the dreaded Roasted Turkey, and offer a solution.
“Turkey is the worst thing about Thanksgiving dinner”
I’m sure you’ve heard it. Every year articles and forum posts pop up decrying Turkey as the worst thing served Thanksgiving Day - Several of your family members will avoid it like the plague, or take a serving and push it around their plates for the better part of an hour before throwing it out because they’re “full”. They say its dry, it’s boring, and we should just make a ham and be done with it forever.
Despite being the centerpiece of Thanksgiving Day meals since the 1960’s, this misunderstood bird has been taking the (literal) heat for sub-optimal cooking techniques in the name of a pretty picture for the better part of a century.
I’ve roasted Turkeys stuffed traditionally (don’t do this), Alton Brown style, spatchcocked, even deep fried them. Some of them turned out well- but none have come close to the method I’ve used the last 3 years, the results of which are good enough that if you try it you may find yourself picking up another this weekend while they are still on sale.
Sous Vide Thanksgiving Day Turkey
The method I’ll list out here has 3 main tasks- Brine, Sous Vide, Smoke (or Pan Fry) to finish.
Start a brine for the Turkey (this is optional, as you need to brine for a min of 16-24 hours, if you don’t have the time skip it) - I use this brine recipe by Pioneer Woman. I boil all the ingredients in 1-1.5 gallons and dump it into a small bag of ice (slight variation from the recipe)
Separate the Turkey by white and dark meat as shown in this video series. Make 4 or 6 parts (you can leave the legs on the thighs or separate. Place into the cool brine for 16 hours min, 24 is better)
Pull the turkey pieces out of the brine and soak in large bowl of cold water for 20 min. Pull them, pat dry, vacuum seal into several bags with your choice of herbs and duck fat (butter can be subbed for the duck fat.)
Place in water bath at 147 degrees for 8-12 hours. When complete, pull the bags and place in ice water for 1 hour to quickly cool, store overnight (skip that last part if you are doing this day-of)
Pull the bags out of the fridge, drain juices into bowl to use for gravy, put the meat on the smoker at 400 for 30 min to lightly smoke and crisp the skin. Pull the meat, slice, plate, and serve. If you don’t have or want to use a smoker, follow the instructions in that video series for pan frying (don’ forget to pat as dry as you can before putting that turkey into the oil.)
This may seem like a lot but can be done in parts and in advance so on thanksgiving you can have it ready in 30-40 minutes. And result is Thanksgiving Day turkey in its best form.
So, if you have the opportunity this year try this out and Make Turkey Great Again (or most likely, for the first time.)
Bonus Eats - Bourbon Glazed Carrots
If you want to have the most popular side dish at Thanksgiving (or Christmas) this recipe I ran into randomly a few years ago will get you there. I’ll just post the video which includes the full process/recipe, this side dish is just fantastic, I have no notes.
Those were the two recipes I wanted to highlight ahead of Thanksgiving in case you wanted to try them for tomorrow - What method do you use for your turkey? What is your go-to side dish for this holiday?
Let me know in the chat, and Happy Thanksgiving!
