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Well happy holidays everybody and guess what? It's that time of year again. And we are making turkey!
What says Thanksgiving, Christmas
any holiday dinner anyway
than a big ole turkey?
I know a lot of people get intimidated by turkeys and think "How am I going to tackle that great big 15 pound thing?"
Let me just tell you something - just think of this turkey
as a great big chicken - okay? A little less intimidating right?
So instead getting all worried about brining and roasting and tying it up with twine
so you got that trussed up
forget all that stuff - I just say
that's a total waste of time.
Because really, are you going to be doing the Norman Rockwell thing and taking
this big ole turkey to the table? Heck no. You're going to be roasting it in the kitchen
and then you're going to be cutting it up in the kitchen.
So you really don't need to worry about this thing. What we need to know is though is if
we're doing a whole turkey
how to do it simply --
how to do it deliciously --
and how to do it so it doesn't dry out. That's the biggest complaint that
people make
about turkey.
So I'm going to give you a couple of quick turkey tips before we get our turkey in the oven.
The first thing is -- fresh or frozen? I don't care. Get what you want.
Should you get one brined? Should you get one unbrined? Again, I don't care. But they've said -
studies have shown --
that those pre-brined or those self-basters
those are the ones that
or a little bit more juicy and the reason why is it's in a saline solution.
So it is if you brined it yourself.
I never brine and I don't buy it that way. What I do is I cook it
at a very high temperature on 500 degrees for thirty minutes --
then it turn it down to 375 and finish cooking it.
And a 14 or 15 pound turkey takes you usually two and a half hours.
We'll talk about that later when once it comes out and I'll give you a little bit
of a guide on how to do this. This is a new way that I do turkey -- it's not in my
Saving Dinner for the Holidays book --
although that is a classic tried and true and I've always done my turkeys like that.
I started doing them like this and I'm really pleased with the results. And honestly - two and a half hours - who can complain?
We are going to get our turkey ready. We of course are going to use our shears --
lovely kitchen shears --
and get this little guy out of his plastic wrap.
And here's the thing that you need to know about turkeys --
once you get them in the oven you're going to close that oven and you're not
going to look at him again
until it's time. And let me just tell you something about what "until it's time" means.
It means
that you're not going to open and close that oven and baste like a fool
because basting doesn't do anything. Guess what happens
when you put your turkey in the oven - do you know what happens? Excuse me I'm
wrestling this guy --
okay
Doctor I've removed the forceps :-)
So what happens to that in that oven you've got that high
temperature on -- that skin seals up. It seals up.
So what's the point of opening and closing and opening and closing opening and
closing the oven door?
All you do then is make the temperature decrease in your oven
which causes your turkey to need to be
cooked longer. So guess what happens? You know exactly what happens.
You get a dried out turkey. So what our goal is then is to get this
turkey into the oven and get it cooked, get it sealed and get it hot and get it
going in the right direction and then you can have a really
fantastic turkey.
Okay I just delivered a neck from the turkey's cavity.
What other lovely things can I find?
That's it. Tthat's all they gave me. Usually they'll give you one you know
some giblets and stuff. Some people like giblet gravy.
I'm not a big fan.
It just means gravy with innards.
This is what they call the parson's nose. That's where they keep tail feathers.
I'll also pull that sucker off.
That's what I do. I pull it off. Clip it off really. Some people also
like to cut the wings. I don't because I think -----
I really don't like to do that.
I think it's you know -- this poor miserable turkey - he's had enough - right?
So you rinse off two cavities - remember you've got a
head cavity and you've got a a cavity cavity :-) Now several things you can do...
with these things.
Excuse me while I deliver the baby here...
Weighs more than my kids did -- this is a 15 pound bird.
There it goes.
Remember what I just said? No trussing allowed. We're not going to do that.
Well we will do however -- and we did get a
bag of liver and kidneys and other stuff like that -- I'm not a fan --
So we're not gonna mess with that.
What we want with this broth here
with the parsons nose and
and the neck end is one have a nice flavorful broth.
Now, several schools of thought about this one, too.
And I have just gone with what's easy --
what makes sense and what gets the job done. And that is I just take a half
an onion
and throw it in there.
Put that on the stove top and it's going to simmer for about an hour.
Get all that chicken flavoring out of there.
And then later on
I'll take -- obviously strain that and then I'll throw
a for a little bit of
potato water in there.
And that would be the basis for deglazing my pan later on for gravy, which
if you've been a failure in gravy
you'll never fail again because
I've got all the hot tips for you to try to do that.
You see I'm just patting our little guy dry
a little bit
and that's good for that.
We are going to now give him a little bit of butter now.
In here I've got butter - a whole stick of butter -
Yes - you need a whole stick -
and I have a little bit of olive oil but I do that just to keep the burning factor down
because he's going to be going into a 500 degree oven here shortly.
So what we're gonna do just get him ready for
nice little
suntan booth. We're going to get him nice and pretty.
Now, there are several schools of thought on how to do a turkey. Some people start it breast-side down
then take it out of the oven and wrestle it to the ground and
turn it over -- and swear by that method.
Some people
start it on the breast-side down and keep it that way the whole way. I've even heard of
people and believe we have tried this method...
of cooking a turkey overnight in the oven at a very low degree temperature.
Which is just an invitation for food poisoning. I'm sorry, but things have changed folks
if you are doing that -- insisting that's the way your Mom did it and how so-and-so told you to do it --
go ahead, but I'm just telling you
big mistake.
All right -- so you see that?
Got all butter in there.
Give a little bit to the cavity --
for good measure.
And right on the top -- more butter --
butter butter butter
really having a Paula Deen moment here.
Don't tell Paula I said that, but...
girlfriend likes butter...
Then I like a little thyme
into the cavity --
and a little
rubbed sage also
into the cavity --
And I just take a spoon rather than my hand
and kind of mix that all up
inside the cavity.
Now, I'm not going to put any on the top because it's just going to burn off
but what I will do is salt and pepper
and I've got my pink Himalayan salt - love this salt
-- a real delicate salt, but it does a great job -- it just kind of crisps up the skin and drives the fat out
which I like.
And this is a rainbow peppercorn...again, I like this, too.
And one more thing is take my
spoon put a little salt and pepper on that spoon
and I'm going inside folks...just messing it around with that butter.
We can also use
a little
butter thing and just get that cavity
all buttered up.
Why am I doing this and not stuffing it?
You will find out there's two different schools of thought -- there is the
stuffing school of thought and there is the dressing school of thought. I will tell you
stuffing in a turkey is fantastic -- it also can be dangerous. I don't like doing it
because I have actually had food poisoning from doing it that way.
That's one.
Two --
it will also suck out all the moisture from the turkey -- that's what makes it so good (the moisture)
and your turkey's all dried out flaky and we don't want that.
So what we're gonna do is get this turkey in the oven -- it's gonna go in for
500 degrees
for thirty minutes -- then turn it down to 375 and finish it cooking
two-and-a-half hours. Seriously!
Let's get this this turkey in and get this party started!