Holiday series Vol. I: Brined and Spatchcocked Turkey Cookalong

[Anonymous No.9479004]

With the holidays coming up, a lot of people will be making turkeys for the first time. This post will show how to brine, spatchcock, and roast a turkey.

[Anonymous No.9479016]

>>9479004
Will the technique remain extant if I'm having chicken rather than turkey?

[Anonymous No.9479025]

For the brine:
1 cup (((kosher))) salt
1 tbs black peppercorns
1 tbs rubbed sage
1 tsp thyme
1 quartered onion
2 ribs roughly chopped carrot
2 roughly chopped celery
1/2 cup of leeks I had sitting in the freezer
Water as needed to cover the bird

[Anonymous No.9479035]

To spatchcock a bird, all you need to do is cut out the spine, and break the breastbone so that you can lay the bird flat on a tray for cooking. This makes the bird easier to cook as it's exposed to the heat in a more uniform manner.

Here you see I've taken a cheapy chef knife and ran it down the side of the spine. You can use shears, or a serrated blade to get the job done. Be careful not to cut yourself on the sharp bones during the process.

>>9479016
It'll work regardless of bird. The only thing you'll need to change is your cooking time.

[Anonymous No.9479047]

With the spine removed, you can now break and pull out the wish-bone, and the bird will lay flat.

The turkey back I cut out, along with the winglets and other turkey parts, will be used to make a turkey stock for the dressing, and for the gravy.

[Anonymous No.9479086]

With the back removed, I rinsed off the turkey really well, and then tossed it into a large stock pot and filled it with the brine.

Some notes on the brine-
First, I made it the day before and cooled it over night along with enough water to add and cover the turkey. I added all the listed ingredients to a stock pot and added a couple quarts of water, then I simmered the ingredients for about an hour on low heat making sure all the salt dissolved. Then I cooled the brine and set it aside. I then set aside more than enough plain water to add to the brine to cover the turkey. When the turkey was ready to be brined, BOTH my brine liquid and the plain water had been in the fridge over night and were cold. You DON'T want to use warm tap water as it will raise the temp of the bird and could cause spoilage problems.

With the turkey ready, I added the cold brine, then the turkey, then topped it up with the cold water I had and stirred it up with a spoon. I then placed it all in the fridge for about 24 hours.

[Anonymous No.9479111]

I've spatchcocked chickens befor for the grill and they came out nice. Never done a turkey though because I have a feeling the relatives would be pissed because "you fucked with muh holiday tradition of a whole turkey!"

[Anonymous No.9479113]

With the turkey now in the brine, it's time to make some stock.

For this I used the turkey neck, the back I cut out, the winglets, and the ass. I didn't use any of the giblets as all this turkey came with was the gizzard and the liver, both of which will funk up your stock.

I cut more mirepoix, and will be adding all this to a pan for some color before tossing it all in a stock pot to simmer.

[Anonymous No.9479126]

In goes some parts for color and to create a fond.


>>9479111
The only problem I find with the turkey is that you need a huge fucking pan to cook it, and to present it, but the technique saves time, and makes a tender and juicy bird.

[Anonymous No.9479135]

Once there's some fond built up, I tossed in the veggies to help soak it all up.

[Anonymous No.9479143]

Nice fond development, which means, of course, we have to do what?

[Anonymous No.9479151]

Deglaze it with some white wine....

[Anonymous No.9479157]

Leaving us with a cleaned pan.

[Anonymous No.9479172]

With everything in a stock pot, I added water and brought it up to a light simmer. I usually start my stocks at night and just let them simmer on low while I sleep, but I started this process in the morning, so I'll simmer it for at least 3 hours while straining off as much fat and scum as I can.

[Anonymous No.9479193]

Fat can be removed after you cool the stock, but the foamy scum stuff will cloud up your stock if you don't remove it before cooling. That's not a problem for some recipes, but I tried to get rid of as much as I could this time.

[Anonymous No.9479205]

I let this stock simmer for about 6 hours, then ran it through a strainer to get out all the big pieces. What I had left was a pretty rich stock I used for gravy and stuffing, and some extra I'll use for a gumbo.

[Anonymous No.9479224]

Moving on to the next day, I pulled the turkey from the brine, gave it a quick rinse to remove any excess brine, and patted it down with some paper towel while I prepped the baking pan. The turkey will be allowed to come up to room temp for about an hour to make it easier to cook. The oven will be pre-heated to 450 degrees.

[Anonymous No.9479236]

I don't have a large roasting pan, or a rack, so I bought one of the cheapy aluminum jobs, which was still too fucking small, and planned on just resting the bird on the bottom. I lined the pan with a combo of standard mirepoix, some garlic cloves, and some fresh parsley. This will combine with the juices from the bird to help season the gravy I'll make.

[Anonymous No.9479250]

I made some seasoned butter that I'll be using to spread on the breast, and the outside of the bird. I simply used unsalted butter and added salt, black and white pepper. I opted not to use any standard poultry seasoning as I had some in the brine and didn't want to over power the meat.

[Anonymous No.9479268]

With the bird on the tray, I used my hand to smear the butter all over the breasts underneath the skin. Then I used some to spread on the outside of the skin itself to help with browning, and lastly, I sprinkled a little bit of olive oil over the entire thing to help keep it from burning. I kept some of the butter to use as a baste half way through the cook.

From here, it went into the pre-heated oven at 450 degrees.

[Anonymous No.9479272]

Forgot to mention that before the bird went in the oven, I added some of the stock to the tray to help keep things moist, and to use for gravy later.

[Anonymous No.9479288]

With the turkey relatively flat like this in the oven, I estimated it would take about an hour to cook at 450, so at 30 mins I used my remaining butter to baste the turkey. You can see how the legs stick out over the side of the tray, which caused problems a little later.

[Anonymous No.9479326]

This is the bird after an hour. Temps showed that the legs and thighs were in the 175-180 range, meaning they were done as hell, but the breast was only in the 135-145 range, meaning they weren't done, which is usually the opposite of what happens when you roast a turkey. Rather than leave the legs to cook longer and get dried out, I cut them off, wrapped them in foil, and put them in a cooler to rest. I gave the breast another 20 minutes to come up to temp in the oven, then wrapped them as well to rest in the cooler. I also salvaged the carrots from the pan, wrapped them up and allowed them to rest as well. The rest time should be as long as the cook time, and you should let it rest uncovered, or with a vent so moisture can escape and not soften up the crisp skin you created.

[Anonymous No.9479334]

With the turkey resting, now it's time to collect juices and make some gravy and some dressing.

[Anonymous No.9479340]

I strained the juices in the tray and put them in cool water in order to help separate the fats from the juices.

[Anonymous No.9479356]

With the juices cooled, I skimmed off the fat floating at the top. I got a bout a half a cup, which I'll use in my roux for gravy.

[Anonymous No.9479365]

The fat goes in the pan.

[Anonymous No.9479366]

>>9479004
Great thread op!

[Anonymous No.9479379]

Flour goes into the fat. From here I'll keep stirring it until it turns into a light blonde color.

>>9479366
Thanks, anon. Hopefully some people will see it and realize it's not too hard to make a turkey.

[Anonymous No.9479392]

Once the roux is where you want it, stir in the juices. You can also use stock. Once it's all stirred in, let it simmer on a low heat for about 20 mins or so in order to help the flavors come together.

[Anonymous No.9479428]

After the simmer, check for seasoning and consistency. If it's too thick, just add more juices or stock. Too thin, just let it simmer down more. Just make sure that the LAST thing you do is season with salt, or you could reduce it and make it too salty.

A good rule of thumb ratio to use: 4 parts stock to 1 part roux. You usually use equal parts fat to flour for your roux, so using this formula if you used 1/2 cup fat with half a cup of flour for your roux (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup = 1 cup total), you'd use 4 cups of stock / juice for your gravy. Once there, you can easily adjust by adding more stock or reducing with heat.

I like my gravy fairly thick, so I called it done here. You can run it through a strainer into a bowl if you want, but I didn't bother this time.

[Anonymous No.9479446]

>>9479379
The spatchcocking was super useful for me. I'm going to attempt on my next bird

[Anonymous No.9479453]

I'm assuming this same process works just as well for other poultry? I might try it with a small whole chicken from the store down the road.

[Anonymous No.9479459]

>>9479453
>I'm assuming this same process works just as well for other poultry?

Yes, of course.

[Anonymous No.9479488]

Here you can see the turkey with some gravy served with dressing, the carrots from the pan with peas, and some stewed bell pepper.

Lessons learned:
- The brine was a success. The bird was juicy, and not overpowered by the brine.
- The butter was a success, didn't over power the meat, and could actually have used some herbs added.
- If you don't use a roasting rack, the pan you use will shield some of the heat preventing an even all around browning effect on the bottom of the bird.
- If you can't fit the entire bird in the pan, just cut off the legs to make it fit. This will help even out the cooking times.
- The gravy was a success and absolutely delicious.
- The stock was a success. Roasting the turkey parts under the broiler with the veggies could have created a deeper color and darker stock.
- Oven temp was fine. 450 allowed me to cook this 12 pound turkey in about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

I think I'll try this approach one more time using a rack to keep the bird above the pan for a better all over brown, but it came out delicious regardless, and I'll be chowing down on this bird for the next week.

Next in the series: Dressing from scratch.

[Anonymous No.9479929]

One last thing. Check the turkey you buy to make sure it hasn't been injected with anything. The one I bought had been injected with like sugar and some other shit, but I didn't notice until I got home. I don't know if it had any impact on the flavor, but I'd prefer to get a normal bird without any additives.

[Anonymous No.9480489]

I'm bumping this thread because I also spatchcocked. I didnt do butter on the outside, so mine didnt get browned nicely. Lesson learned for next time but super tasty.

[Anonymous No.9480499]

>>9479004
Good thread OP. Your efforts are appreciated.

[Anonymous No.9480500]

I'm also going to bump again because my spatchcocking was not the actual reason I bumped the thread. I bumped because I respect your work. Well done. Here's it all trimmed up. White meat was on another plate.

[Anonymous No.9480521]

>>9480499
Thanks, dude.

>>9480500
That looks like you got some nice color to me, anon.

[Anonymous No.9480542]

>>9480489
So what the hell did you use? Did you just throw it is some mud?

[Anonymous No.9480567]

Stellar thread, OP.

[Anonymous No.9480894]

>>9480542
The herb and butter mix kinda pooled to that center area... made it all dark looking. Tasted really nice, but I too found it visually disappointing.

[Anonymous No.9482429]

Quality fucking thread right here

[Anonymous No.9483944]

>>9479004
I won't let the most informative thread on this shit hole board die

[Anonymous No.9483948]

>>9479004
It's still September, fuck off.

[Anonymous No.9484011]

>>9483948
You need all the practice you can get.

[Anonymous No.9484183]

>>9479004
Whoa nigga i dont play that gay shit