I’ve been cooking my turkey the same way for years - in an oven bag, the turkey and bag stuffed with celery, carrots, onions, etc. (no stuffing) according to the directions on the turkey’s packaging wrt temp and time. The only thing that I do differently is to cook the turkey upside down - breast down - which I heard about long ago and seems to make the white meat more moist.
The only problem is that when the bird is cooked, it’s falling apart.
How do you Dopers like to cook your turkey and what are advantages or disadvantages to doing it that way?
Also, any good stuffing or other traditional Thanksgiving-dish recipes are welcome here.
I’ve had amazing success doing the brined turkey from Alton Brown’s website. It sounds horrible, but turns out crispy outside and juicy inside, with wonderful flavor.
My mother used to cook it like you did, and that’s the only kind of turkey I ever knew. Some parts were so dried out, you had to smother it in gravy just to get it down.
Then, 12 years ago my wife (then girlfriend) introduced me to the wonderful world of Deep Fried Turkey. That’s the only way we do our bird now. Few years back we started brining before deep frying, and I think that’s about as good as it gets for turkey.
Plus, deep frying the turkey also fulfills some…primal need. All the guys just stand around the fryer with drinks in hand, smelling the bird, talking about whatever. It’s one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving.
I crack open a beer and sit on the couch. Every once in a while I go in the kitchen and look at my girlfriend and her sister and give some pointers and/or make a concerned frowny face while grabbing another beer and/or a deviled egg.
I’ve considered deep frying, but I’ve never tried turkey done that way, I would need to buy the equipment necessary, and I would probably set my house, yard and woods around my house afire.
I get a fresh turkey, brine it (fairly simple brine, not the complex recipes), and rub butter mixed with fresh, chopped herbs and shallots under the skin. No stuffing. I follow the America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated method for roasting the turkey, starting out (IIRC, I have to double-check) upside down and flipping just over halfway through. This way you don’t dry out the breast, and the turkey cooks very quickly and evenly.
I do whatever Cook’s Illustrated tells me to do - that flipping thing. Works like a charm. I brine it, too, although last year I used a brine somebody suggested here and it was fantastic - I also got a fancy-schmancy turkey, though, so I don’t know if it was the two dollar brine or the more-than-two-dollar turkey.
Heat the oven to 450. Prepare the bird by inserting butter and herbs under the breast skin. Stuff the cavity. Baste the outside with peanut oil. Stick it in the oven and reduce the temperature immediately to 325. The high heat helps seal in the juices right away. After 15 minutes, tent the breast with foil. Remove the foil near the end to brown.
Brine it, cook it on my grill (indirect method, charcoal and hickory), breast down.
Best tip I can give you to avoid overcooked turkey (or any meat): invest $15 in a probe thermometer. Pay attention to it and pull the bird about 2 or 3 degrees before it reaches the recommended temperature. Cover w/foil and retained heat will bring it to temp.
I generally deep fry it using Alton Brown’s recipe, but I have roasted one in the oven before. I put a cheesecloth over the top and kept it soaked in butter and drippings until the last 30min or so when you take the cheese cloth off and let the top get crispy.
As NicePete says, the most vital thing is to use a thermometer, and not to forget carryover. Cooking by the clock means you wind up overcooking in order to make sure it’s safe. A thermometer means you can skim just above minimum healthy temperature and preserve the moisture in the meat.
For the same reason, don’t stuff the turkey. Thus sayeth the Lord (Alton), Amen.
For years I’ve followed an America’s Test Kitchen method that’s different from the one mentioned upthread:
After brining in what amounts to salty herb tea (Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Onions, Carrots, Celery, and absolutely no sugar or cider or such), I butterfly the Turkey and arrange it on the top half of a broiler pan (the part with the holes in it). I let it sit in a fridge uncovered to dry out the skin some.
At cook time, I place it in the oven above a pan filled with dressing. The dressing collects all the drippings so it’s damned close to having the flavor of true stuffing. The bird cooks in a reasonably small fraction of time, and all of the skin is nice and crispy.
But regardless of cooking method, the secrets to flavorful, moist birds seem to be brining and the instant-read probe thermometer as NicePete mentioned.
Brine overnight in vegetable broth with some added flavor agents (to be honest, they don’t seem to add much, but I’m reluctant to cut 'em out entirely). Fill cavity with some aromatics, bag it, thermometer it, roast at 350 until the thermometer says it’s done. Let it rest for about half an hour, cut and serve. Not much to it, really.
The downside of brining is that that the runoff juices are too salty to make gravy. Anyone found a solution to that? (brine. solution. har dee har.)
I use an oven bag also. The cooking time is reduced. The turkey doesn’t need basting, and the gravy is pretty much already made for you. Oh, and clean-up is really simple. Once you use an oven bag you’ll never go back.
I smoke the turkey over a fire of charcoal and damp mesquite, with a baste of olive oil, garlic, black pepper, and Chachere’s Creole seasoning.
Advantages: A much more flavorful and delicious turkey than you get by roasting or frying. (Seriously–roasted and/or fried turkey is really bland by comparison, no matter how you brine it.)
I’ve used a roasting bag forever. It makes the turkey come out nice and juicy. I stuff mine with Mrs. Cubbison’s (when I can find it up here) with broth, celery, onion, neck meat, heart, and kidneys. (I’m capable of making stuffing from scratch, but I usually don’t bother.) The gravy, which I scratch-make, gets the liver.
This year I’m not motivated to roast a turkey. I’m not going anywhere, and nobody’s coming up. I’ll probably just read the Dope and watch movies and have a Trader Joe’s Turkey Pot Pie this year. (Unless I get ambitious, then I’ll roll out some pasta dough and make cheese raviolis.)
