It turns out that many of my friends are family-less for various reasons come this Thanksgiving, so my small dinner with friends has swollen to 11-13 people. I certainly don’t mind: it’s not that much harder to make a bucket-o-food and, hey! Good company :).
I don’t have a huge kitchen, though, so a friend came up with a fab idea: making turkey in slow cookers, so the oven is freed up for everything else. I’m a big fan of this idea because it seems more idiot-proof (never made a whole turkey before anyway) and it does afford us the cooking space for other items.
Between my friends, I think we can scramble up 3 or 4 slow cookers. I was originally leaning toward picking up some turkey breasts and doing each slow cooker a different flavor (one more traditional, one cajun, ???), but the other day at the store, I saw they sell turkey legs relatively cheap. So, I’m now thinking 2 slow cookers of breasts, then one or two of legs. Good idea? Bad? Should I get other turkey parts?
So, I suppose my questions are:
**Do you have any delicious recipes/ ideas for flavoring slow cooker turkey bits?
Should I do just breasts or other parts, too?**
and, as a bonus:
How much turkey should I plan for per person? I’m a total n00b.
I’m also totally open to other delicious ideas if you’ve got 'em!
FWIW: It’s ok that this is slightly less than traditional, we’re actually meeting Friday, not Thursday.
The latest issue of Cook’s Country has a slow cooker recipe for turkey breast and gravy. Obviously, I haven’t tried it yet, but their recipes are usually foolproof. Although typically needing you to adjust spices to your taste.
Yes. The turkey would not roast; it would fall apart and be turkey stew.
The oven works fine. Use the stovetop for your other dishes. Also, you can take the turkey out of the oven when its done and let it sit (it will stay hot for awhile). The oven is free for other things, as long as they don’t take too long.
If you’re using parts instead of a whole turkey, they there will be more room in your oven the entire time.
Certainly though, the Turkey isn’t going to develop a crunchy skin. I definitely wasn’t thinking the turkey would roast in a crock pot, as that’d be impossible.
You know, in your position I’d be more likely to find side dishes that go in slow cookers, and put the turkey in the oven. But that’s just me…
The only other thing I’ve got to say is, start asking around for someone who has an electric roaster. That will roast a bird properly and leave your oven free. We have one and love it.
I suppose it’s worth noting here (and I probably should above) that I’ve never, personally, been big on regular Thanksgiving turkey. In fact, when I am at big Thanksgiving dinners, I usually get a small piece to be polite, but it usually isn’t my thing. So, in addition to space issues, I’m also kind of interested in trying cooking methods other than roasting for entirely selfish reasons.
I’ve had slow-cooker turkey; it’s blechy. The skin is rubbery and gross, and there’s no way to evenly cook the breast versus the dark meat (which is tricky even in an oven.)
If you do go the slow cooker route, do what others have said and just do the breasts or the legs or something. Doing the whole bird is a recipe for failure.
I personally prefer thighs to drumsticks. Turkey legs have these seriously annoying shardlike blades of cartilage/ligament hidden within the meat that pisses me right the fuck off to try and dissect around and it sucks to get a piece in my mouth. [I have texture issues based on swallowing a fish bone when I was 4 years old and getting it stuck in my throat. Now any little hard item embedded in a mouthful of what is supposed to be soft makes me either spit out the entire mouthful or end up almost vomiting when I try to swallow.] Thighs on the other hand are more similar to chicken thighs, better meat to bone proportions with no damned shards embedded in the meat.
One thing I like to do is buy the entire turkey. Take the neck, the wings and legs and pop them in a pot of water and make stock. Pull the solids out [I use a pasta penta, water in the pot, solids in the pasta part so when it is cooked I lift out the insert and the solids are all in there nicely.] Let them cool while simmering the stock down to concentrate it. Pick the meat out of the solids, toss the skin and cartilage to the dog, throw away the bones. Chop the meat, add the innards. In a large bowl put toasted bread cubes, chopped celery, onions, roasted chestnuts [peeled] cranberries, apples, season with ground pepper, thyme, a small amount of rosemary and oregano. Add the chopped meat and organs, toss with whatever to blend throughly gently. Start adding the stock to the dressing, keep tossing gently - you want it moistened not soaking wet. Pack it loosly into a rectangular baking dish or series of casserole dishes and bake covered for half an hour or so, until cooked through then uncover and let the tops crisp up, maybe another 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I cheat and just mix it up in the largest farberware roasting pan - the whole turkey sized one. Not fancy but it holds a hell of a lot of dressing and it has a nice cover.
Cook the thighs and the breast separately, they have different time/temp requirements. To get the thighs cooked right, you dry out the breasts. Thighs are a denser meat than breast, so they need slow low wet cooking for best results.
That being said, if you butterfly and spatchcock a turkey, it grills up beautifully…
If I used a slow cooker, I would remove as much skin from the breast as possible first. You don’t want all that fat in the broth that’s going to result from this method, unless it’s going to be discarded. I’d cut off the wings, legs and thighs and roast them in the oven (along with the skin from the breast) the day before to get drippings and fat to make gravy in advance. Then cut the breast in half and put in the cooker with herbs to stew.
We’ve done turkey breasts in a slow cooker many times. it’s easy, and pretty tasty. We usually wrap the thing in foil and cook it fairly (but not entirely) dry. It comes out moist, and flavorful rather than dried out like an oven roasted bird.
Turkey stew? - only if you don’t know how to cook!
Do you have to do turkey? I’m cookIng game hen this year. It’s easy to cook. No brining and always moist and tender. Pop some flavored herb butter under the skin, throw them on a cookie sheet and roast til it reaches 165 F. Easy peasy.
Have you tried the Good Eats Roast Turkey? Easy, fast and always moist. This recipe has almost 3,500 reviews, the vast majority 5 stars. You don’t have to follow the recipe but the combination of brining then roasting for half an hour at 500 then dropping the temp to 350 is golden.
My mil tried that one time. You’ll note she only did it the once. It tasted fine but was nothing special. It* looked* massively gnarly, though; as others have said the skin was totally flabby and pallid and utterly inedible.
Now that I’m home to read that Cook’s Country recipe, that’s what they do: remove the skin from the turkey breast, crisp skin in skillet, use its rendered fat to cook onion/garlic/etc, make roux from the fat, then whisk in broth. All of that (incl the crisped skin) is put into the slow cooker to make the gravy, which is then strained before serving.
Hm. Their seasoning is a couple thyme sprigs, six garlic cloves, and a pair of bay leaves… as expected, seems like it would need more oomph.
Interesting. I was thinking more along the lines of making gravy on the stove, but that would be worth a try. I would add sage, but really you can put in what you like: thyme, sage and rosemary are all good with poultry. Go to the grocery and buy one of those packages of “poultry herbs” in the fresh produce section.
