Thanksgiving-Bird-Brined-Turkey
Americas

The Brined Giving Turkey

Thanksgiving-Bird-Brined-Turkey

Recipe share by Rachael, Ancesister @ Ancestreats.

Sometimes cooking things the way you always do, the traditional way, with the same recipe, just doesn’t appeal. When I learned that it was only going to be me, husband and our kids for Thanksgiving, I didn’t have to make my turkey the way my dad traditionally likes it, and how mother taught me: a Kosher bird rubbed with garlic powder and paprika, orange juice for basting and cooked inside a brown paper bag; basted every hour. True, it’s tasty enough this way. This year, I decided to adventure forth with something new.

At a friend’s Halloween party she raved about the way she has been making her turkeys for years:  brined and barbecued. I decided to adventure onto the grill another year for the indirect heating and wood smoking method. But I decided to give her brine an oven roast.

Well Hallelujah! The results were dynamite, juicy and flavorful. So here’s the recipe for a 14-17 lb turkey as I made it, and how I will do it from now on. I did so when daddy came to my home over winter break, and he gave it a big thumbs up, too.

PREPPING THE BIRD

First of all, the bird was Kosher, frozen and pre-“brined.” I defrosted it in the fridge for two days in a large aluminum stockpot, covered and filled with cold water that was changed every few hours. Took it to the kitchen sink. After I removed the shrink wrapped plastic covering, I cleaned up the bird by pulling off any missed feathers and quills, rinsing it carefully with cold water on its outside and inside/through the cavity (making sure to remove any bagged neck parts, giblets or organs). Knowing the bird had been salted, the brine enhanced it with additional flavor. I made dressing for the turkey (stuffing cooked outside the bird) to see how this brine technique really tasted, it also sped up the cooking time.

INGREDIENTS (quantity is sufficient for a 14 pound bird)

  • 2 quarts apple juice (100% natural, no added sugar)
  • 1 lb brown sugar
  • ¼ cup kosher salt (use 1 cup if the bird is not already pre-brined)
  • 3 quarts water
  • 3 oranges, quartered
  • 4 ounces of ginger root, thinly sliced
  • 15 whole cloves
  • 6 bay leaves
  • 8 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped

DIRECTIONS

  1. Clean the aluminum stock pot and make sure the turkey fits inside with room for the liquid. You can double bag the bird and place it inside a cooler (like those orange ones placed on the back of a pickup truck, filled with water, at a construction site).
  2. Bring apple juice, sugar, and salt to a boil over high heat, and let cool to room temperature.
  3. Add remaining ingredients.
  4. Brine turkey for a minimum of one hour per pound (or 24 hours if you have the time).
  5. When ready to roast the bird, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the bird from the brine, letting excess liquid run off into the sink, and place it in your roasting rack, breast side down. I tuck the wings (you can truss them in your preferred manner). I use a disposable pan and crumple up foil into snake to make a resting rack, so the fat and juices drip down under the bird to the pan reservoir. I also run a long piece of extra strength foil underneath the bird, perpendicular to it, with the ends crumpled up on either side, to create handles that help in hoisting it up and turning it over later.
  6. Gather up the ginger, orange slices, cloves and bay leaves and place some inside the cavity of the unstuffed bird. Place remaining pieces evenly around the bird. and place breast down on your pan.
  7. Pull off a length of aluminum foil, enough to cover the bird in the pan, from neck to rump. Crimp it around the pan. Pull off another length and cover the width, crimp it down. Seal the bird up, airtight.
  8. Roast for one hour, at 400 degrees.
  9. Do the next step as fast as you can. Remove bird from oven, gently remove the foil leaving your face away from the escaping steam, carefully turn bird over (I have silicone oven mitts to cover my hands) and place back on the foil snake. Recrimp up the covering foil. Pop the bird back in oven, and reduce temperature to 325 degrees.
  10. Roast for 1 ½ hours. Remove foil, and use it to cover up any parts that are browning unevenly. Baste the bird quickly while you have your chance. Roast for another hour.
  11. Check the temperature with a meat thermometer into a thigh; remove from oven when birdie has reached 180 degrees.
  12. Let it rest for 30 minutes on a cutting board. Meanwhile grab some pan juices for your gravy for the stove-top, while the turkey reabsorbs its juices.
  13. Carve it up, serve and enjoy your meal.

BUT WAIT…there’s more: a cooked turkey is the gift that keeps on giving!

  1. Take the carved carcass and place it in a large ziplock bag if you are entertaining, along with the orange slices, ginger and bayleaves, or put it strait to your cleaned up stock pot; add water to cover the bones; to enrich the stock flavor add one onion, some chopped up carrots and celery ribs. Bring to a boil, then a simmer for an hour or so; remove the remaining meat from the carcass, toss the bones, and transfer to containers, cool and refrigerate. Next day, skim the fat off the top, and transfer to smaller containers for freezing or use in leftover recipes.

Region: Americas

BRINE RECIPE COURTESY OF:

http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/mean-chefs-apple-brine-23687

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