How are you cooking your bird - Happy Thanks Giving

[dovski]

As Canadian Immigrant to the USA (ok like 20 years ago) and with a little coaxing from my American born children and British born wife we have actively embraced Thanks Giving in all its glory. There is a lot we are thankful for, but this post is not about that. This post is about Turkey and how you are cooking yours. So I will kick it off.

This year we went with a smaller bid (10lbs). Spatchcock and brined it for 18 hours. Rinsed and then coated it in Schwartz's Chicken spice from Schwartz's Deli in Montreal. Created a Ghost Pepper maple syrup butter and stuffed it under the skin to keep the bird moist. Currently smoking it in the backyard on my Pit Boss smoker. Will probably smoke it for about -54 hours and then turn up the heat for an hour or two to finish it off and crisp the skin. Total experiment this year as we are not following any specific recipe though we are borrowing ideas from several.

Happy Thanks Giving Everyone, hoping that this weekend brings some joy, rest and a whole lot of snow.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Turkey tenderloin, pork rub, salt and pepper, add OJ, a couple potatoes and pressure cook in ninja foodi. Mind blowing delicious and took 20 minutes. A great lunch. Dinner with neighbors in a while. Need to make stuffing and warm up kings Hawaiian bread and Kringle. Cranberry sauce made last night. Football on TV now. Looking forward to skiing tomorrow.

 

[Sibhusky]

If we were celebrating Thanksgiving, it would be a prime rib roast. Gave up on the turkey thing years ago. The cook spends all day in the kitchen and misses most of the party or everyone is on the kitchen getting in the way. The goal these days is low effort for the cook, ever since my husband (the cook), back in 2003, went skiing on Thanksgiving and dislocated his shoulder and had to direct us how to prepare a whole Thanksgiving dinner from a stool. Plus then you're dealing with the carcass afterwards, having to get it all packed away. NOT WORTH IT.

This year, my daughter is visiting her boyfriend's parents in South Dakota. (We get them for Christmas, being as we're by the ski area.) So, it's curried lamb shanks and twice baked potatoes and a veggie. Nothing special for the day.

 

[Stephen]

Turkey 1 - in the oven, stuffed and seasoned.
Turkey 2 - deep friend, injected with chipotle butter.

 

[Started at 53]

Deep Fried, 3 1/2 minutes per pound and it is perfect every time

 

[Scruffy]

Just finished eating

Start with a whole 10-11lb turkey. Remove the breasts ( skin on ) and then debone them, then butterfly them. Cook some sweet onions and sausage, with fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, and S&P. Smear a layer of this sausage mix on each butterflied turkey breasts and then roll them up, wrap the skin around and tie with butcher's twine. Cook 300-315f for 90 min. Pull when meat thermo reads 145-150f; then tent with foil for 30 min. while you mess with other food and gravy. Temps inside will rise to 165, don't worry.

Meanwhile, as you're sauteing the sausage mix for the breasts above ^^, put the backbone with thighs and legs still attached, and the wings in that 300f oven. They will get about a 1/2 hour head start over the breasts as you're messing with them. Pull when internal meat temp reaches 165f, Should be about the same time the breasts are done. Temps will rise to 175f during rest.

During meat rest you're preparing the other food. Just before dinner time, set oven to 500 and pop both turkey items in oven for 5 min to crisp up skin if it needs it.

Benefits: Everything is super moist and delicious and the dark and white meat are done approx. the same time. You'll have drippings from both that can be used to make gravy ( and who doesn't want Thanksgiving turkey gravy to pour over their mashed potatoes and stuffing?), no dry white meat!!

Here's an article that talks about it. I obviously didn't follow their exact recipe, but nevertheless it help to have pictures.

Turkey Stuffed Turkey | The Food Lab

Nobody wants withered white meat that only a boatload of gravy can rescue on Thanksgiving. The solution: turkey stuffed with turkey sausage. A meat within a meat!

www.seriouseats.com

 

[Plai]

This year, 15# bird, brined whole for 3 days.
Will be oiled and skin separated for crispness.
Will be roasted whole in the oven back side up for the first hour, then finished breast side up until internal thigh temp around 170.
Then rested for 20-30 mins before carving. Anticipate 2.5-3 hr cook unstuffed.

 

[coskigirl]

It’s just me this year so a roasted chicken prepped with garlic herb butter under the skin. Stuffing, gravy, roasted Brussels sprouts, and orange spice cranberry sauce for sides with a pumpkin gingerbread cookie individual size pie for dessert.

 

[lisamamot]

14+ pound local fresh bone-in turkey breast, brined and then rubbed with butter before baking - fabulous!

 

[dan ross]

16 lb , bird resting at the moment.Old school, basted every 25 minutes and turned , etc. My
daughter and I made most of the side dishes over the last 2 days , which only leaves the turkey and potatoes to the day of which makes the day so much easier and relaxed. Gathering around the table with family and friends
and delicious food that I only eat once a year makes this my favorite holiday.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I cooked my third turkey ever today. It was the second this month as I visited my parents a couple weeks ago and made them Thanksgiving dinner. I try to have a meal with them together every time I visit. Mum is in a nursing home.

The most recent two times I put seasoned butter under the skin of an unstuffed 14 pound turkey. The first time I used what was in the kitchen, parsley flakes and dried onion in the butter. This time I use fresh raw onion and parsley flakes. I went skiing while it began cooking. Cooked until 165 and let it sit for a bit. Basting occured in the last couple hours after I returned from the hill.

Matched it with mashed potatoes and sauted green beans in garlic and butter with the juice of half a clementine. The juice was my roommate's idea. Fresh biscuits and banana bread from the other roommate completed the meal.

 

[Jim Kenney]

My wife and I served turkey dinners at a large Catholic Charities event for the disadvantaged yesterday. First time we'd done that on Thanksgiving Day.

Many of the guests were street people and bused in from local homeless shelters. They were kind of leery at first and not sure how this "free meal thing" was going to work or how we, the servers, were going to interact with them. But by dessert time the hundreds of people in the hall had become very comfortable with the situation. The guests were socializing up a storm with each other and with us. Everyone was relaxed and having a regular old good time, just like we all hope to do at a nice Thanksgiving meal.

 

[AmyPJ]

As Canadian Immigrant to the USA (ok like 20 years ago) and with a little coaxing from my American born children and British born wife we have actively embraced Thanks Giving in all its glory. There is a lot we are thankful for, but this post is not about that. This post is about Turkey and how you are cooking yours. So I will kick it off.

This year we went with a smaller bid (10lbs). Spatchcock and brined it for 18 hours. Rinsed and then coated it in Schwartz's Chicken spice from Schwartz's Deli in Montreal. Created a Ghost Pepper maple syrup butter and stuffed it under the skin to keep the bird moist. Currently smoking it in the backyard on my Pit Boss smoker. Will probably smoke it for about -54 hours and then turn up the heat for an hour or two to finish it off and crisp the skin. Total experiment this year as we are not following any specific recipe though we are borrowing ideas from several.

Happy Thanks Giving Everyone, hoping that this weekend brings some joy, rest and a whole lot of snow.

Say no more. YUM!
We are at a ski condo, so bought a 5 lb. breast and cooked it in the Instant Pot pressure cooker with a basic poultry rub. Turned out delicious. Put some chicken broth in with it so there were enough drippings to make a rather decent gravy.

 

[Plai]

This year, 15# bird, brined whole for 3 days.
Will be oiled and skin separated for crispness.
Will be roasted whole in the oven back side up for the first hour, then finished breast side up until internal thigh temp around 170.
Then rested for 20-30 mins before carving. Anticipate 2.5-3 hr cook unstuffed.

Turkey turned out better than expected. Also made brioche, which looked fabulous.
The other sides included gravy (made from drippings), roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, roasted broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, dressing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie for dessert (with hand whipped cream).

 

[Andy Mink]

Somebody else made the turkeys this year. Easy peasy! Honestly, the quickest way is deep fry. A 15 pound bird is done in about an hour. Smoked is great as there isn't a whole lot to do except check the temp every once in a while. I did one under a trashcan once. It came out pretty good but it's hard to keep an eye on it.

 

[pete]

If we were celebrating Thanksgiving, it would be a prime rib roast. Gave up on the turkey thing years ago. The cook spends all day in the kitchen and misses most of the party or everyone is on the kitchen getting in the way. The goal these days is low effort for the cook, ever since my husband (the cook), back in 2003, went skiing on Thanksgiving and dislocated his shoulder and had to direct us how to prepare a whole Thanksgiving dinner from a stool. Plus then you're dealing with the carcass afterwards, having to get it all packed away. NOT WORTH IT.

Prime rib is route we took some years ago though spouse decided on turkey this year. Started doing the reverse sear method for the rib and found this more fool proof for getting a larger % rare ...

Not knocking Turkey .. tastes great but my daughter did the traditional (or so she now proclaims) Shish
kabob .. she claimed if the pilgrims had cattle, it'd be beef and not turkey as the tradition.