A recipe for brined & roasted turkey with musical accompaniment

Posted on 15 November 2008 | 1 Comment

Filed Under: Blog

--

Yes, this is a recipe for brined and roasted turkey with a musical accompaniment, but I’d rather call it Can You Eat the Turkey From the Southside? Seriously folks, Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away.

So I’ve had deep-fried turkey (good), smoked turkey (even better), but my favorite way to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving (or even Christmas) is brined and roasted. Yes, I’ll admit that I ganked the original recipe from the amazing Alton Brown a few years ago, but I’ve made some minor (and delicious) changes. Here’s the recipe:

Can You Eat the Turkey From the Southside?

Start with a 14 to 16 pound turkey, mkay. You can use a smaller bird or a turkey breast, but be sure to reduce the other ingredients proportionally. You’ll also need a 5 gallon bucket.

Brine stuff:
1 cup of salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1/2 tbsp allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1/2 cup cognac
1 gallon iced H20

Aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 sage leaves
canola oil

So what you want to do is combine all the brine stuff (except the iced water) in a pot and bring it to a boil. Stir until the solids are dissolved, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until chilled. It is generally best to do this the night before. Save a little bit of the cognac for yourself and have a drink while you’re at it.

Early on the day of cooking, combine the brine (what you made above) and ice water in the clean 5 gallon bucket. Mix it up and place the thawed turkey (breast side down) in the bucket, cover, and refrigerate or set it in a cool place for 6 hours. It is generally pretty chilly here around Thanksgiving so on the back porch works for me.

Just before you are ready to roast, heat your oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water and microwave on high for about 5 minutes. Once you get the aromatics nuking, remove the bird from the brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place your turkey on a roasting rack inside a wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add the aromatics you just microwaved to the cavity of the bird along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck back the wings and coat the bird liberally with canola oil.

Roast that fucker on the lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove the turkey from the oven and cover breast with a double layer of aluminum foil and return it to the oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound turkey should require 2 to 2-1/2 hours of roasting. Use a probe thermometer if you’ve got one and set it for 161 degrees. Let your bird rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

The Bird Cookin’ Soundtrack

MP3 | Broke String Band – Turkey In The Straw
MP3 | The Broadways – Everything I Ever Wanted To Know About Genocide I learned In The Third Grade
MP3 | This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb – Beans, Taters, & Gravy
MP3 | Revrend Horton Heat – Turkey Gotta Gobble
MP3 | George Winston – Thanksgiving
MP3 | Julie Doiron – Falls In November
MP3 | The Cranberries – Linger
MP3 | Left Lane Cruiser – Amy’s In The Kitchen
MP3 | David Grisman – Albuquerque Turkey
MP3 | The Pogues – Streams Of Whiskey
MP3 | Bob Seger – Night Moves
MP3 | King David’s Jug Band – What’s That Tastes Like Gravy
MP3 | The Ohio Players – Jive Turkey
MP3 | The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up – Thanksgiving Grey
MP3 | Daniel Littleton – Thanksgiving Day Parade
MP3 | Ben Weasel & His Iron String Quartet – Only In November
MP3 | Guns ‘n Roses – November Rain
MP3 | The Ergs – Stinking Of Whiskey Blues
MP3 | Sia – Sweet Potato
MP3 | Black Eyed Snakes – Cornbread
MP3 | Bill Monroe – Turkey In The Straw