Ryan Cooks: How to Brine and Cook a Turkey
Entertaining //
For the past four years we have hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at our home. And each year we wake up early to start cooking our turkey. It’s also a tradition to name our turkey, oddly enough we also name our Christmas Tree. Doesn’t everyone? In past years we have roasted Albert, Joey, and Tom. This year is no exception and Tony will be getting a nice salt water bath and a good warm melted butter rub down. After our Turkey is in the oven we always take a moment to relax before our out of town guests arrive. This usually involves watching the Today Show and learning from our good friend Martha how we actually should have prepared our turkey. Fortunately by that time our turkey is already roasting away and we don’t quite feel so bad that Tony’s legs aren’t properly tied. Normally we use the basting approach to cooking a turkey but this year we have decided to brine Tony. That’s where the salt water bath comes in. This simple method is guaranteed to keep your turkey extra moist and juicy. But don’t take our word for it, check out this awesome video by Alton Brown on the Food Network to learn about the magical powers of brining.
Of course to brine your turkey you will need a sufficiently sized vessel to fully submerge it. Not having such a container that was food safe lying around the kitchen, we took a trip to Lowe’s to find the requisite container, aka a perfectly blue five gallon bucket to match the Liz and Ryan brand! Thanks Lowes!
Now for the Brining…
Brining a turkey takes roughly 6-8 hours so preparing the night before is your best bet. Start with one gallon of vegetable broth (regular not low sodium), 1 cup of sea salt, 1/4 cup of whole peppercorns, and 1/4 cup of sage or other savory Thanksgiving spice. A little sugar will also give your turkey a nice flavor.
Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Once all the salt thoroughly dissolves, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Next it’s time to get out your bucket.
Fill the bucket halfway full with ice water, mix in the brine mixture, then add Tony the turkey. Add additional water and extra ice until the Turkey is fully submerged. Allow your turkey to enjoy it’s ice bath overnight or for at least 6 hours. Remove the turkey from the ice bath first thing in the morning, rinse, and pat dry.
Next up is preparing your turkey for roasting. Instead of filling your turkey with stuffing, use a combination of herbs and aromatics to add flavor from the inside out. We used a combination of parsley, fresh sage, garlic, pepper, apples, and onion. Chop your apple and onion, place in a microwaveable safe bowl, season with pepper, add 1/2 cup of water and microwave for 1 minute. This will help release the flavors of the apple and onions.
While the apples and onions are in the microwave, create a foil shield to add to your turkey to prevent the breast meat from overcooking. Do this in advance so you can easily add it to you turkey later.
Preheat your oven to 450 degree. Place your turkey on the rack of a roasting pan. Stuff the turkey with parsley, sage, garlic, onions, and apple. Then brush melted butter over the entire bird. To add extra flavor, gently separate the skin from the turkey and add butter between the skin and breast meat. Add 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the roasting pan. This will prevent any drippings from burning on the bottom of the roasting pan. We forgot this step the first time and our smoke detector quickly remind us of it’s importance! :)
Add a thermometer to the thickest part of the turkey breast and place in the oven. Roast at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, add the foil shield to the turkey breast and cook until the thermometer reads 161 degrees.
Once the thermometer reads 161 degrees remove from the oven and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. The turkey will continue to cook and increase in heat for a few minutes once removed from the oven. Carve and serve.
Have extra leftovers? Don’t worry, we will be sharing plenty of leftover recipes from our Leftovers Game Night Party later this week.
Looking for more info on how to brine and roast a perfectly succulent turkey? We highly recommend Alton Brown’s short videos on how to cook a turkey. We have provided the links below.