Evil Thanksgiving Turkey No-No’s!

Thanksgiving is here, and everybody has a traditional way of cooking it. Me, I try and change things up every year with my turkey.

But there are a couple of things that can ruin your turkey dinner.

The Pop-Up Thermometer

That little red pop-up thermometer is not your friend.

Almost every turkey has an embedded pop-up thermometer, and millions of people use this method to figure out when the turkey is done. This goes back to our childhood, opening the oven door every 10 minutes to see if the little red top popped up.

People complain that their turkey is dry and not moist, even more so with the leftovers.

The pop-up is set to pop up at around 180-185 degrees. Once it hits those temperatures, it pops up!

See, that is the problem!

The correct temperature to cook a turkey to is 165 degrees, and that is the perfect temperature!

The way to achieve that is to have a real meat thermometer.

I use an electronic one. You put the probe in the meat, and it is connected with heat-resistant wires to an electronic readout that has a magnet so you can mount it on your stove.

Use a real thermometer. Guessing is how turkey turns into cardboard.

When your readout reads 160 degrees, it is time to take the turkey out. There is a process called carryover cooking. The turkey will continue to cook, and the temperature will continue to rise to about 165 degrees.

Let The Turkey Rest

The second thing you should do to keep your turkey moist is leave it alone for 45 minutes. Do not cut into it. Let it rest!

People yell out, “The turkey is done!” As soon as they take the turkey out of the oven, they wait 5 minutes and then begin to cut the turkey. All the juices start to pour out. Oh, what a juicy turkey! Wrong!

If you wait another 35-40 minutes, those juices would have stayed in the meat and not in the tray. It takes time to reabsorb the yummy juices.

Stuffing, Or Salmonella Pudding

Speaking of temperature…

My next thing on the list is stuffing…

People love to stuff their turkey with stuffing. They stuff it with cornbread, seasoned bread, rice, and all sorts of mixtures. Why not? It is called stuffing!

Or…

What I call it: salmonella pudding…

Looks harmless. That is how it gets you.

Here is why… first, the stuffing will take a lot longer to cook inside the turkey. The temperature difference can be up to 20 degrees lower in the stuffing. So if you cook your turkey perfectly to 165 degrees, your stuffing will not be cooked properly. It will be mushy and full of uncooked turkey juices.

If you cook the stuffing up to 165, guess what? Your turkey will be overcooked and dry.

The second option is to cook the stuffing first, then stuff the turkey with the stuffing. Problem solved, right? Wrong! It will still absorb the uncooked juices. Also, you don’t want it to suck up all the turkey juices; you will dry out your turkey.

This is how I do it. First, I don’t like soft stuffing. My favorite part is the golden brown toasted parts, like if you make it in a pan. I like the edges, not the middle. So to solve that, I make mine in muffin tins so everyone gets a “stuffin’ muffin.”

Stuffin’ muffins. Everybody gets crispy edges. That is the point.

You are probably saying, but I want it to have that turkey flavor… Well, instead of making your stuffing with water, change the liquid to turkey broth. Also, remember when I said let your turkey rest for about 40 minutes? That is about the same time it takes to make stuffing.

All that flavorful “cooked” juice, which I hope you use to make the gravy, can also be used to flavor your stuffing. By the time your stuffing is done, your turkey is well rested.

Stuff your turkey with celery, lemons, onions, oranges, ginger, and fresh sage and thyme. This will create steam on the inside of your bird. The steam will help keep your turkey moist!

That is all I have to say about stuffing.

Ah, To Brine Or Not To Brine

Did you know that brining will add about 8 percent more weight to your turkey because it will absorb water? Guess what, so does the turkey industry.

So if you read the bag the turkey came in and it said “basted,” that means it has been brined or injected with liquids. Chances are, if you have a turkey you got on sale, you have a basted turkey. Fresh turkeys and kosher turkeys are probably not basted.

Read the bag. A lot of supermarket turkeys are already pumped up.

I will not go into the science of brining, but in simple terms, the salt opens up the muscle fibers so the liquid can move back and forth through the meat, and water gets absorbed using osmosis.

The movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane. Cell walls are designed to allow water and small molecules to move in and out of them freely, while preventing larger molecules from entering or leaving.

Can it add flavor? Hmm, no… But the brine will add some aromatics…

So why do I brine my “basted” turkey?

Two reasons. I do it to help thaw out my partially frozen turkey. My thinking is also swapping out what they put in the “basted” turkey with my preferred brine. Also, my turkeys are about 23-25 lbs., and I don’t do the full brine, which is as much salt as you can dissolve in a couple of gallons. I use about 1/2 cup of salt with my aromatics.

And yes, I do put aromatics in my brine. Even though it may not absorb all the flavors, I want it to smell like Thanksgiving. I use fresh sage, fresh thyme, maple syrup, and apple cider, which is considered a cooking agent. That means the acidity in the apple cider might cook the turkey a little. Again, I have huge turkeys; I am not worried about it.

There is a new thing called dry brine. You can look it up. It is the new way to brine a turkey. I have not done it yet, but I will try it soon.

Dark Meat Or Burnt Meat?

Sometimes the legs come out drier than the body. Think of it like going to the beach. You may slather your face with sunblock No. 50, but you may forget your legs…

I always preheat my oven to 450. I pop my turkey in there for about 30 minutes to get it a tan and get the skin crisp. Then I lower it down to 340-350 and cover the top of the turkey with a large triangle piece of aluminum foil.

Foil on the breast keeps it from burning while the legs catch up.

That keeps the breast from burning. I check it about every 30 minutes and remove the foil maybe about 1 hour before it is done. If my legs are getting too dark, I cover them up also.

Last 2 Tips

And finally, on the bottom of the tray, add some turkey or chicken broth, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan to catch the drippings. Add diced onions, celery, and carrots from the turkey. This will prevent smoke, burnt spots, and add steam to keep everything moist.

Update: Spatchcock Turkey Changed The Game

Use clarified butter only, and while you are at it, make it a sage butter! Rub it under the skin and over the skin. You will never have dark burnt spots, you will have even color, and you can cook the turkey faster because you can cook at higher temperatures. Regular butter contains milk solids that will burn. That is what causes those dark spots.

Instead, put onions, lemons, carrots, celery, herbs, salt, pepper, anything that is aromatic and will moisten the inside of the turkey. Think steam from the inside out.

Wait at least 20 minutes before cutting the turkey so it can reabsorb the juices. If you don’t, when you cut it all the juices will pour out. That’s not juicy, that’s losing juices. It may not be so bad on the first day, but on leftovers it will be like the desert Why are you basting? All you are doing is opening the oven to lose heat. Look at my turkey. I did not baste once.

Brining: if you bought your turkey at a supermarket, chances are your turkey has already been pumped up with brine. Remember, the more the turkey weighs, the more they can sell it for. Read the label carefully.

Spatchcock turkey is a technique of removing the backbone and pressing the bird flat. This method allows you to cook the bird in half the time!

It took 2:20 to cook a 22 lb turkey. Normally, 4+ hours easy. Also, I cooked the turkey for the first 40 minutes at 400 instead of 450, so it would have taken even less time to cook.

But the result is it was the best damn turkey we have made, and we have made many! It was juicy, like super juicy!

The skin was crispy, not like Peking, but close.

The cook time was fast for a 22 lb turkey. I think at 450 degrees it should be under 2 hours. A smaller turkey, like 12 lbs., should only take an hour.

The clarified butter worked like a charm, with 0 basting and perfect color.

In the end, we made 8 courses in about 3 hours!

You guys have to try spatchcock turkey.