Turkey Day! (A Little Belated)

I know everyone wanted me to post how I was making my turkey BEFORE Thanksgiving, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Somewhere between 2 turkeys, 3 salads, and all the other stuff I did I totally spaced my blog. So now I am giving directions on how to do this, and hopefully everyone won't be too angry with me......

Bacon Wrapped Turkey

This recipe needs to be started at least one week in advance. That gives the brine time to work its magic.

Day One

Before you start, make sure that

A) You have a container large enough to hold a turkey

B) You have somewhere cold to store above mentioned turkey container

C) You have an able bodied man to move the brining bucket for you

And yes C is the voice of experience.

Set up your station next to the sink. This cuts down on turkey juice being strewn all over your kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 turkey- any size is fine. I have done as small as 10 lbs and as big as 20 lbs.

2 cups pickling salt. Table salt will not work, it has to be canning and pickling salt.

1 cup dark brown sugar

enough water to cover the turkey in the container

1 plastic container large enough to hold the turkey

Directions:

Place the turkey in the container. Fill the container with enough water to cover the turkey completely. Remove the turkey from the water filled container and place in the sink for now.

Add the salt and sugar to the water. Stir until the salt and sugar are completly dissolved. I personally like to use my immersion blender for this, because it guarantees completely dissolved ingredients.

Add the turkey back to the water, breast side down. That way if the turkey floats up the breast meat is still completely submerged.

Cover the container, and find your able bodied man to have him put it in the fridge. I highly recommend that you have help for this step. That turkey is considerably heavier than it looks.

Let the turkey soak in the brine for 6 to 7 days.

Day of Coooking

On the day you are going to cook the turkey get it out of the brine first thing in the morning and let it rest in a pan with at least 2 inch sides, it will drain some, and that way you won't have a mess all over the counter.

While the turkey is resting, make the herb butter that goes under the skin. My recipe is flavors that I like, but you can make yours with spices that you like. Just note that you DO NOT NEED TO ADD SALT!

Kami's Herb Butter

1 stick butter or margerine

2 tsp fennel

2 T dried onion

1T dried garlic

1 tsp sage

1/2 tsp red pepper flake

2 T cracked pepper

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Now that you have all of the ingredients for the turkey, it is time to start preparing for the oven.

Preheat oven to 350.

Loosen the skin on the breast of the turkey with your hand or a mixing spoon. Once you get the skin lifted start stuffing the herb butter under the skin and massaging it into the meat of turkey.

I like to cook my turkey on a rack over a hotel pan. I fill the pan with about 3 cups of chicken stock , a few cloves of garlic, and some onion. This help to keep the cooking method moist and the meat turns out more tender.

Once you get the turkey prepped, place in the oven and cook for 3 hours. If you have an oven probe, this is a perfect opportunity to bust it out and monitor your cooking temperature. If you do have a probe, insert it in the thickest part of the thigh and your final temperature should be 170.

The best part of the brining and herb butter is that you don't have to baste the bird while it is cooking. As the butter melts down, it does the basting for you.

After 3 hours your bird should look something like this:

Looks tasty doesn't it?

Now you are going to add the bacon wrapped part of the deal. I like to use a thick cut smoky bacon for 2 reasons.

1- it takes a little while to cook and render out the fat, this does even more basting for us
2- it makes the meat taste nice and smoky and delicious.

When you put on the bacon, you want to shingle it on. It should look something like this:

Kinda nasty looking I know, but it is fabulous!

Now put the turkey back into the oven and drop the temp to 300. Once the bacon is crispy, and a thermometer insterted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 170, the turkey is done. It will take about an hour from this point.

When you take it out of the oven, tent it with foil and let the bird rest for at least 20 minutes. It should look like this:

At this point you can carve it up and eat! I personally don't enjoy eating the bacon, but if that floats your boat, Rock On!