After five years of marriage, and two kids, I figure it’s time for me to know how to successfully roast a juicy turkey.After some reading, and some inspiration from Alton Brown, I decided to take the turkey challenge. He has several “secrets” but the most important one is soaking the bird in brine for six hours. Let me just say that the brine worked like a charm. The meat was very tender, juicy and flavorful. In addition to the brine trick, I invested in a professional meat thermometer so I wouldn’t overcook the meat. And I made a foil tent to shield the breast meat, while allowing the dark meat to cook sufficiently.
The most interesting thing I learned is that basting does absolutely nothing to ensure a juicy turkey. If anything, it helps to dry out the turkey because you are constantly opening and shutting the oven door.
I would highly recommend Alton’s recipe, which you can find here.
Life is too short to eat dry turkey!
13 comments:
Wow! It looks great!
By the way, brine is a good trick for roasting chicken too.
Impressive!
I've never used brine for cooking a turkey, but next time I'm going to.
Wow your turkey looks fantastic!
I'm doing my first turkey Saturday and I can't wait to try the brine. You really saved me some time figuring out what to do, thanks! I hope mine turns out just as nice. :)
INTERESTING note about the basting (which is what I always do). That's a great tip! Thanks.
Good lookin turkey!
I've heard about the brine, but never knew anyone in person who tried it -- I guess it will be next on my list! Thanks! also, glad to hear about the basting -- I was always too lazy to do it, so I'm glad to hear I don't have to start doing it in the future.
The turkey looks amazing!!!
We love AB. His show is always funny and so informative. I've always planned to try his recipe when I get around to cooking a turkey. Glad to know you had success. Btw, had you heard AB is a Christian?
My mom has always and forever used a cooking bag and we've never had a dry turkey. Glad to hear there are other ways of doing it!
Congratulations! That's definitely one to put on your Accomplished Woman resume. :)
-- SJ
The pic is so cute! You do look like a Norman Rockwell Mama! :) Looks yummy!
You've come a long way baby! The Amy I knew didn't cook, let alone a turkey.-rlr
Did you really not used to cook? I would never believe it!!! The turkey looks amazing and whenever you blog about the dishes you're making, my mouth waters...speaking of which, Megan made one of your dishes (asian lettuce wraps) last night for us and it was super yummy!
My mom brines her Thanksgiving turkey every year and it's AMAZING. So last year, when I made my first-ever Thanksgiving turkey by myself, I used this same Alton Brown recipe. It's a great one!
By the way, brining works tremendously well for pork too, which I find has a propensity to cook up dry. There are some great brined pork recipes on Allrecipes.com. My most recent favorite is the Asian-Glazed Pork Tenderloin. Delish!
Post a Comment