GUIDE: Thanksgiving Turkey

The day has come again where many will be given the task or the duty to cook the turkey for thanksgiving. I have cooked turkey in the past with many different approaches and I believe this year will be my 6th or 7th time cooking a bird. To me cooking turkey has become fairly simple and there are only a few steps involved. Spend some time reading this guide if you want to learn how to cook a turkey with minimal effort.

Selecting Turkey:
First you need to buy the turkey of course, from my past I have tried: Butterball (frozen+fresh), Foster Farms (fresh), and Safeway (fresh); you will get what you pay for. The Safeway (supermarket) brand was the worst tasting one of the three - I got a fresh one and cooked it the same day because I was curious how well a bargain bird was. The Safeway bird will taste pretty bland; you might think you were eating cardboard for a moment because there is no turkey flavor and you will be focusing on other weird tastes. Most likely these bargain birds have been fed trash or scrap and will unfortunately taste like it. The next bird is from Foster Farms, a more reputable brand, and these are reasonably price and offer decent quality over their supermarket branded ones and i would recommend these if you wanted a cost effective bird. Lastly, the famous Butterball is definitely the winner if you want the best possible results of the three. The butterball turkeys have more fat to help during cooking, also it seems the turkey was much cleaner to work with.

If you buy fresh - make sure you cook it soon or freeze it; frozen ones you should give yourself 2-3 days in advance to thaw it properly.

Seasoning Turkey:
I am no master of this art but what I suggest is just salting the turkey overnight in between the layers of skin. You will need to dig in between the meat and outer skin all around the breast, thigh and legs -- it will sound difficult but it really isn't. Start from the rear cavity and separate the skin from the breast and then move down to the thigh and drumstick. After the bird has been well salted make sure to put it into the fridge overnight and then rinse all that salt off in the morning - fill the water into where you applied the salt. Pat the turkey dry with the towel and oil the bird all around and generously - figure out how you want to flavor the bird -- for me it's just whatever i find in the cabinet. Because we have "salted" the turkey, you don't need to add any more - just focus on your aromatics and herbs. A simple aromatic combination is Chinese 5-spice and Old-Bay seasoning 50/50 mix which will be a combination of many different herbs and spices. Again, I will apply this rub between the skin and also around the oily exterior.

Many traditionalists will argue that using brine will be the most bombproof way to prep the turkey and they might be right. But by just applying salt in between skin and meat, the salt will dissolve and create a more concentrated liquid - which will be much quicker/powerful than the water-based brine, just make sure to rinse the turkey thoroughly once before cooking it.

Cooking:
Make sure you take the turkey outside (room temp) for at least an hour or so to ensure the turkey is not too cold (this will mess with cooking times). Make sure you have your oven preheated to 500F and prepare the "turkey triangle" as Alton Brown refers. Fold a sheet of foil in half (triangle) and mold the foil to cover both sides of the turkey breast. After you have molded the turkey triangle, take it off the turkey and set it aside and re-oil the turkey if necessary. Make sure you have the turkey elevated on the pan/bake-ware you plan to cook it on so that the drippings don't reach the turkey during cooking; also it might be a good idea to get a second tray to catch any splatter. Cook the turkey for 20-30 minutes at 500F to brown the skin. After the turkey is well browned, put the turkey triangle over the breasts. Now close the oven door and lower to 350F and cook the bird until it's done.

To get the best cooking results, do not follow the instructions based on time, instead just spend $15 and get yourself a thermometer probe. This inexpensive gadget can extend out of your oven and allow you to view the temperature of the turkey while it cooks. IT IS IMPORTANT YOU DO NOT OPEN YOUR OVEN DURING THE SECOND COOKING PROCESS. If you do open it.. you will have uneven cooking and you should probably rotate the turkey every hour to make sure it is well cooked all around. I stick my probe into the inner thigh and wait until it reaches 172F and then i take it out of the oven and cover it in foil for an hour or two before attempting to carve it - a great time to start preparing the side dishes.

Gravy:
The drippings you have gained from the cooking the turkey can be used to create wonderful gravy. First thing you should do is skim off all the oil/fat from the droppings into a separate bowl as best as you can. Next, taste the drippings -- and see if it is salty or not... It should be salty because our bird is seasoned very well. Now make a "rue" with liquid fat (butter or the top of drippings) in a pan with 50% fat and 50% flour and mix until you get something that is like wet paste. After you get to the paste form of rue, add some of your skimmed drippings to the mixture and control the saltiness by adding more salt or liquid (water/milk/broth/whatever). For me I use about 1/4 cup of grease and 1/4 cup of flour as the rue - then I will add about 2 cup of the drippings + 1-2 cup of the water. Make sure to keep mixing the gravy and cook it for at least 5 minutes, the sauce will thicken more as you cook it and you can add water/broth to make it thinner. Remember also to taste it before you take it off the pan.

And this concludes how I cook a turkey -- there might be better ways but this is how I will do it this year.