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Consider this Turkey 101. Here are three of the best versions you can make, cooked absolutely perfectly! 🦃 Deep Fried, Smoked, and Oven Roasted
Ingredients
Oven Roasted Herb Turkey Ingredients
One 10-12 pound whole turkey, fresh or fully defrosted, with the little ‘bag o’ parts’ removed from the inside, and dried well
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 fresh sage leaves
1 stalked picked rosemary
4 stalks picked thyme
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Smoked Turkey Ingredients
One 10-12 pound whole turkey, fresh or fully defrosted, with the little ‘bag o’ parts’ removed from the inside, and dried well
2 tablespoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
Directions
Oven Roasted Herb Turkey
Let’s start by spatchcocking the turkey: put the turkey breast side down on a work surface. The backbone on a turkey is where yours is, and should be obvious. Using good, and by good I mean strong kitchen shears cut along each side of the backbone, remove & save for stock or broth
Flip turkey over, find the center of the breast plate and using your hands (one on top of the other like ur giving chest compressions) push down until you hear a crack. Congratulations, you’ve just successfully spatchcocked a turkey allowing it to cook much more evenly and much faster.
Now we’ll dry brine the turkey, that will make it way juicier, more tender and much more flavorful than if you didn’t do this – so don’t skip it
Using a ratio of approximately 1 tablespoon for about every 3 pounds of turkey, season both sides of the turkey with kosher salt (not table salt because it’ll likely make it too salty, and not sea salt because it’s more expensive and unnecessary)
Transfer, skin side up onto a rack, that sits on top of a baking sheet and put in the fridge uncovered for 24 hours to 48 hours.
Remove turkey from the fridge 2 hours before cooking – no need to remove the salt
Preheat oven to 425
Combine the butter, herbs and pepper in a bowl and mix well, and some of it on the bottom side of the turkey, but most onto the skin of the turkey, being careful to get it all
Pour vermouth onto the baking sheet and cook until an instant read thermometer reads 160 in the breast - you might need to use foil to cover parts that are browning too quickly
Remove, tent loosely with foil and let rest about 20 minutes before carving
Smoked Turkey
Let’s start by spatchcocking the turkey: put the turkey breast side down on a work surface. The backbone on a turkey is where yours is, and should be obvious. Using good, and by good I mean strong kitchen shears cut along each side of the backbone, remove & save for stock or broth
Flip turkey over, find the center of the breast plate and using your hands (one on top of the other like ur giving chest compressions) push down until you hear a crack. Congratulations, you’ve just successfully spatchcocked a turkey allowing it to cook much more evenly and much faster.
Now we’ll dry brine the turkey, that will make it way juicier, more tender and much more flavorful than if you didn’t do this – so don’t skip it
Using a ratio of approximately 1 tablespoon for about every 3 pounds of turkey, season both sides of the turkey with kosher salt (not table salt because it’ll likely make it too salty, and not sea salt because it’s more expensive and unnecessary)
Transfer, skin side up onto a rack, that sits on top of a baking sheet and put in the fridge uncovered for 24 hours to 48 hours.
Remove turkey from the fridge 2 hours before cooking – no need to remove the salt
Preheat smoker to 275
Combine the thyme, rosemary, pepper, sage and garlic powder in a small bowl – mix well to combine
Flip the turkey over (so it’s now skin side down) rub about 1/4 of the butter on this side and sprinkle with some of the seasoning mix, then flip back and use remaining butter on the skin side and season well
Put on the smoker and cook until 160 degrees in the breast, remove, let rest 10 minutes and carve
Deep Fried Turkey
Start by dry brining the turkey, that will make it way juicier, more tender and much more flavorful than if you didn’t do this – so don’t skip it
Using a ratio of approximately 1 tablespoon for about every 3 pounds of turkey, season entire turkey with kosher salt (not table salt because it’ll likely make it too salty, and not sea salt because it’s more expensive and unnecessary)
Transfer, breast side up onto a rack, that sits on top of a baking sheet and put in the fridge uncovered for 24 hours to 48 hours.
Remove turkey from the fridge 2 hours before cooking – no need to remove the salt
Season outside & inside of the turkey with the rub - massaging well onto the outside and all around the cavity
Oil Frying
This is the time to fill it - but the time to determine how much oil to put in, is when you bring your turkey home from the store, so do this: Put the turkey in the empty and add enough water to just cover it, then remove the turkey and make note of how high up the water came - because this will be the level of oil you’ll need.
Heat the oil to 350 degrees F and you’re ready to go
Infrared Frying
Turn your fryer to high, 15 minutes before using
Put turkey onto the cooking frame or basket, put on long heavy oven mitts and slowly lower the turkey partway into the oil - the oil will bubble like crazy so carefully dunk it up and down a few times. Lower the turkey a little more each time. Keep doing this until the turkey is completely submerged and resting on the bottom of the pot.
The oil temperature will have lowered, so maintain a temp of between 325 and 350 F. Now wait - but don’t leave the pot of boiling oil unattended.
The turkey will take approximately 3 minutes a pound to fully cook - longer for infrared, so start checking about 3/4 of the way in
Get some help to gently lift the turkey partway out of the pot and insert an instant meat thermometer into the breast - you’re looking for the temperature of the turkey to be 160 degrees - it will continue to rise after removing from the oil,
When done, turn off the flame, and very carefully lift the turkey out of the oil allowing it to slowly drain - the cavity will be full of hot oil, so use extreme caution when handling the turkey. Let it drain for a few minutes longer and make sure that cavity is drained.
Allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving
