A recipe for dealing with All The Turkey

turkey.md

All The Turkey Recipe

This is a recipe for dealing with a whole turkey tweaked based on what I have available and assembled from a few places. It deals with everything from brine, to bird to gravy to soup and is my personal answer for "great you have a whole turkey, now what?"

Some notes on what to adjust: If you're buying a bird that is injected or pre-brined "in a solution of at least some percentage of whatever" you probably want to skip the brining process or greatly reduce the time and/or salt used to avoid an overly salty bird. If you don't have a smoker, probably look up roasting times and temps for your oven since the low and slow smoke flavor won't really matter to you.

Thaw

If your turkey is frozen, look up the thaw temperatures for how big it is, but probably will have to move it to the fridge about a week or so before you want to cook it. If you forget, you can do a hot-water thaw in the sink. It'll still take most of a day.

Minor Turkey Prep

Regardless of if you start with the brine or right to smoking, remember to remove the giblets (often, neck is in the main cavity and a small bag containing the rest of the giblest is in neck/top cavity) and trim the excess skin around the neck area. Save the giblets for making a gravy later.

Brine

About 24-hours before you want to cook

• 2 Gal cold water
• 1-1/2 cup canning or Kosher salt (do NOT substitute table salt, it'll be too salty)
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Combine ingredients in a food-safe bucket or other large food-safe container
2. Submerge the turkey completely, if it floats, use a plate to weigh it down.
3. Let sit in the fridge for 12-24 hours before cooking (if you don't have room in the fridge and it's cold enough outside (below 35F), leaving it in the garage overnight is probably fine)

Smoked Turkey & Rub

Check cook times and add about 30-60m for prep and preheating. An approx. 25lb turkey took me about 5 hours. Adjust the ingredient amounts based on the size of your turkey. This is already doubles from the recipe I was using, but found it's about the right amount. Exact amounts aren't super important here, adjust to taste.

• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp (or a couple sprigs) sage (finely minced)
• 2 tsp (or a couple sprigs) rosemary (finely minced)

1. Combine all ingredients above in a bowl and mix together. Set aside
2. Remove turkey from brine, rinse and dry the Turkey. Be sure to dry inside the cavity
3. Useing your hands, loosten the skin of the turkey along the breast
4. Spread the rub under the skin and all along the inside and outside of the bird. If you have a couple extra sprigs of the fresh herbs and/or thyme, feel free to toss a couple in the cavity
5. Put the turkey in a large roasting pan to save the drippings, bonus points if it has a frame to keep it off the bottom
6. Optionally stuff the turkey here.
7. Smoke at 225ºF w/ SuperSmoker until probe reads 165ºF. Optionally begin basting with butter for the last hour (about 155-160) tent with foil if any area begins browning too quickly.
8. Remove from the smoker and the roasting pan (you'll need this for the gravy), rest for about 20 minutes before carving... just enough time to finish the gravy.

Giblet Gravy

• Giblets & Neck
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot (1/2 cup), diced
• 1 rib of celery (1/2 cup), diced
• 1 tbsp (or a few cloves) minced garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp (or a couple sprigs) dried thyme
• 5 cups water
• Drippings (from the roasting pan)
• 2-3 tbsp (as needed) flour
• kosher salt

Begin shortly after the turkey goes on the smoker. I start my day getting the turkey on the smoker, have breakfast, and then get to this bit.

1. In a moderately sized sauce pan (big enough for all the ingredients), Brown giblets in butter
2. Add onion, celery and carrots and saute until the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes or so)
3. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant (1m or so)
4. Remove the liver so it doesn't get overcooked and save in the fridge until later. All the rest remains in the pot
5. Add bay leaf, thyme and water. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Simmer for several hours as the turkey cooks.
6. When the turkey is almost done, strain the stock and set aside. Save the giblets, but you can toss the vegetables, etc.
7. Retrieve the liver from the fridge, finely mince all the giblets and pull the meat from the neck, discarding the bones. Save for the gravy.
8. When the turkey is finished, remove from the roasting pan and pour the drippings into a fat separator
9. Return a few tbsp of drippings back to the roasting pan and place over two burners
10. Over moderate heat, whisk in the flour to make a roux
11. Stir in the giblets and continue to cook for a few minutes while stirring
12. Add the strained stock into the pan/ Bring to a boil and stir constantly until gravy thickens (a few minutes probably; also be sure to scrape the fond off the pan for incorporation into the gravy). Taste and season. You can serve as is or puree in a blender or food processor for a smoother gravy.

Turkey Carcass Soup

Stock

• Turkey Carcass
• large onion, quartered
• 1-2 carrots, rough chopped
• 1 celery rib, rough chopped
• A few sprigs parsley
• 1 tsp dry thyme or 1-2 sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 5-10 peppercorns
• salt
• pepper

After finishing your meal, remove all useable meat from the turkey. Save the carcass and the bones and those few bits you won't think you'll eat (wing tips, etc). This will become the basis of our stock for the soup. You'll also need a BIG stock pot (depending on the size of the turkey) 'cause you'll need to fit all of it in there. I just recently got a 16qt pot and it's wonderful.

1. Remove any usable meat from the carcass. Scraps ripped off by hand are always great to add back to the soup later, but will be wasted in the stock.
2. Put carcass (and leftover skin & bones) in a large stock pot. Add any leftover drippings (not fat) and cover with water by about 1 in.
3. Add Onion, Celery, Carrots, parsely, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and skim any foamy scum that might begin to surface. (not super important, lets you remove some of the fat that will float to the top. Don't worry too much about this or spend a bunch of time on it)
4. Add about 1/2 to 1 tsp salt and pepper and simmer for at least 4 hours
5. Remove bones, strain through a fine mesh sieve and save for soup.

Soup

• The Stock
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 Carrots, Cut into smaller bite-sized rounds
• 1-2 celery ribs, chopped in the way that leaves those semi-circle shapes
• 1 md. to lg. onion, diced
• A few sprigs chopped parsley
• 4 (or more) cloves garlic, minced
• Bouillon Cube (or equivalent, or poultry seasoning)
• 2-4 cups chopped leftover turkey meat
• Egg Noodles (however much makes sense based on the mount of soup and how noodley you want it?)
• salt
• pepper

1. Heat a tbsp or so of olive oil in a large soup pot. Saute the carrots, celery and onion until the onions are soft
2. Add garlic and cook until fragrant
3. Add stock, parsley and bouillon cube/seasoning, bring to a simmer and cook until vegetables are cooked through
4. Add the noodles and turkey meat and cook until the noodles are done (4-8 minutesish)