By Melissa Clark, The New York Times
There are myriad ways to cook a Thanksgiving turkey, and I’ve probably tried them all. I’ve spatchcocked, grilled and splayed. I’ve wet-brined, butter-basted and chile-swabbed. But with each new recipe I try, I grow more convinced that the simpler it is, the better the bird and the happier the cook.
To come up with a fuss-free recipe for crisp, golden skin and juicy, well-seasoned meat, I tested nearly a dozen versions and stripped the process to its essentials. The result was a recipe that’s simple enough to memorize, and then make again and again. The hardest part is carving out time to brine the bird, but it’s all streamlined for the most delicious and seamless bird possible — the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.
Step 1: Buy the Bird
When to Buy
A week before Thanksgiving, or even earlier, start thinking about buying your turkey — if for no reason other than that most turkeys are sold frozen, and you’ll need a few days to thaw it out in the fridge. If you’re buying a fresh turkey, pick it up three to five days before Thanksgiving to give yourself enough time to brine.
How Much to Buy
Plan for 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of turkey per person. It’s easier to roast a smaller (10- to 12-pound) bird than to wrestle with a 20-pounder, so if you’re feeding a crowd, it may be wisest to roast a small turkey with some parts alongside, either a breast, thighs or a combination.
Understanding the Labels
There are so many choices for buying turkeys. Here’s a breakdown of what’s on offer.
Organic: These birds have been fed an organic, pesticide-free vegetarian diet. They’ve had access to outdoor space and never been given antibiotics.
Heritage: Compared with standard supermarket breeds, heritage birds more closely resemble their wild turkey ancestors and generally take longer to reach maturity. They tend to have a higher ratio of dark meat and a richer, gamier flavor.
Free-range/pasture-raised: These turkeys have had access to outdoor space. Depending on the farm, they may have also been able to forage for a portion of their food.
All-natural: Birds labeled natural won’t have been treated with preservatives or any artificial or synthetic ingredients.
Kosher: Raised and slaughtered under rabbinical supervision according to Jewish dietary laws, these birds have also been salted (all kosher meat is salted). If using a kosher turkey, you can skip the salt in the dry brine entirely and just rub the bird down with pepper and aromatics before letting it dry out in the fridge. Or, for a deeply seasoned bird, sprinkle it lightly with salt, but be careful not to overdo it.
Self-basting: These birds have been injected with a solution of saltwater (sometimes spiked with fat, preservatives and flavorings) to make them juicier. But rather than buy one of these, a standard bird with a dry brine works in the same way and gives you control over what you add.
Hormone-free: Poultry birds are never given hormones, so, if you see this on the label, it’s a marketing ploy.
Step 2: Assemble the Tools What You Need
— Roasting pan with a rack, for cooking
— Meat thermometer, for testing doneness
— Sheet pan, for dry-brining in the fridge
— Microplane, for grating garlic and zesting citrus
— Dish towels, for wiping up the inevitable drips
What You Don’t
— A turkey baster
Step 3: Prep the Turkey
If your turkey is frozen, you’ll need to defrost it thoroughly in the fridge in its wrappings before cooking. Allow 24 hours of defrosting for every 4 to 5 pounds, which means a 12-pound bird will take about three days to defrost. And while you can apply the dry brine to the bird when it’s still partly frozen, it’s not ideal. The skin won’t dry out as much or get as crisp.
Once thawed, unwrap your bird, then poke around to find the neck and the bag of giblets that are usually tucked away inside (sometimes under the neck flap, so check carefully). Reserve the gizzard and heart for making stock, and fry up the liver in a little olive oil with a rosemary or thyme sprig if you have one on hand. It’s an excellent snack served on garlic-rubbed toast. I like to roast the neck alongside the bird, but you could also add that to the stock pot.
Step 4: Add the Dry Brine
Don’t rinse your turkey, just pat it all over with paper towels before rubbing it down with the dry brine. (For the most basic dry brine, you can stick to using just salt and maybe a little pepper. Or, bump up the flavor by adding garlic, herbs, spices, citrus zest, chiles or other aromatics.) This method is easier and less cumbersome than submerging a whole turkey in a wet brine and yields crispier skin.
If you don’t mind getting extra close with your turkey, use your hands to carefully separate the skin from the breast and thighs, and rub the brine directly on the flesh. This purely optional step makes a small difference, but it’s not a huge deal in terms of outcome. If you’re roasting the neck, salt that, too.
Put the salted turkey on a sheet-pan breast-side down, preferably on a rack so the air can circulate underneath it, and refrigerate uncovered for at least 12 hours and up to three days. About halfway through the brining, flip the turkey over so its breast side is up. This helps evenly distribute the brine.
Remove the bird from the fridge an hour before roasting to let it come to room temperature.
Step 5: Roast the Turkey
To roast, put the turkey neck (if using) in the bottom of your roasting pan, then add wine, broth and aromatics. Place a rack inside the pan, and put the turkey on top. Stuff the turkey cavity with herbs, onions and garlic, if you like, then brush the bird with oil or melted butter.
Start roasting at high heat to give the skin some color, then lower the heat and continue cooking for 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours depending on how big your bird is. You don’t need to baste, which slows down the roasting and can make the skin soggy.
Start taking the turkey’s temperature about 15 minutes before you think it might be done. To check the temperature, insert the probe into the thickest part of the thigh, taking care not to touch any bones. I like to check both thighs just to make sure. Don’t worry if the meat looks a little pinkish; some turkeys have pinker flesh than others and will keep that color even when cooked through. If you see red though, continue roasting.
It’s done when it reaches 155 degrees on instant-read thermometer. (It’ll reach the USDA-recommended 165 degrees while it rests.)
Step 6: Rest and Carve
Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil, for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Save the pan drippings to add to gravy or to any stock you make from the carcass. Or if you’re not serving gravy, you can spoon the drippings directly over the meat for extra moisture and flavor.
Then, do all your carving in the kitchen, and not at the table, which can be very messy. You’ll need a sharp knife, a cutting board and some kitchen towels for any overflowing juices.
First, cut the legs and wings off the carcass. Then cut off the breast meat, following along the breast bone with your knife. Once you’ve cut the bird into parts, it will be easier to debone the thighs and slice up the breast. Leave the drumsticks and wings on the bone for serving.
Classic Thanksgiving Turkey
This recipe gives you everything you want in a roast turkey: crisp skin, juicy and well-seasoned meat. It’s also extremely straightforward, the kind of thing you can memorize, then return to year after year. The important points are to dry brine the turkey in the fridge a day or two before roasting, brush oil or butter onto the skin so it turns gorgeously golden in the oven, and splash a little wine in the bottom of the roasting pan so the drippings don’t burn. Once you’ve figured out the amount of salt to use in the dry brine (see Tip), you can add herbs, spices and aromatics, or leave it plain and simple. It’s everything a classic Thanksgiving bird should be, no matter when you make it.
By Melissa Clark
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Total time: 3 1/2 hours, plus at least 12 hours’ brining time
Ingredients
- 1 (10- to 12-pound) turkey, fresh or thawed if previously frozen
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, as needed (see Tip)
- Optional dry brine seasonings (see Tip)
- 1 cup dry white wine, plus more as needed
- 1 to 2 cups chicken or turkey broth (or water), plus more as needed
- 2 medium red or yellow onions, peeled and quartered
- 12 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled (optional)
- 3 bay leaves (optional)
- 1 small bunch fresh thyme, rosemary or sage
- Olive oil or melted (or softened) unsalted butter, as needed
Preparation
1. At least 1 day (and up to 3 days) before roasting the turkey, remove any giblets from the turkey cavity and reserve them for stock or gravy. Pat the turkey and the turkey neck dry with a paper towel.
2. In a small bowl, mix together salt (see Tip), pepper and any optional dry brine seasonings. Rub this mixture all over the turkey, inside and out, including under the skin of the breasts and thighs (don’t stress about this part, but if it’s easy to separate skin from the flesh, seasoning the meat under the skin will deepen the flavor). Season the turkey neck.
3. Place the turkey, breast-side down, on a rack on a baking pan along with the neck. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days, turning the turkey so it’s breast-side up about halfway through the brining time.
4. When you are ready to cook the turkey, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature for 1 hour (this helps the meat cook evenly).
5. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the turkey neck in the bottom of a large roasting pan; add the wine and enough broth to fill the pan to a 1/4-inch depth. Add half the onions, half the garlic (if using) and the bay leaves (if using) to the liquid in the pan. Stuff the bunch of herbs, the remaining onion quarters and the remaining garlic into the turkey cavity. Brush the turkey skin generously with oil or butter. (Using softened butter rather than melted allows you to add more since it clings to the skin better; if you like, you can smear some softened butter under the skin, too.)
6. Place turkey, breast-side up, on a roasting rack set inside the roasting pan. Use kitchen twine to tie the legs together if you like. (It makes a neater presentation but doesn’t affect the cooking time.) Transfer pan to the oven and roast for 30 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thigh and the breast (making sure not to touch bone) reaches a temperature of 155 degrees, 1 to 1 1/2 hours more (or longer for a bigger bird; calculate a total cooking time of about 12 minutes per pound). If the liquid in the bottom of the pan begins to dry out before the turkey is cooked through, top it off with a generous glug of wine, broth or water.
8. Transfer the turkey to a cutting board to rest for 20 to 30 minutes (you can tent it with foil if you like) before carving. The temperature of the bird will rise to 165 degrees during this resting time. Be sure to save the drippings; you can use them for gravy (pour them into a batch of make-ahead gravy or start from scratch) or add them to any stock you make from the turkey carcass.
Tips
You want to add about 4 grams of salt per pound of bird. For a 10- to 12-pound bird, use 40 to 50 grams; 3 to 4 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt or fine sea salt; or 4 to 5 tablespoons Diamond Crystal. For a 13- to 15-pound bird, use 50 to 60 grams, 3 to 5 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt or fine sea salt, or 5 to 6 tablespoons Diamond Crystal. For a 16- to 18-pound bird, use 65 to 75 grams; 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt or fine sea salt, or 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup Diamond Crystal.
For the dry brine, you can use any combination of the following: 1 tablespoon ground spices, such as smoked or sweet paprika, mild chile powder, cumin, coriander, garam masala, baharat, za’atar or another spice blend; 2 teaspoons granulated garlic or onion powder; 4 finely grated garlic cloves; finely grated zest of 1 to 2 lemons or 1 orange; 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary, thyme, marjoram or oregano leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried).
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.