I recommend brining the turkey two days before the meal and roasting it either the day before or early the morning of.
Ingredients:
Brine:
Brine:
1. Place all the brine ingredients and 5 cups of the 1 gallon of water in a large stock pot and bring it to a boil on high heat. Turn the heat down and simmer for 3 minutes to bring out the flavours of the spices.
2. Take the brine off the heat and add the rest of the water. Place the pot in the fridge or if you live in a cold place, in your garage to cool.
Turkey:
1. Give the turkey a thorough washing from out of the packet after defrosting. Remove any innards, the neck, and the pope's nose (the butt) that are included with the bird. Cut off the tip of the wing as this bit burns really easily.
Note: All of these can be used for the gravy but I don't particularly like defrosted poultry innards or the thought of eating the butt so I discarded them. I only used the wings and the neck for the gravy.
2. Place the turkey into the cooled brine breast down and brine for a total of 16 hours. Make sure to flip the turkey so that the legs are down half way through the brining process.
Roasting Tray:
1. After the turkey has been brining for 16 hours, cut the carrots and celery into large sticks that are roughly the same size. Cut the onion into rounds that are about the same thickness as the carrots and celery. Cut the apple into wedges that are about the same size.
2. Place all the cut vegetables and apple wedges on the bottom of a large roasting tray. This will form an edible roasting rack and add amazing flavour to the resulting drippings for gravy.
3. Scatter rosemary and thyme sprigs over top and add the water to prevent burning in the early stages of roasting.
Putting It Together:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Take the turkey out of the brine and rinse in cold running water to remove excess salt. Pat dry completely with paper towel.
3. Mix the rosemary and chopped rosemary, thyme and sage into the butter to make an herb butter.
4. Use a spoon or fingers to detach the skin over the breasts and stuff the herb butter under the skin over the turkey and use your hands to push the butter over the entire breast.
5. Place turkey on the vegetables in the roasting tray and place apple, orange and cinnamon stick in the cavity.
6. Season with a liberal sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and tie the legs together with butcher's twine.
7. Roast for 1 hour in the oven until skin is golden brown on the breast. Take the turkey out and lay over strips of bacon to cover the entire breast. Return to oven and roast until done or when the temperature at the thickest part of the breast is 165 degrees Fahrenheit (around 2 hours in addition to the first but check the temperature accordingly)
8. Once done, take out of the oven and tent with aluminum foil. Let the turkey rest for 3 hours before carving. Yes, I said 3 hours - this will let the juices settle and all the flavours will mingle. Plus it won't burn your hands when you carve it.
Here's what mine looked like after carving:
And this is the rest of the food I made for Christmas:
Gravy made from pan drippings and an amazing stock made from the neck and wings.
Cranberry sauce made from fresh cranberries, apples, oranges and pineapple juice.
Sage stuffing made from a loaf from French bread, fresh sage, thyme, eggs and vegetable stock.
And finally, sticky toffee pudding with whipped cream.
Brine:
- 1/2 cup table salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp whole black peppercorns
- 2 tbsp all spice berries
- 2 tbsp chicken stock powder
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 gallon water
- 1 Small turkey (10-12 lbs)
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped rosemary
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped thyme
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped sage
- 10 slices bacon
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/2 orange cut into wedges
- 1/2 sweet apple (I used Gala but Macintosh, Fuji, Pink Lady will work too, not Granny Smith) cut into wedges
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Fresh cracked pepper to taste
Roasting Tray:
- 2 large carrots
- 3 celery stalks
- 3 small onions
- 3 sprigs rosemary
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 1 1/2 apples
- 1 cup water
Method:
Brine:
1. Place all the brine ingredients and 5 cups of the 1 gallon of water in a large stock pot and bring it to a boil on high heat. Turn the heat down and simmer for 3 minutes to bring out the flavours of the spices.
2. Take the brine off the heat and add the rest of the water. Place the pot in the fridge or if you live in a cold place, in your garage to cool.
Turkey:
1. Give the turkey a thorough washing from out of the packet after defrosting. Remove any innards, the neck, and the pope's nose (the butt) that are included with the bird. Cut off the tip of the wing as this bit burns really easily.
Note: All of these can be used for the gravy but I don't particularly like defrosted poultry innards or the thought of eating the butt so I discarded them. I only used the wings and the neck for the gravy.
2. Place the turkey into the cooled brine breast down and brine for a total of 16 hours. Make sure to flip the turkey so that the legs are down half way through the brining process.
Roasting Tray:
1. After the turkey has been brining for 16 hours, cut the carrots and celery into large sticks that are roughly the same size. Cut the onion into rounds that are about the same thickness as the carrots and celery. Cut the apple into wedges that are about the same size.
2. Place all the cut vegetables and apple wedges on the bottom of a large roasting tray. This will form an edible roasting rack and add amazing flavour to the resulting drippings for gravy.
3. Scatter rosemary and thyme sprigs over top and add the water to prevent burning in the early stages of roasting.
Putting It Together:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Take the turkey out of the brine and rinse in cold running water to remove excess salt. Pat dry completely with paper towel.
3. Mix the rosemary and chopped rosemary, thyme and sage into the butter to make an herb butter.
4. Use a spoon or fingers to detach the skin over the breasts and stuff the herb butter under the skin over the turkey and use your hands to push the butter over the entire breast.
5. Place turkey on the vegetables in the roasting tray and place apple, orange and cinnamon stick in the cavity.
6. Season with a liberal sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and tie the legs together with butcher's twine.
7. Roast for 1 hour in the oven until skin is golden brown on the breast. Take the turkey out and lay over strips of bacon to cover the entire breast. Return to oven and roast until done or when the temperature at the thickest part of the breast is 165 degrees Fahrenheit (around 2 hours in addition to the first but check the temperature accordingly)
8. Once done, take out of the oven and tent with aluminum foil. Let the turkey rest for 3 hours before carving. Yes, I said 3 hours - this will let the juices settle and all the flavours will mingle. Plus it won't burn your hands when you carve it.
Here's what mine looked like after carving:
And this is the rest of the food I made for Christmas:
Gravy made from pan drippings and an amazing stock made from the neck and wings.
Cranberry sauce made from fresh cranberries, apples, oranges and pineapple juice.
Sage stuffing made from a loaf from French bread, fresh sage, thyme, eggs and vegetable stock.
Roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips.
Steamed vegetables with beets, beet greens, rapini, savoy cabbage and radicchio.
Happy Holidays everyone!
