Stella May I know how you plan on having a turkey in that tiny place of yours?
Of course you may. At our first Thanksgiving we had at our tiny place with basically no kitchen, we didn't have a turkey. Instead I pan roasted a tiny chicken! I made up for the lack of spectacularness that comes with the turkey with lots of sides. It took me all day to prepare (lots of timing preparation involved with the one electric stove and toaster oven), but me and Mister and Oswald happily had a roasted bird and lots of fixings. This year if I were to have a turkey I would sous vide the whole thing! I know that's a little crazy to imagine, and not at all spectacular in terms of presentation, but I will have a turkey and it would be perfectly cooked and it wouldn't use the oven or the stove. Today I want to share the first part of how to sous vide a turkey!
First off even if you don't sous vide a turkey, I would highly suggest brining the turkey. A brine is basically solution of water and salt. The brine will inject moisture into the meat and can even prevent over cooking it. The salty water basically gets absorbed into the meat and plumps it up while seasoning it. The extra moisture retained can help add a few more minutes before your turkey become dry and overcooked in the oven. While the only flavor your truly get is the salt, I like to throw in a couple of extra spices and herbs.
All I do is gather salt, spices and herbs in a bowl. Dissolve it in water then add in the turkey.
After at least 12 hours in the brine, remove the turkey legs and pat dry. Then stick them into a zip lock freezer bag. This is a gallon sized, so can you imagine how giant these turkey legs are!
Add in an extra large pat of butter (or if you have it on hand, some bacon grease!) and into the water bath it goes.
Now by choosing the temperature and cook times you can decide how the turkey will taste. With a higher temperature (closer to the 165°F), the turkey will have a more traditional texture. It's drier and almost stringier. With a lower temperature (closer to 145°F), the turkey will be more moist and softer. At the higher temperature, it will only need to cook for 5 hours, whereas the lower temperature the cook time will be 8+ hours. (I chose to cook our turkey at 145° for 12 hours.
After 12 hours, they look a little something like this. Which isn't bad, but by no means does this look delicious yet. It will however taste juicy and be seasoned!
So how to make it look as delicious on the outside? Well there are a few ways to achieve that brown crispy exterior.
1. Take a torch to it.
2. Put it on a rack and blast it under the broiler (in the oven)
3. Grease up a pan and sizzle it away.
So this isn't as even brown as it would have been had I been a more patient. But me and Mister were getting hungry so we just dug in.
That's all it takes to make turkey in a home with limited appliances. You can also simultaneously make turkey breast and other parts of the turkey in the water bath sous vide. Then DIY it with a bunch of toothpicks and construct a turkey! (Maybe not.)
0 comments: