Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do you cook your turkey?

Don't cook, just eat.

Gunner

well in all honesty i probably won't go deer hunting in the morning like i had planned on doing.my brother invited a couple of our cousins to go hunting and i can't stand to be around either one of them, so unless i decide to go blast ducks, i might just hang around here and help the women folk.

I Brine overnight:

Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions


Click here to see how it's done.

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving

Brined, Then


Deep fry
Smoked
Oven roasted
Depends what we feel like having, usually 2 out of 3

Extend left hand out the drivers window, make a fist, turn it upside down, then extend the central digit.

For my very favorite turkey recipe, start with 20 gallons of high octane unleaded fuel, 2 large cans of "whup ass", and a 6 pack of diet cola on ice. Pour the gas into my truck, drive to my sister's house, open the "whup ass" on my niece and nephew, and my sister will pay me back in the best turkey dinner you can imagine. The 6 pack of diet cola is to keep me awake on the drive home. (The ice is to keep the leftovers cold, of course.)

Tom

Fried in peanut oil, 400� for about 3.5 minutes per pound. I first coat with some Tony Chachere.

First you get Turkey Drunk with a good white wine rub with seasonal, white pepper, liberally pour a glass of white wine into gut cavity place in roasting pan, cover with seran wrap with a tent of aluminum foil place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for about 20 minites per pound or until temp is about 160 degrees. Make gravy with drippings and giblets some kind of eating.

I have done a bunch of different ways - baked (bag and no bag), smoked, fried, etc. Lately we have been buying the smoked turkey breasts from HEB (TX grocery chain, not sure if they are anywhere else) - just easier and they are very good!



I would love to hear more! I have fried a bunch of turkeys - love 'em but tired of the mess and the amount of oil needed. So I've thought about trying one of these "fryers". How does it compare to a true fried turkey?

I don't know if I told you, but I put a small (12 lb) turkey in the Smoke Hollow earlier this week, had it coated pretty heavy with my own rub and it turned out good. I went back and picked up two more of the .27/lb small birds, one for the freezer and one for tomorrow.

I have #2 out on the front porch soaking in a brine/crab boil mix and will put in in the smoker tomorrow morning.

Over the edge weird.

We always have ham instead.

Why? Managed to get out of it on Thursday as the family is eating too late.

We prefer to enjoy the outdoors for a long weekend when that weekend is offered.

Pretty simply just a different take on it.

And FWIW I've not had to feel over stuffed, wanting a nap and to lay around like the family gatherings we used to go to years ago. Feel a lot better with a sandwich or burger or such.
Never really cared for baked or fried turkey anyway, like it much better as smoked sandwich meat or turkey salad.

FWIW we do the routine for Christmas though. Same old thing, Turkey, and eat till you are stuffed and lay around. Though I don't eat much and hate the laying around. Wife can't stand it either, we generally scoot as quick as we can. 3-4 hours of visiting and a meal is more than enough.

I've tried em a bunch of ways, but prefer to smoke em in the barrel. I watched Alton Brown do a turkey the other night. He spatchcocked it, dry brined it (rub) and put it in the fridge for four days. They cook quicker when cut in half so retain moisture. Looked really great. We always buy an extra bird since they are so cheap.

I like to invite my friends over for deep fried turkey. I like to let them put the frozen bird in the oil and take videos from a safe distance.

hickory in the firepit....

Inject the bird, rub with Pork Pullin' Plowboys' Yardbird rub, smoke at 275-325 degrees with cherry and hickory wood till done, normally about 3-5hrs depending on turkey size and what else is in the pit.

usually brined, and usually BBQ D . Pretty simple stuff. If your bird is always dry I suspect your just a crappy cook in general......

Good luck tomorrow, Rost. I hope you get a biggun, and your wife gets a monster.

I hunt. Wife cooks a feast.

Tomorrow, I hunt, eat TG dinner, watch Cboys kick raiders butts, or hunt more with the transistor and earbuds.

Brined, seasoned with S&P, and covered in a cheese cloth soaked in butter and white wine. Herbs and citrus in the cavity.

Baste with the butter/wine sauce while roasting.

Hard to go wrong.

Brined, roast in oven with lite stuffing.