One of the highlights of my hunting life was when I hunted my first wild turkey! This big male turkey (a Tom), weighed 21 lbs!
It was clear that I wanted to do it justice, so what better than to invent a recipe especially for the occasion! Turkey is like a huge partridge. It is a lean meat, but so good! However, people often find that it is dry once cooked!
I learned very young, around the age of 13-14, surrounded by several foodies, that the final quality of a recipe is not necessarily played out during cooking, but rather before, with the love we gave to our dish in the preparation and the respect given to the resting time!
You know me, I was sure I was going to cook this masterpiece on my charcoal BBQ. To add a sufficient, but not too dominant, smoky flavor to this wild meat, I chose to use pieces of apple and maple.
So here is my recipe for an "anything-but-dry" turkey:
Servings: 8
Cooking time: 6h
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
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1 turkey (12-20lbs)
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1 bag of brine Oakridge All Purpose Game Changer 2 cups
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½ cup coarse salt
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½ cup brown sugar
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1/2 can of Ginger ale
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½ pound butter
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½ cup apple juice
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½ cup of spell
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30g California dry marinade
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2 packs of 4 sausages from Ils en fument du bon (Truffle and foie gras, or figs and port, in short any festive sausage will do!)
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½ lb bacon
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10 cups of homemade or store-bought croutons
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2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
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½ onion
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salt pepper to taste
Preparation of the turkey:
- In a large enough bowl, submerge the turkey in Oakridge All Purpose Game Change Brine, following package directions, mixed with half a can of Ginger Ale, and refrigerate until brine is cold. If you want the process to be faster, you can use half the amount of water and dissolve the mixture once it boils, then add the remaining volume of water by adding ice!
- Remove the turkey from the brine, pat dry, then let it rest in the refrigerator in the presto BBQ time to concoct the injection.
- For the injection, reduce the butter, then mix with the apple juice, the spell and the California spices. Separate the injection mixture into two jars. One for injecting, the other will be for basting during cooking.
- Using the injectorterminator , inject 2 to 3 times per thigh and per breast. It is important to use the beveled tip in order to let the spices pass with the liquid. The injection must not be hot otherwise it will cook the piece.
- Place back in the fridge so that the butter sets, about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing on the BBQ or indoors in a frying pan or pot. Brown the sausage meat as well as the bacon and diced onion and leave to cool, adding the croutons and the two sprigs of chopped rosemary/thyme.
- Put the stuffing inside the turkey, and cook on the top grill of the presto bbq if the surface allows it! Control your charcoal BBQ with the maple charcoal at 285°F and this until reaching 140°F at the thigh. Then, cover both wings with aluminum foil and judge also if it is necessary for the thighs.
- Every 20 minutes or so, very quickly brush the skin with the injection mixture that was set aside and that did not come into contact with the syringe. This will give you a beautiful crispy skin, a dream for any turkey recipe!
- Then increase the BBQ heat to 365°F, until the breast reaches a temperature of 168°F.
- Remove the turkey from the BBQ then remove the two breasts with a fillet knife following the spine and helping with your fingers wearing nitrile gloves to facilitate the detachment of the flesh from the carcass. The two wings and the stuffing must also be removed and reserved in the oven, the stove or a good old cooler!
- Return the turkey to cook until the thighs have reached a temperature of about 200°F. Dark meat, especially bone-in, is something you overcook without hesitation! No one likes to have red near the bone or runny meat near the cartilage!
Place the turkey parts in a nice serving dish, cutting only when ready to present and serve.
For the sauce:
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Simmer the turkey carcass and juices for 7 to 10 minutes. Pass everything through a sieve.
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With the remaining fat, heat and deglaze with a little spell by scraping the bottom, to recover the fat solidified in the pan.
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Beating vigorously, stir in ¼ cup all-purpose flour to form a dough that holds together but is not too thick.
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Add the turkey broth obtained in step 1 until a creamy consistency. You can also add water if necessary to obtain the desired consistency, but as little as possible.
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Boil gently for about 15 min until the sauce thickens.
You're going to tell me, come on Erik, am I going to present my turkey in separate pieces? Well yes! It is impossible, to have perfect cooking for each part of the turkey, to finish cooking everything at the same time! And since we want a nice tender and juicy meat, we have to remove certain parts before the end.
But don't worry, it's easier to serve as a centerpiece. Everyone takes what they like and all the pieces fly away!!
