Cooking a turkey is a daunting task for anyone — well for me, at least — who has never done so before.
Brining, basting, stuffing, tying, roasting, smoking, barbecue or frying.
Hey look, a turkey rhyme.
But a couple of weeks ago I thought, this is it. This is the year I try to cook my own turkey.
However, I did not want to ruin the main dish for everyone else Thanksgiving Day. So I decided to try it a couple of weeks early.
Saturday afternoon I headed to the grocery store. Earlier that week I had seen some non-frozen turkeys in the corner of Albertsons meat section, so I didn’t worry about picking one up several days early to make sure it defrosted in time.
When I got to the section, I took a closer look at the birds.
Uh oh.
They were turkey breasts, not full turkeys.
Panicked, I looked through the entire meat section. The only gobblers they had in entirety (well, almost entirety) were frozen.
I made my husband and son drive to the three other grocery stores in town so I could find a full turkey. The only ones I found were harder than granite. They did have one in a big bag that said it could go straight into the oven — no defrosting needed — but that sounded a little weird and kind of defeated the whole “cook my own turkey” thing.
So I went back to Albertsons and bought one of the refrigerated breasts. It weighed about six pounds, and looked just like a full turkey, it just had the legs cut off.
A quick Google search resulted in a recipe by Emeril Lagasse that looked easy enough. An overnight brine in citrus, salt, sugar and spices, coat it in some oil and a special Emeril rub and then roast for two hours.
It turned out amazing.
My dad — who is one tough food critic — said it was some of the moistest turkey he’s ever had. Without all that dark meat to cook, it’s a lot less likely that the breast meat will get all dried out.
There was one drawback in relation to this blog — that’s when I realized that it’s really difficult to take good photos of food.
No worries — I just decided to make another one the following weekend.
Good thing I love turkey.
(Although I will say it’s really difficult to make meat look appetizing in photos.)
Recipe: Brined turkey breast
Adapted from a recipe by Emeril Lagasse
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
- 1 cup Kosher salt
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 2 oranges, cut in half
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tablespoons whole cloves
- 2 tablespoons whole allspice berries
- 1 cup brandy
- One 6 to 6 and 1/2 pound whole turkey breast
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon Emeril’s Original Essence (recipe below)
- To make the brining liquid, combine all the ingredients, except for the Emeril’s Essence and the oil, with 1 gallon of water in a large non-reactive container and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt.
- Put the turkey in a large colander and rinse under cold running water. Add the turkey breast to the brine, cover, and refrigerate, turning the breast occasionally, for at least 12, hours and up to 24 hours. (If you don’t have a large non-reactive container, put the turkey breast in a large heavy-duty plastic garbage bag. Make the marinade in a large bowl and pour the marinade into the bag. Put the bag inside a large container or roasting pan in case it should leak or drip.)
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Remove the turkey from the brine (discard the brine) and put it breast side up in a large heavy roasting pan. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Rub the turkey with the vegetable oil, and sprinkle on both sides with the Essence.
- Roast until deep golden brown and an instant read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 160 degrees F, about 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to a platter and let stand for 15 minutes before carving.
Recipe: Emeril’s Original Essence
Adapted from a recipe by Emeril’s TV Dinners: Kickin It Up a Notch.
- 5 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1/4 cup garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablspoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons cayenne
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons dried thyme
- Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and blend well. Store in an airtight container in your spice cabinet for up to 3 months.
Turkey breast in mole sauce
Turkey sugar cookies
Congrats on starting the new blog. Costco stopped selling my favorite croutons. (I guess til next summer?) Say, how does one make croutons that taste good? I love the one’s at the Hofbrau … don’t you have some connections there? Is it easy or should I just look for another brand?
I’m sure I can get you the recipe! Think it’s pretty easy and makes for some super tasty croutons.
turkey recipe