With Thanksgiving around the corner, we figured it would be helpful to put together a short collection of video tutorials on how to prepare the key dishes. This collection is all about the main dish: Turkey! We have one on the basics of how to roast a gobbler from Noreen's Kitchen, another on how to carve by Alton Brown, and for something fun and different we went to the BBQ Pit Boys for a BBQ'd turkey breast. So give these a watch and have fun cooking for family and friends with NO FEAR!
Turkey Breasts Barbecue
Partial Video Transcript
Welcome to the BBQ Pit Boys show on YouTube. Today we’re going to cook up a couple of turkey breasts on the grill and smoker and they’re real easy to do. Alright, here I’ve got two bone in turkey breasts, they’re weighing about eight pounds a piece and they are perfect for a holiday feast. You’ve got to check this out, there, alright. The first thing we’re going to do here is make a couple of marinades, one is going to be for the grilled turkey and the other one’s going to be for the smoked turkey. Alright, for the grilled turkey I’ve got about four tablespoons of sweet butter. We’re going to melt it down in this pan, to that we’re going to add about a half a cup of good oil, good salad olive, an olive oil. Now, if you’ve never had one of these injected turkeys off the grill or smoker then you’re missing something out of your life. Now I’m going to add about three tablespoons of soy sauce. And here I’ve got about one teaspoon, maybe a teaspoon and a half of good poultry seasoning. You can find that most anywhere. Let this bland out. Now our mama’s cooking her traditional turkey in the oven in the kitchen, could be doing this on the grill, but you want to be careful because the turkey you bring in to that holiday table is going to be eaten first. Might make mama a little disappointed that nobody’s chowing on her turkey. But that’s alright; you always want plenty of turkey for snacking and sandwiches later on, if you know what I mean. This butter soy sauce is melting down. And now we’re going to inject one of these birds. Now, this here is a meat injector, pretty familiar with that. You want to get yourself a good quality one, not one of them cheap plastic ones that will break on you right away. Now what we’re going to do is inject this marinade in about eight/nine/ten places on this bird, kind of easy. The technique is as you draw it out, put a little pressure on that syringe and you get plenty of that marinade in there.
Next page: How to Roast a Perfect Turkey
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How to Roast a Perfect Turkey
Partial Video Transcript
This is an organic fresh turkey that I bought at my local grocer, it was very expensive. It is 12½ pounds and usually when I made a turkey I make a very large turkey. I usually don’t cook a turkey that’s under 22 pounds. But because it’s just for us then I’ll have a carcass to make some soup and we’ll have some leftovers. This is what we’re going to go with today. Additionally what we’re going to use in the turkey, some celery, some garlic, I’ve just cut the tops off of, onion, I didn’t even peel it, some baby carrots that I had in the drawer, if you have whole carrots go for it. These need to be used and we’re not going to really eat them, we’re just going to use them to perfume the turkey. I have an orange that’s quartered and I have two apples over here, and I’ll show you what we’re going to do with those. I have some butter. And I just went outside in the garden and I washed these off. I’ve got some sage, some thyme, some rosemary and some bay leaf. And they’ve been freshly cut. And I just washed them so we’re going to use those as well. And it smells like Thanksgiving, just coming inside from the garden, having picked those, it’s fantastic. So I’m going to set these aside and then … and I also have some butter, if I didn’t mention that, I have a stick of butter.
Okay. So I’m going to show you from beginning to end because I know that there are maybe some of you out there who have never attempted to cook a turkey and it may feel like a daunting task. This is not something to be afraid of. A turkey is just a large chicken. I’m not going to brine it. Brining would be done 24 hours in advance. I’m just going to go with the basic roast on this bird today. The other thing is never trust these. Don’t ever trust these. I pull them out, they’re ridiculous. I like to wash my turkey very well. My sink is clean. I have previously watched my sink. I like to give the turkey a bath in cold water, pull out the neck and place it in the pot that I have waiting off to the side where I have chopped up – roughly chopped up about four stalks of celery, including the leaves, a handful of baby carrots and an onion that I quartered. I didn’t even peel it. And I am additionally going to throw a head of garlic in there. Here, I’ll just do that right now. And we’ll fill it with water. And I’m also going to put some seasonings in here in just a little while. This is going to simmer on top of the stove while your turkey is roasting. I have a weird stove. I have one backburner the oven vents out of. It gets hot enough that this will actually boil. So I’m just going to set this on that burner and early afternoon as the turkey is roasting, this will actually make the stock that we’re going to make our gravy from.
Next page: Carving the Perfect Turkey
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Carving the Perfect Turkey
Partial Video Transcript
Victoriously bearing the bird to its final roosting place, one last battle remains. And like most battles success lay in the choice of weapon. But that’s the stranger’s knife.
That’s right Marsha, I’ve been saving it all these years. Knife happy as I am the tool that separates the boy scouts from the Samurai, it’s nothing more than a 15 dollar hardware store electric knife. Start by separating the skin that holds the thigh quarter next to the breast, just go all the way down to the board. When you reach the joint, stop, put the knife down, and just take a regular paper towel, get a good grip on the thigh and press down until you hear the ball socket pop. Ooh! That’s quite a snap. I’ve got a hip that’ll do that. Then just cut through to the board. There, but that comes off in one chunk. Hey, that reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan, when, you know, the guy…
Hey! Hey! Ray, we’re trying to eat here, okay. Okay, I usually serve the drumsticks whole and slice the meat off the thigh, so just come straight up the joint. The joint will pop as soon as you open it up a bit. Now, you can finally get to the breast. The first thing you want to do … and this is kind of the trick here, is make a base line, something that will allow you to make clean slices. So turn your knife sideways, parallel to the table and start an inward cut just above the wing joint and go straight in towards the rib and trace a line right up the side of the wishbone like that. Now you can just carve off those luscious slabs of love unhindered, keep them thin though, they’ll fall over, they’ll look better on the plate and they’ll be juicier. I like to use a fork to catch them with. Now, I can usually feed about … I don’t know … six people off of one half of a bird. If you don’t feel like going ahead and carving the whole thing right at the table … is this enough to get you guys going? Okay, great. I’ll show you a trick. A carcass is a big unruly shape and it’s tough to effectively wrap up and refrigerate, and besides, there are things in bones that … well, bacteria could mistake as an invitation. So, it’s best just to not mess with it. So I’m going to go ahead and take off the leg quarter, same as we did before, just reach down and give it a pop, as for the rest of the white meat, we’re going to start exactly the way we did back at the table, making that first cut at the wing line, then coming up by the side of the wishbone. There! But instead of going to slices, we’re going to find the outside of the keel bone, just by feeling for it and then cut right down the side. When you feel some resistance, turn out a little bit and you’ll be able to take it off.