Tasty Tom

Better known as:

Some years ago I was pressed in to service to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Oy! I had never cooked a turkey before and I had ZERO clue about what to do or how to do it. Since then, I have cooked many a bird and I have refined and perfected my method for the tastiest Tom evah…..seriously melt in your mouth turkey, skip the gravy, slap yo’ momma good.

So let’s get to it! Here is what you need:

A FRESH, never frozen turkey. Not easy to find, but I get mine at Costco. If that isn’t an option for you, check out Fresh Market, Whole Foods or ask your local meat market to order for you. The difference is appreciable.

A turkey that is 12 lbs or less. If you need more bird, cook two. Do not be tempted to buy one huge bird.  Just.Don’t.Do.It.

A stick of butter

1 can of chicken broth

A bundle of mixed poultry herbs….rosemary, sage and thyme are my choice

A piece of cheesecloth.  You can find this at the hardware, grocery or craft store

Pre-made turkey brine. I adore World Market’s blend and highly recommend it. If you would like to make your own, there are a ton of great recipes on Pinterest and all around the web. I encourage you to make one from scratch if you can’t locate the one from World Market.

A roasting pan

A 3 qt sauce pan

Remove all of the wrappings from Tom and rinse him off. Do what you will with the giblets, I don’t address them here.

Place Tom in the roasting pan

Fill your 3 qt saucepan with about 6 cups of water and place on a burner. Add 1 cup of brine mix (ignore the quantity on the package and direct your attention to me!), bring to a boil, cook for about 7-10 minutes and allow to cool.

Pour over the turkey and add some additional water if needed. I fill my roaster about half full.

Put the lid on the roaster and make a place for Thomas in your fridge. He will be staying here at least 36 hours.

There he is in my basement fridge all snuggled up to the Shiner. He has good taste and soon he will taste good. Let him hang out here overnight and then turn him over (breast side down) and allow him to rent this space one more night. Tomorrow we will get him cooking!

Logistics are a personal thing but what I choose to do is to prep my turkey for baking in the early evening and allow him to cook overnight. When I get up the next morning he is ready to be basted and finished. And the smell wafting from the oven is delicious and intoxicating. Do what works for you, but this is the timeline that I will follow in this post.

Once your turkey is fully brined, remove him from the roaster and rinse well. Then rinse again, inside and out. Set aside and wash out the roasting pan, discarding all of the brine. Place Tom back in the clean roasting pan, breast side up. Place a bundle of fresh herbs in the chest cavity.

Cover the fellow with a piece cheesecloth. Make sure that it covers the entire top and drapes down the sides of the bird.

Now (mostly) melt the stick of butter. Spread over the breast and legs.

Now pour the can of broth over the cheesecloth to wet the entire area. Place in a 400 degree oven for 2 hours. Be sure you put the lid on your roasting pan.

Don’t open the oven….let Tom have some quiet time for those two hours. Once that time has passed, turn down the oven to 225 degrees and baste your bird. Replace the cover and go to bed. We will see this bird in about 8 hours….sweet dreams!

Good morning Tom. Remove him from the oven and baste. Take your time and get the cheesecloth soaking wet.

He will look a bit pale because you have had the lid on. Now put Tom back in the oven and leave the lid off. Leave the temp at 225 and baste the turkey every 15 minutes. It should only take about an hour and you will have achieved a nice crisp skin and lovely golden color. 

Remove the roasting pan from the oven and allow the turkey to rest for about a half an hour. Baste every 15 minutes. By this time the cheesecloth should be soaked with broth and easily pull away from the skin. Remove and toss the cheesecloth.

There you are! One handsome dude with lovely golden skin and and moist, tender meat. Now it is time to remove the meat from the bones. There is no need for a knife here, the breast is so tender that it won’t even slice. This isn’t your grandmother’s over cooked, dry breast that cries out for a dollop of gravy.  Just start pulling the meat and skin from the bones.

It is really just that easy and nothing is wasted. You will seriously throw away a carcass and a bit of gristle/cartilage and that is it. I made this particular turkey for my husband’s employees for their Christmas dinner (along with that ham in the refrigerator photo above) so I just placed all of the meat into a disposable pan. For your next soiree serve this on your nicest serving platter. And leave that stupid gravy in the kitchen.

If you aren’t feeling up to busting out a big bird anytime soon, give this method a test run on a chicken. Just be sure to adjust the amount of brine that you make relative to the weight of the poultry. Then impress your fam this April when you make the best turkey for Easter.