What's new

Grilled Turkey

jcgoldner

Jan '06 BoM
Rating - 100%
63   0   0
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Messages
1,971
Location
Philly
joshua said:
I made a brined turkey one year. Used Alton Browns Good Eats recipe. Thing came out so god damn juicy it was amazing.

What you can do to avoid the skin from burning is to cover the breast with foil.

Heres the recipe I used: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_8389,00.html

I bet you could use the apple brine and follow similar steps. Stuffing the inside of the turkey with whole onions and apples cut into wedges makes it juicy too, instead of drying it out with stuffing inside it.
Hey Josh I should have clarified my post a little better. The black skin only happens when I deep fry the turkey and it can't be avoided with the brine I use and frying.

When I was grilling the turkeys the missing piece to perfection was found on the Alton Brown show. A lot of people complain about turkey being dry. The reason is that the dark meat needs to cook to 180 degrees but the white meat needs only 160 degrees. So when the whole bird is cooked to 180 the breast is dried out. His method of cooking for 30 minutes at 500 then putting on the aluminum foil breast plate works incredibly well. You cook the turkey till the dark meat is 180, with the white meat covered it will be at 160 and the turkey is done nice and juicy. I highly recommend the aluminum breast plate method.
 

jcgoldner

Jan '06 BoM
Rating - 100%
63   0   0
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Messages
1,971
Location
Philly
First off, sorry for the long post.

Ok folks here's the recipe. It's the Weber Apple brined turkey recipe combined with Alton Brown's cooking technique. I guarantee one of the best, if not the best bird you've ever had. This is for the oven or grill. You can kick it up a notch better by frying the brined bird. That's the way I now do it.

Adjust quantities to suit for a different size bird
  • 1 12-14 lb turkey
  • 2 quarts apple juice
  • 1 lb brown sugar
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 3 quarts water
  • 3 oranges, quartered
  • 4 ounces fresh ginger, sliced thin
  • 15 whole cloves
  • 6 bay leaves
  • 6 large garlic cloves, crushed
  • vegetable oil or melted, unsalted butter
Combine apple juice, brown sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve. Boil for one minute, remove from heat, let mixture come to room temperature, then refrigerate to 40*F.

In a large non-reactive container, combine the apple juice mixture with the remaining ingredients and stir. Place rinsed, drained whole turkey into the brine. Use a heavy weight to keep the bird submerged, if necessary. Refrigerate for 24-48 hours.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for at least 15 minutes before carving.
 
Top