William Banks - Ultimate Turkey Dinner Recipe!

Thanksgiving Time!

I'm outside the country and spending Thanksgiving alone this year, so I'm going to share Thanksgiving with all of you instead.

In my house there are two meals that belong to me and me alone, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

These two meals have been a ritual for me for years.

You see when I was about 13 years old I realized that although I love the family together thing, my mom's turkey was just terrible. It was dry, tasteless and tough enough to chip a tooth on.

Love ya mom!
But that year when I complained she said "Ok then, next Thanksgiving is yours".

I did not disappoint!

I spent that summer doing dishes at a very high end restaurant.
The chef there was a bit of a local legend, and while dishes were my primary job, I was working 16 hour days there and he taught me a lot of things.

The one recipe he prized was his Turkey recipe and let me tell you, this recipe produces the very best possible Turkey with the absolute minimum of effort. The key to a great turkey dinner and meat in general is to never cause the meat to undergo extreme stresses. This keeps it juicy and tender. You want your food cooked so you can eat it, not tanned so you can wear it.
But most recipes stress the Turkey out. So here's my secret recipe.

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Here is what you need...

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1. A Turkey, if it's not already frozen you should freeze it for a couple of days before hand.
2. 1 cup as 4 (1/4) cups, large grain natural sea salt. (avoid iodized salt for this)
3. 1/4lbs butter or more.
4. Natural Honey (Agave Nectar also works fine)
5. Quarter cup of flour (if making gravy from the stock)
6. Croutons (for making stuffing from the stock)
7. Fruits, herbs and spices to taste. I use apples, sage, basil, onions and garlic, but I've recently discovered habaneros and green peppers in the mix is yummy too.
8. Aluminum foil

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Now this recipe actually starts the night before.

You need to pull the turkey out and stick it in a cooler of ice water. You want ice water for this because it stops bacterial growth.
As you add ice, lay down a single layer of ice, and spread a 1/4 cup of salt evenly on the bottom.
Lay the turkey in and add the other cups of salt after you cover the turkey in ice.

The salt serves a number of purposes. First off it causes the ice to melt faster.
Secondly, it forms a brine.

The increased pH of this brine is essential, it causes the meat inside the turkey to pucker up forcing it to retain it's juices.

The thaw time is around 30 mins per lbs depending on elevation.
I suggest you set it up before going to bed and check on it in the morning when you get up.

Press your finger into the breast and see if it feels like raw meat or still frozen.

Once it feels like raw meat the fun begins.

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Preheat your oven to 500.

Take the butter and soften it, then take the softened butter and rub the entire outside of the turkey. If you have any left, just toss it inside the turkey.
You can never use too much butter here. The more butter, the more gravy you'll have at the end.

Then use a brush and brush a layer of honey on the outside, if you want it to carmelize on the outside. If you prefer the outside to be a bit crispy just skip the honey step.

You do not want to stuff your Turkey by the way, it messes with the airflow and prevents the Turkey from cooking evenly.. But what I do like to do at this stage is to take combinations of fruit and spices and place them directly inside the body of the turkey. It's stuffing sans the bread, because it's the bread that screws with cooking times and prevents the proper flow of heat.

Apple and Sage work really for this, but use your nose and sniff deeply anything you're about to put in there.

Imagine them added to the aroma of buttered Turkey. If that doesn't trigger an emotional response then ditch it.
Myself I tend to use apple, sage, basil, onions, and garlic.
I don't have a recipe on this part, I just use my sense of smell.
The whole mix should smell sweet and savory, keep working with it until it does.

The act of placing these items inside the turkey will cause them to saute without effecting the way heat passes through the turkey.

At this point the oven should be preheated and sitting at 500 degrees.
Take the foil, place it shiny side down and wrap the drum sticks and also make a tent to cover the breast.
The breast tent needs to be a seperate thing.

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You are leaving the breast uncovered for this first step.

Put the turkey in the oven. Let it sit about 5 - 10 mins. Watch it extremely carefully.
You are browning the outside first. This step is done when the turkey is a very light golden brown, be careful not to blacken anything or wait too long. Pulling it out early won't hurt, but if you burn the glaze the family won't be happy.

If you choose to use honey or agave to carmelize the exterior. The honey will rapidly form a glaze, eitherway the butter will soak into the meat protecting it from the excess heat for a few minutes.
I have seen people use a blow torch for this, and blow torching is the technique used by honey baked ham.
But I prefer the oven method, it does less damage to the meat.

Blow torch, or extremely hot oven, either way now you have a perfectly light golden brown turkey. It will finish browning during the rest of the cooking cycle. So time to take it out.

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Pull the turkey out and turn the oven down to 225 - 300.
When the oven is back to the proper temp, put the breast tent back on it and place the turkey inside the oven.

I can use my sense of smell on this to tell when it's done, but most folks tell me that they can't tell.
My rule of thumb on cook time is 30-45 mins per lb, this will vary ALOT.

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DO NOT RELY ON TENDER TIMERS!!!

This is a slow roasting process! That tender timer will never fire!

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It is normal for a 16lb turkey to take up to 8hrs at 225 and as little as 4hrs at 300, it's a huge difference in cook times.
You should adjust that temp based on the amount of time you have remaining, but the fact is, the slower you roast the Turkey the better it will taste, the more tender it will be.

As a final check it is helpful to have a meat thermometer handy and to place it deep into the thickest part of the breast.
This can be tricky because bone gets hotter faster than meat, so you have to be careful not to touch the bone or you'll get a false reading. The Turkey is done when the internal temp of the deepest part of the breast has reached 165-175f. If it's somehow hotter than that, you've probably just killed your turkey. If it's not there yet, then it's still going to be raw inside no mater what the fork test is telling you.

The next step is absolutely crucial!!!

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Once the internal temp has been reached, turn the oven completely off and wait 30 mins with the oven door closed.

This lets the Turkey rest, which causes the meat to slowly contract and prevents it from becoming tough.
If you get in a hurry you may as well serve shoe leather.

After the Turkey has rested, pull the turkey out, drain the juices and remove the sauteed fruits, veggies and spices and put them along with the grease into a stock pot.

At this point if you thought ahead and have a supply of croutons, you can take the croutons and place them in a large bowl.
Slowly pour the stock and spice mix into the bowl of croutons.
You now have instant stuffing.

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Take the remaining stock, put it into a sauce pan and slowly add flour, mixing it thoroughly.
This is a labor intensive process, and is why god gave us children.
You need to make sure to break and smash open any dumplings that form and frankly a mixer just makes a mess.
A large fork works best.

Now you have gravy.

That's it, you have a perfectly done Turkey that will make everyone happy, some absolutely delicious stuffing and really awesome gravy.

Bon Apetit!

This recipe was posted for the benefit of my wife @ghostwriter and our kids, since I can't be home this year for Thanksgiving and I don't want them to miss out. I have a lot of other extremely unique recipes but avoid posting them because I have so many other things I need to do. However if this gets a good response I'll make this a regular thing.