When it comes to Thanksgiving, we tend to be our own worst enemies by overcomplicating the day. First and foremost, understand that turkey meat is boring, and it always will be. Try winning with the sides most importantly. Even though you have seen and taken note of all the tips and tricks from everyone you know and respect in the cooking space, don’t get caught up trying to pack every hack into this one cook. This blog post is to help you keep the cook as simple as possible by showing you what’s BS and what are the necessary steps, to help you nail your turkey cook and cement your place as the go to guy, or gal for the turkey from here on out. The more you stress out your day with complicated methods and processes, the more likely you are to make a mistake. To put it bluntly , no matter how you cook it, it all looks the same when it’s flushing down the drain.
Five Tips For Success
- You do not NEED to brine or inject your turkey, at all.
- Brining your turkey, or chicken for that matter, is the number one way to influence the overall flavor of your turkey. It allows the flavor that you choose to be uniformly Diffused throughout the meat. Contrary to popular belief however, this doesn’t make your turkey moist, period. For example, if you brine, but you cook it until the breast meat is 185, instead of 165°F, it will be dry. No question. The actual process of cooking the turkey will determine the moisture content. Injecting your turkey is a very popular method that is shared across many different cooking circles, but it’s such a waste of time. Simpler, more effective methods of introducing flavor to the meat on a wide scale in case you don’t want to brine would be a compound butter or marinade under the skin. Using a seasoned compound butter that you put together or whatever marinade you might want to try, if executed properly will give you great flavor. For best results, do it overnight, or at least a few hrs. These are both great ways to introduce flavor across the whole bird, but are way easier than Brining but most of all, way more effective than injecting.
2. Use a digital thermometer.
- The ultimate weapon to ensure that your turkey retains an optimal amount of moisture will be a meat thermometer. It’s 2024, go digital. A list of all the different thermometers I recommend from Amazon will be here for you to look at and choose one that’s right for you. They are also a cool gift idea for the cooks in your life. Ditch the popup thermometer that comes with your turkey. Those are engineered to activate around 180°F. The best temperature However, to pull your smoker from the oven or Smoker will be between 160°F to 165°F in the breast meat. At 180° the breast meat is completely dried out and nobody wants that. Once your white meat is cooked, your dark meat should be cooked, around 175°F or over. This is perfect for the dark meat so don’t worry about that.
3. How to get crispy skin?
- The ever so elusive crispy turkey skin is the ultimate phantom of Thanksgiving dinner, unless you’re deep frying the bird of course. My recommendation here; stop chasing crispy skin, if you aren’t deep frying the bird. If it happens, it happens. There are ways though that you can avoid the leathery skin and get a better bite overall.
- If you buy a smaller, younger bird, possibly farm raised, you are more likely to get crispy skin. Those birds tend to have less fat under the skin making it thinner and easier to crisp up while cooking.
- For whole turkeys, even on a smoker, try to cook at a minimum of 300°F but 350-375°F is where I get the best results. This can give you crispy or at least well rendered skin.
- Dry skin helps, a lot. Even if you brine, inject, marinate or even use the compound butter under the skin, allow as best you can for the skin to dry out in the refrigerator. At least a few hours work well but overnight works the best. Just before cooking, rub some oil over the skin and lightly season.
4. Do not over season the skin.
As tempting as it might be, remember that the seasoning will not penetrate the skin. This is why a brine or marinating is going to be the best way to get diffused flavor throughout. After that is done, all you will need is a light dusting of your favorite poultry seasoning on the skin to give you the color you want.
5. Spatchcock turkeys do NOT cook faster.
You see this falsehood spread on the internet all the time, even by the professionals and so called experts. I have done several side by side tests between turkey and chickens. I can 100% guarantee that Spatchcock alone hasn’t caused a bird to finish faster, not even by a little bit. Matter of fact, quite the opposite, but not by some insane amount of time for me to say one is better than the other. It will all be about preferences. “But, but, _____ _____ says it cooks faster”…….. That’s false, and I have proved it on the internet many times. Cooking chickens that are identical in weight has been proven false every time. The reason why the Spatchcock method doesn’t speed up the cook is because the speed of your cook is solely dependent on the thickness of that breast meat and not whether the breast is closer to the cooking grates or not. Spatchcock doesn’t affect the thickness of the breast meat, just the position therefore if they are of a similar thickness they will cook similarly. Now, if the Spatchcock method is how you want to present your turkey for dinner, then do it. If you want more smoke flavor, do it. But don’t be fooled, it’s not faster.
At the end of the day, do what you want. It’s your dinner. No matter how many tips and tricks you have seen and observed, don’t try accomplishing it all in a single cook. This stresses you and your cook team if you have one. It will also quite possibly make a mistake and disappoint your guests. Keep your prep and cook simple and within the confines of your skill level until you have nailed that skill. I am sure you will enjoy it more.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think, and what is your favorite thing that I spoke about.
