So I’ve done this a couple times and had pretty good luck with it. I generally spatchcock, seal, and then do somewhere in the 2 to 4 hour range at 145-150. I feel like at four hours, I’m losing a lot of juice, but I’ve always chosen to go longer just because I’m concerned at the thickness, I’m not not gonna get penetration at the middle for long enough for pasteurization at that point. This year I was leaning towards 2 1/2 or three hours at 150. But I figured I’d see if anybody had any nuggets of wisdom to offer from their own experiences doing turkeys like this, I’m actually hosting people this time around so I wanna make sure it’s pretty damn good, they were all talking it up in advance, so I need to make sure I get an ace. TIA
by Parking-Aerie1540
21 Comments
My personal preference is to do the white and dark meat separately. I don’t think they both do well at the same temperatures and times. I like the breast in the 140-145f range and the dark meat 155f.
I followed serious eats recipe pretty closely. Did 2.5 hours at 145. I dry brined it for most of the day. Did not make the gravy and just used the stuff that came with the turkey. Came out fantastic.
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-turkey-breast-crispy-skin-recipe-thanksgiving
Inject it with Cajun butter, then sous vide at 146 for 5 hours. Pull out, pat dry, and air fry for 10 minutes in the highest temp. I do it with chicken all the time.
I was overseas last year in Hong Kong and one of the high-end grocery suppliers had sous vide turkey for purchase and it was excellent. It was delivered to the house as pre sous vide and you just had to reheat and get some color on it.
The way they prepared it was as a whole bird stuffed. The meat manager said they were doing batches for 30 birds at 70c.
It came the day before so I put it in the fridge and then reheated for 3 hours at 70c on Thanksgiving day. I took it out of the bag and let it steam off down to about 44c. I patted it dry and basted it with melted butter before putting it in the oven at 215c convection while watching it just for color.
When the wings started looking dark I pulled it out of the oven, basted it with liquified butter again, but this time mixed fresh herbs, tented the wings and other bits that were turning too dark with foil. Lowered the temp of the oven to 195c, vented the oven heat a bit, and returned it to the oven for other 10 to 15 min.
This bird ended up beautiful and delicious.
I will note that I tried replicating this and it was not as good as theirs, so I returned to the store to ask what was different about their process. The manager said they were wet brining the birds for 4-6 hours before stuffing and bagging for sous vide. The next time I added this step and sure enough it was the same.
This is now my go to method for whole stuffed chicken as well, albeit a much shorter cook time.
Cook it from froozen.
65 c for try 18 hours.
Then deep fry for crispy
Maybe poor taste on sous vide sub. Fry that bird with a healthy amount cajun seasoning, then add more.
I’ve sv’d a turkey for Thanksgiving and xmas the past 5 years or so. I wet brine 24 hrs, then butcher in the morning. Cook for 3 hr at 147, flash chill, deep fry each piece one at a time for 7 min at 375.
I use 2 meat thermometers, one for dark and one for light. Spatchcock or not, you need that. Either way, I start at a higher temp like 400 (convection) and once the skin looks a little short of perfect I cover the whole thing with foil.
The whole rest of the time you watch the thermometers. Don’t quote me on this cuz I look it up every time I need to know, but I think I wait for 155-160 for breast and 165-170 for leg meat. If the leg meat goes hotter it’s no big deal, but don’t let the breast get past 160. Once you take it out, it will continue to cook and get up to 165. The reason I use temp ranges is because of choreography the day of, not because that’s the right thing to do. It’s close enough, if you will. So at 155 I know to take it out in the next few minutes, or if I need it out faster I’ll remove the foil for a little bit.
As for prep, they’re usually brained already so not much sense doing that. I do a dry brine with salt, baking powder (just a smudge). I put compound butter under the skin and stuff/lay on aromatics. The butter melts and fries the skin up, it’s a much nicer texture experience and allows the meat under to retain flavor if the skin gets discarded.
When in doubt, check for Kenji recipes.
Do this, it’s easy and good:
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-turkey-breast-crispy-skin-recipe-thanksgiving
Or for a more labor intensive version, do this, deep fry it after, it’s amazing:
https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-porchetta-food-lab-recipe
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-deep-fried-turkey-porchetta-recipe
Remove skin because it sucks sous vide but takes phenomenal roasted or pan fried. Remove backbone to sit in bag better. Add the gravy bag to the sous vide bag. Sous vide for 2-4 hrs at 145. Comes out fantastic every time. If it’s not Juicy enough for you, next time drop down to 140.
Dry brine for a couple days, sous vide @155 for (depends on the bird size; mine are 20-25#) hours, then on to the bbq pit at 275 for a couple hours
Check out cooks illustrated crock pot turkey breath recipe. The downside is no crisp turkey skin. The upside is an amazing turkey and gravy with little hands on work and very forgiving if you have guests who are incapable of arriving on time.
Breast only-I do an apple juice and orange peel brine. Then 137 for 8 hours and then broil with mayo on the skin with herbs and spices rubbed in. Best turkey I have ever had.
I cut it up, separating white from dark meat. I save the back and neck for roasting separately (no sous vide) for drippings to make gravy ahead. I do the dark meat 8 hours at like 155 (I forget, I look it up every time) and breasts 4 hours same temp. Lots of butter and herbs in the bags too. I then cool and roast the next day to crisp up the skin.
I always remove the breast and sous vide both sides separately while I make stick from the bones
I would want to go to 155F for those 2-3 hours, since that’s my preferred texture on turkey breast. Not too dry, not to rare, it’s my sweet spot.
Of course I also like to serve my turkey already sliced and swimming in gravy, like it’s leftunders.
You got that bird for 9.51 Holy shit. That’s wild.
I defrost and debone it. Vacuum-seal the turkey with the brine, seal, and let it sit in the fridge overnight to absorb.
The next day, poke a hole in the top and drain the brine out. Re-seal and sous vide.
Many people are afraid of low temperatures, but turkey is fully pasteurized if held at a temperature for a long enough time.
165°F is the temperature we recommend for poultry because the pasteurization time at this temperature is about 3 seconds and so has very little margin for error.
At 150°F, the time is minutes.
The temperature I like to sous vide is at 132°F, and the internal temperature needs to stay there for 3 hours minimum.
While deboned, it’ll take between 1 to 2 hours to fully reach the temperature, so I’ll do 6 hours minimum to be safe.
Many people like to down vote because ew under cooked bird but please do the research and understand the science.
After sousvide pat dry and quick marinade with oil and herbs and roast in a 450f oven until golden
Am I losing my mind or does that say to Use or Freeze by 5-13-26?!
Let it thaw in a bucket of brine first.
I recommend this 4 day dry brine prep from Alton Brown
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/butterflied-dry-brined-roasted-turkey-with-roasted-root-vegetable-panzanella-recipe-2125794
After the brine and before you seal the breast give both sides a good sear in a hot pan, look for a dark golden brown color. During the cook you’ll get that maillard reaction taste throughout the meat.
Cook for 12 hours at 133° (I find I don’t like the texture of turkey when using 131° that some like to use).
For dark meat; I like 160° for 12 hours since you get a nice braised texture.
After the sous vide; pat dry the meat, rub with a seasoned mayo, and pop it under the broiler on the lowest rack until you get some crispiness on the skin.
Use the juices from the bag as stock for your gravy or whatever else you might like.
I’ve had to start making an extra half turkey for Thanksgiving since I began using this method. My family can’t help themselves from eating pre-dinner turkey as a snack.