Want to win Thanksgiving dinner? Learn to butcher a whole bird, then follow this recipe to prepare it sous vide. Meat’s juicy. Skin’s crispy. Everybody’s happy.
The problem with cooking an entire turkey or even chicken for that matter, is that different parts of the bird cook at different times. It’s not as apparent in a chicken, but in a Turkey it plays a big factor. The thighs and legs (Dark meat) need a lot more cooking time than the breast since the dark meat contains a lot more collagen that needs to be broken down. By the time the legs and thighs are cooked via the traditional roasting method, the breasts are pretty much fried and dried out. So, if you ever have extremely dry white meat…it’s not your fault! It’s just the nature of the beast.
A lot of people counteract this issue by brining the meat. Which definitely helps keep the meat juicy, but brining does have it’s drawback. While it does impart juiciness to the bird, the juice isn’t flavor full. Especially if you use just plain water, you’ll just bite into a “soggy” bird. I did end up brining the bird over night in a very basic brine, but the reason I did this is because I found that whenever I sous vide poultry, sometimes I get a mealy texture and brining seems to help.
Here are my Pros and Cons to cooking your Thanksgiving Turkey sous vide.
Pros:
Perfectly cooked meat that doesn’t need to be saturated in gravy (even though I still do because I love gravy)
You don’t have to use your oven…AT ALL! Which gives you a lot more flexibility with cooking all the other goodies.
You can cook the whole bird, days before hand, chill them in the bags and then simply reheat them about an hour before service. Which gives you even MORE flexibility for planning your meal.
Since you are cooking in a bag, you can infuse your turkey with all those wonderful aromatics (Sage, thyme, garlic, etc.) instead of stuffing them inside the bird and burning the bejesus out of them which does nothing.
It makes carving the turkey MUCH easier, since the turkey is completely broken down. But, since you have to break down the entire turkey anyways, you still have to have decent knife skills.
Cons:
You lose the whole nostalgic aspect of carving the turkey in front of the family. People love their traditions…
Your kitchen won’t smell like pure ecstasy while the turkey is roasting in your oven.
Not everybody has sous vide equipment readily available, even though they should…especially after reading my blog 😉
You do have to break down the entire turkey before cooking, which can be tricky if you aren’t comfortable with a knife. Or don’t own a decent knife.
Most of the cons are more geared towards the aesthetic and tradition side of Thanksgiving. But, I would much rather have a perfectly cooked turkey loaded with lots of flavor…make a new tradition! So yes, I am Thankful….I am thankful for sous vide cooking and of course for my Family and Friends 😛
What you will need
Turkey , whole fresh
Black peppercorns , optional, for stock, as needed
Herbs , fresh, such as thyme and sage, as needed
Onion , optional, for stock
Olive oil, as needed
Salt , a few tbsp, as needed
Sugar , a few tbsp, as needed
Butter , 1 to 2 tbsp, as needed
Procedure
1) Break down the entire turkey, seperate legs from thighs, separate breasts and take them off the bone. Leave skin intact. Mix salt and sugar in water until dissolved (I used my immersion blender). Place the 2 turkey breasts, 2 turkey legs, and 2 turkey thighs into the brine and refrigerate for 8 hours. Remove from brine and pat dry
2) Preheat water bath to 150F
3) Season both sides of turkey pieces with salt. Place each piece of turkey in their own separate vacuum pouch and vacuum seal with a sprig of sage, spring of thyme, 2 cloves of smashed garlic and 2 Tbsp of butter (Or duck fat if you have it). Place the vacuum sealed turkey breasts in the refrigerator and add the legs and thighs to the preheated water bath for 2 hours. About 1.5 hours into the cooking process, remove the turkey breasts from the fridge and let them come to room temperature for 30 min. Add the breasts to the water bath and sous vide for another 2 hours.
4) Preheat the oil in either a deep pot or deep fryer to 375 F. Remove turkey from pouches and pat completely dry, deep fry each piece (one at a time) until golden brown, about 3 min. Place on paper towel to remove excess oil, carve turkey and serve.
Procedure For the even lazier:
Break down bird into white and dark meat – reserve carcass (use it for gravy)
Weigh bird
Mix a 5:2 salt to sugar dry brine that is 1%-1.5% the weight of the bird
Quickly sear bird pieces
Rub bird down with dry brine and vacuum seal white and dark meat separately
Set water bath to 150 F- add dark meat- cook for 12 hours
Drop temp to 131 F- add white meat- cook for 12 hours
Remove bags, pat bird dry, finish however you desire (ripping hot pan, screaming hot oven, deep fry, etc.).
Dining and Cooking