Sudden change in Easter plans. A small dinner for three became a four hour road trip for a family gathering of 20-25 people. And I’m told I’m cooking the meat. Fine, so a couple of cooked hams, and two sous vide turkeys, to be prepared ahead and finished on site.
I’ve never cooked sous vide turkey, but I checked several online recipies (it’s amazing the wide variance in suggested times and temps). So here’s what I did:
Get the butcher to cut the turkeys into pieces…what a great idea, never thought of that. I got the breast off the bone, drumsticks separated from thighs, and the wings cut into two pieces (tossed the tips, as well as the back and giblets, maybe I’ll save them next time)
Brined all overnight
Sous vide the breasts 3 hours at 150, the dark meat 6+ hours at 170. All bags received sprigs of rosemary, thyme, sage, chopped garlic, and 1/4 cup of duck fat
Ice baths then fridge then cooler for the drive
Brought back to warm, then emptied the glop from the pouches, strained, skimmed a bit of fat, added turkey broth, reduced to a pretty nice gravy
In two batches threw the meat into a backyard deep fryer for about 5 minutes, just enough to crisp the skin
I was worried that the frying would overcook the meat, but really didn’t happen except for the edges. The white meat was pretty juicy, the dark well cooked. I will probably back the sous vide temp off by maybe 3 degrees next time to see if they will come out even a little bit better. I’ve also thought about painting the non-skin outsides of the pieces with a bit of duck fat just before frying to see if that might keep the temp cooler inside.
Anyway, I was really happy with just about everything, other than putting too much salt in the gravy (it really needed nothing more added).
Any other twists or variations? I really want to make this again soon.
Yea, figured you going to have s salty gravy due to the brine. My biggest issue with SV turkey is getting the seasoning (salt level) correct in the bag. Too much brine and the meat takes on a deli Turkey feel, too little
and the flavor is impacted.
I like to brown the turkey prior to going into the bag mostly to use the fond to build the base of the stock I’ll make with the roasted bones I have removed from the breast and it I’ve got the time from the leg & thigh. If I’ve brined prior to breaking down the bird I won’t add any salt until the very end of finishing the gravy.
One of the online recipes suggested not brining the thighs only, and removing the bone prior to SV. I removed the bone and cut in two portions when serving, it’s a nice portion size for dark meat. The same with each of the wing pieces, and I would even consider chopping the two bone segment in half.
I did rinse after brining but there’s still plenty of sodium.
One other online suggestion I skipped was putting one uncooked breast on top of the other, fat ends to short, then tying together for cooking, and slicing as a roulade. That way the outside is all skin.
I’ve done similar. Loved the results and would never do a turkey whole again. Last year tried the turkey broken down and simply roasted on a sheet tray with a cooling rack under (and veg under that). If you monitor the temps of the meat and pull accordingly, sure makes doing a complete turkey seem silly.
when I did it SV I took the parts of my carcass and made my stock from that - kept it salt free too - helped cut some of the brine salt on the meat.
I tried that roulade method with the meat glue and it was a royal pain. Deboning the turkey nearly killed me with my dull knives. At least it prompted me to get them sharpened for future projects. I also operate with freezer bags and occasionally an old foodsaver. I need to upgrade…
My goal is to make the process as painless as possible. Meat fully butchered, throw together some spices, throw in water, chill, open a white burg, good to go. Finish at the last minute, maybe days later.
It took me years to get my wife to allow us to cut up the turkey, before cooking. After tasting the results and reduced stress she’s officially a believer.
Is the oyster meat truly better or is it Such a nice piece because of the location during the roast? I’ve never had them except when roasting, so I’m wondering if how one would cook them once removed? Yakatori style?
I have had a few pieces of Fried Chicken as well as “Cajun Fried Turkey” (the shame!) where the oyster was the best piece.
The back of the bird was never laid in the bottom of a roasting pan, yet the “bowl” of bone surrounding the oyster helped keep the meat juicy and tender.
We once had to emergency cut up a turkey when my nephew forgot to load the fryer stand into the car on the way to the Tailgate Party so we could not fry the Turkey. I grabbed a cleaver - doesn’t everyone bring a cleaver to a football game - cut up the turkey into parts and grilled/roasted it on a Weber kettle. It was delicious. I’ll have to do it again some day.
based on a recipe on the 11 Madison Park cookbook, I have SV the dark meat, then pulled it and repacked it into a pyrex baking dish lined with skin. then you can slice off cubes to broil or deep fry.
Can you post a link to that EMP recipe? I’m not sure I get the drift, other than to make bite sized goodies. I do like SVing the dark meat separately. No sous vide turkey this Thanksgiving since we’re traveling, but I aim to buy a bird for later use.
