Cooking A Turkey Made Easy Online

The Turkey is a bird that is used in many delicacies. It is a North American bird that is closely associated with Thanksgiving dinners. However, it is also consumed on other occasions. Turkey is generally preferred because it is high in protein and low in fat, as compared to other dark meat. Some common breeds of Turkey are: Narragansett, Bronze, White Holland, and Bourbon Red.

Turkey can be roasted, smoked, deep fried, grilled or microwaved. Turkey can be used for appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees and more. Dishes rich in proteins yet low in carbohydrates can also be prepared from Turkey. Turkey can be cooked using highly complicated recipes, or it can also be used for preparing some quick and easy dishes. It is very important to follow some guidelines while cooking Turkey. These include: use only cooked ingredients in the stuffing, use only fresh stuffing; stuff the Turkey just before roasting; thaw the Turkey properly, and so on. Selecting the right kind of oil is also important–the oil should have a high smoke point.

Turkey dishes require special seasonings, spices and other ingredients. Bread crumbs, onion, eggs, garlic, ginger, pepper and oil are some of the commonly used ingredients. Some ethnic Turkey dishes are: Turkey tenderloins with black bean and corn salsa, enchilada Turkey soup, smoked Turkey breast ratatouille melt, Turkey satay with spicy peanut sauce, Mediterranean Turkey and eggplant stir-fry, Turkey and oriental noodle salad, Turkey cassoulet, Thai grilled pizza, Turkey scaloppini Portuguese-style, West Indies minced Turkey, spring rolls with Turkey, moo shu Turkey with duck sauce and pancakes, pasteis con Peru, Thai green curry with Turkey and couscous, Turkey Brazilian with white rice, Turkey Kiev, curried tenderloin of Turkey with curried blueberry sauce, Swiss Turkey marsala and others.

Some other delicious Turkey dishes that can be made are: grilled Turkey brat hoagies, Turkey chili, Turkey breast Diane, Turkey enchiladas, garlic roasted Turkey, ginger lime Turkey strips, seasoned Turkey with rice pilaf, Turkey sausage with pasta, Turkey bratwurst kabobs, Turkey lasagna, Turkey meatloaf, Turkey parmesan, Turkey sausage, Turkey scaloppini, stir fried Turkey with walnuts and cashews, grilled southwestern Bratwurst, Turkey pizza, Turkey burgers and so on.

There are also prepared Turkey dishes available. These contain all the stuffing and have to be just taken from the freezer and roasted. There are several Turkey recipes available over the Internet in exclusive websites.

I brined a turkey recently, and it was wonderful. I put together a recipe for this largely based on a recipe by Alton Brown, but I made quite a few changes, especially in the aromatics. It was a joy both to prepare and eat this bird.

Brining is a process in which meat is soaked in a salt solution (called a brine) before cooking. The brine makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, through the process of osmosis. This process causes cells to hold on to the water while the meat, poultry or fish is cooking. That’s the short version of it. Scientists could go on forever about this process, but I’m not a scientist. I just know that it works.

Ingredients:

1 thawed turkey (approx. 20 lb.)

The Brine:

1 gallon vegetable stock

1 gallon iced water

1 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. Lawry’s® seasoned pepper (or black pepper)

The Aromatics:

2 cups water

1 large handful fresh parsley leaves (cut of the stalks)

6 (4″ long) pieces celery

4 (4″ long) pieces carrot

1 sliced red apple

1/2 sliced onion

4 whole, peeled cloves garlic

2 tsp. rubbed sage

1 tsp. dried thyme leaves

Olive oil for basting

Instructions:

The night before: Combine all of the ingredients for the brine, except the ice water in a large (8 qt.) kettle and bring to a boil, stirring well so as to dissolve the salt and sugar. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Then combine the brine and the ice water in a large and clean insulated cooler. Place the turkey, breast side down in cooler, and put lid on. Marinate for about 6 hours, turning once.

When you are ready to roast the bird, combine the celery, the carrot, the apple, the onion and the garlic in a large, microwave safe bowl. Stir the rubbed sage and dried thyme leaves into the water and add it to the ingredients in the bowl. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the turkey from the brine and discard the brine. Wash the bird inside and out with cold water. Place the turkey in a roasting pan. Pat dry with paper towels and put the celery, the carrot, the apple, the onion the garlic, and the fresh parsley leaves in cavity. Tuck back the wings and coat the whole turkey liberally with olive oil.

Roast the turkey on the lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover the breast area only with a double layer of aluminum foil. Insert a meat thermometer between the thigh and breast just beyond the lower part of the thigh bone, making sure that the thermometer does not touch any part of the bone. Reduce oven to 325 degrees F and put the bird back in the oven. The remaining roasting time for a turkey of about 20 pounds should be anywhere from about 4 to 5 hours. Make adjustments for different size birds. Turkey should be done when the meat thermometer reaches 190 degrees F in the deepest part of the thigh muscle. (Some sources give lower temperatures, but I like to be sure.) After removing from oven, cover entire bird loosely with foil and allow 15-20 minutes standing time before carving. Discard the aromatics.

The Thanksgiving turkey – why is it the cause of stress for so many people? I know I am not the only person who has viewed that turkey as my enemy on Thanksgiving because Butterball turkey has a hotline that receives thousands of calls each year from people with various turkey questions. The hotline typically starts operation by mid-November and runs until Christmas. The hotline is even available on Thanksgiving Day.

I have been making turkey for Thanksgiving for over 20 years and last year I finally got some tips that gave me a moist flavorful turkey that everyone at my Thanksgiving dinner actually had second and third helpings!

Over the years it seemed like I had tried just about every method of trying to cook the turkey. When I was first married I tried the traditional pan roasting method. But I forgot to buy my turkey until the day before Thanksgiving. And I bought a big one because I wanted to be sure to have enough turkey for everyone. Because I waited too long to buy my turkey and because I bought such a big one it wasn’t thawed by the time I needed to cook it, but I tried cooking it anyway. I ended up with a dry turkey overcooked on the outside and barely done in the middle. Oh, and I had lots and lots of leftover turkey because nobody liked it.

The following year I was busy with a baby and again forgot to buy my turkey in time to get it thoroughly thawed so I was up most of the night before Thanksgiving running cold water over my turkey to get it thawed. The turkey ended up turning out okay but I was so tired and crabby by the time I served dinner that I didn’t care whether or not the turkey was done.

Then a few years ago I got the bright idea to deep fry my turkey. Several people recommended it to me. They said a deep-fried turkey was delicious. I thought, “Deep-fried food is delicious. My turkey problems are solved!” So I bought a turkey fryer and two big containers of peanut oil for frying that turkey. But I didn’t buy any marinade to inject into the turkey against advice from lots of people.

My husband was in charge of deep frying the turkey in the garage while I was finishing up the side dishes in the kitchen. The directions said it would only take 30 minutes to deep-fry the turkey. Because we wanted the turkey to be nice and hot for dinner, my husband didn’t start cooking it until about 40 minutes before dinner. That seemed about right to us. I don’t know exactly what happened but that darn turkey took a whole lot longer than 30 minutes to cook. Instead of having turkey as our main course, we had it as a very late dessert! We thought that was okay though because the turkey looked deliciously brown and crispy when it came out of the fryer. But because we hadn’t seasoned it at all, it was pretty blah and bland. We learned the hard way that when everyone we ask recommends injecting a turkey with a marinade for flavor before cooking it, that it is probably a good idea. That year my Thanksgiving turkey cost me well over $150 when I calculated in the cost of the fryer, the oil, and the turkey. For that amount of money I could have ordered our entire Thanksgiving dinner from a local restaurant.

The next year I was listening to a local radio station one morning in early November when the female morning show host started talking about how she made her Thanksgiving turkey. She said the recipe was a little involved but that it made a delicious turkey. I was ready to give it a try. I downloaded and printed the recipe, all three pages of it. Making that turkey was like taking care of a baby for nearly two days. It had to be seasoned and put in brine; patted dry; seasoned again; then put in another brine to soak. Then I finally got to cook it. I was so proud of that turkey. I thought it was going to be the best tasting turkey ever since it was the most work I ever put in making a turkey. But that didn’t happen. Nobody liked the flavor of the turkey so I again had lots of leftovers that nobody wanted to eat.

At that point I decided I wasn’t meant to cook a turkey. A turkey and I just didn’t get along. So for two years I didn’t make turkey. But for some reason my family thought it wasn’t Thanksgiving without turkey. I wasn’t sure why they missed it. It never tasted good. Then I realized what it was. The Thanksgiving turkey was a yearly joke at our house and when I didn’t make one there was nothing to complain about. The turkey jokes couldn’t be made.

So last year I tried yet again. But I talked to my son who was taking a culinary arts course at the time for tips. He assured me he could help me make a better turkey. And he did. Our turkey last year was great. And making it wasn’t complicated. It was so tasty and so easy to make that I make turkey every couple of months.

THANKSGIVING TURKEY SIMPLIFIED

Ingredients:

One 5-6 pound turkey breast, thawed and patted dry

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

10-12 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 package from your grocer’s produce case)

1 cup water

Place turkey in a roaster. I use a Nesco roaster, but you can also bake it in the oven. Pour the water in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the turkey with the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place the thyme springs on top of and around the turkey. Cover and bake according to the directions on the turkey package.

If baking the turkey in the oven, remove the cover during the last 30 minutes of cooking to brown and crisp the skin.

After taking the turkey out of the roaster or oven remove the thyme springs from the turkey and discard them. Let the turkey stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Thanksgiving is coming soon, and most folks will prepare and sit down to a huge traditional turkey day meal. A few days ago my oldest son, now twenty-three, made me stop and think about how necessary all of that food really is. I mean really, do we need to roast a twenty pound bird every year? My son commented on how ridiculous it all can be at times when the true meaning of the holiday is to show gratitude for what we have. Right?

For those among us who aren’t interested in cooking a massive dinner, or for those small families who just want to have a ‘taste’ of the holiday, there is an alternative. Of course you can always just order pizza and let everyone take turns saying what they’re thankful for, but there are some die-hard ‘Thanksgiving-ites’ who, although they don’t want all the mess and excess, still would appreciate the ‘essence’ of the traditional holiday fare. So, what’s the compromise in this situation? The following is a quick and easy turkey dinner idea along with easy trimmings that will leave you feeling comfy and grateful, yet not about to pop or anxious about the mess in the kitchen.

Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Turkey and Dressing to Really Be Thankful for

4-6 turkey breast slices

½ c chopped green bell pepper

2 tbsp water

1 - 12 oz jar turkey gravy

1 c chicken broth

3 c dry stuffing mix

1 - 6 oz package dried fruit pieces

Spray large skillet with cooking spray. Add turkey and season as you prefer. Cook 4 minutes or until turkey is golden brown and not pink in center. Turn once and remove from skillet. In same skillet, add bell pepper and water, cook for 2 minutes. Take out ¼ cup of gravy from jar or can and add the remaining gravy and broth to skillet; mix well. Bring to boil and remove skillet from heat. Add the stuffing and fruit pieces and stir until moist. Return your turkey to skillet and add the rest of the gravy. Cover and let stand about 5 minutes before serving.

You can double this entire recipe if you have more folks to serve. Another thought I had about making this even easier for larger groups-give this recipe to a few members of your family and let them prepare and bring their own dish to the occasion. This will travel well in a casserole dish and makes a wonderful Thanksgiving Potluck idea.

What quick and easy trimmings go well with this delicious recipe? How about some dinner rolls, cranberry jelly, butternut squash and green beans? Simple and yummy too. Serve a ready made apple or pumpkin pie with whipped topping and it’s a hit all round.

It’s almost the festive season again - and even if it isn’t, many family meals could benefit from learning the basics of turkey cooking tips tricks and more guidelines on getting the best bird, cooking it right so it tastes just right and sets the mood for a good time!

1. Select the correct size of this wonderful bird: 3/4 pound per person is a good way to estimate you have enough left for seconds unless you are the type that enjoys having extra leftovers; then you can calculate on buying a turkey with portions decided as 1 1/2 pounds per person.

2. Whether you want a Hen or a Tom is largely dependent on your preference for bigger or medium sized birds; hens less than 16 pounds), Toms (over 16 pounds) do not matter so much as getting a young turkey as one a few weeks old at processing time will ensure tenderized meat that is easy to cook and eat.

3. Roast right by preparing right: remove neck and giblets from body cavities; rinse the hollowed insides well with cold water and those choosing to stuff the turkey can do so in a loose manner before clamping the leg back on in place.

4. Cooking tips tricks for the turkey: place in roasting dish, keeping plastic timer in clear view before covering with a lid; you can choose a foil wrap also. Do not forget to remove this cover an hour before browning.

5. Tips and Tricks for Cooking Turkey Roast: preheat oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit and roast for 15 minutes per pound of un-stuffed bird; the stuffed kind will need an extra half or 1 hr of cooking before done, though it’s best to go according to the recipe guidelines that come with the turkey stuffing at times. Cooking temperatures may differ for ovenware and bird-size, so you may have to turn over for even roasting on all sides.

6. Choosing to Baste? Remember this: a suction basting tube is a cheap tool that makes basting turkeys easy and convenient besides decreasing the frequency of opening the oven door to check for how much roasting has been done - it also helps avoid heat escaping each time this is done, so get yourself one today.

There is no dearth of web sites that offer free information about cooking turkey meals and various cook-books also offer valuable tips and guidelines on this matter; it’s only a matter of finding the right information and applying them right so once you’ve made a smart purchase of the right-size bird, you can go about setting that perfect family meal that’s cooked just right and is filling too!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Talking turkey is not fun on Thanksgiving

Why not join the celebration this time instead of spending it in the kitchen talking to your turkey?

You can do just that with these dinner party planning tips.

Make as many dishes as possible ahead of time. Especially, choose the dishes that are time consuming and leave you with pots and bowls to wash. If you can make these a day or two in advance, all you need to do is pop them into the oven for a short time before dinner. And you can heat them right in an oven-to-table dish.

Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes are perfect examples of dishes you can make ahead. Just google “make-ahead mashed potatoes” for example, and lots of make-ahead recipes will come up.

If you are planning to serve a salad, you can wash all the ingredients, put them in the bowl you plan to use, and store them covered in the frig the day before. You can make your favorite dressing ahead of time too. Then all you need to do at dinner time is add your dressing to the salad. (If you’re adding tomatoes, store them separately and add them at the last minute too.)

Another time-consuming task on Thanksgiving is carving the turkey. Lots of people make their turkey the day ahead, let it cool a bit and then carve it. You can make the gravy ahead as well.

Then all you need to do on Thanksgiving day itself is to reheat the turkey and the gravy. Pop them on the table and dinner is served.

Want that lovely turkey roasting smell but crave convenience as well?

Try getting one of those turkey that are already de-boned. This year I bought a frozen turkey that is already deboned except it has drumsticks. It is pre-stuffed and comes with gravy to heat up.

It’s more expensive but I justify it to myself on the grounds that I am running an experiment.

The other way to look at such a purchase is it gives you time to make your special dish from scratch. Some cooks may want to make their pumpkin pie from scratch. A turkey that almost takes care of itself frees you up to devote your attention to baking.

One of the blessings we remember at Thanksgiving is having family and friends to share our lives with. Is this your year to join them in the living room instead of spending too much time in the kitchen? It could be if you use these dinner party planning tips.

Most everyone looks forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many of us appreciate the good food associated with these two holidays. Enjoying family and friends can leave you with wonderful memories. Cooking turkey is part of the fun and festivities of the holidays. Many people are afraid of the task of cooking turkey. They think it is too hard and often avoid the responsibility of that particular job. They will let someone else be responsible for that part of the meal or because we live in such a fast food society, they will buy a turkey that is already cooked. This article will talk about how easy cooking turkey can be so you won’t be gobbled up.

Cooking turkey is an easy way to feed many people. One large turkey can feed many people with not a lot of expense involved. Usually you will have turkey left over’s that can not only be used to make sandwiches, but turkey can be used to create many dishes. Turkey is very healthy for you as it doesn’t have a lot of fat content to it. There are many benefits to cooking turkey. For one thing, you can place it in the oven and leave the house to do other errands. Since you can set the oven on a low heat and cook for a long time, you will not be stuck slaving over the stove all day. You will be free to visit with your guests.

When selecting a pan for cooking turkey, make sure the pan is large enough for the bird to sit in without hanging out all over. If the bird hangs over the pan much, you won’t be able to cover the turkey and more than likely, the meat will end up being dry. After taking off the wrapping on the bird, make sure you remove any giblets that may be stored in both of the open cavities in the bird. Once you have removed all the giblets, rinse the bird inside and out until all the blood is gone. I usually spray my pan with a non stick type of spray so clean up will be easy. After emptying all the rinsed water from inside both cavities, place the bird in the pan. When cooking turkey, you will need to salt and pepper the bird at this time. I like to take a cube of margarine and cut off wedges of it and place it all over and inside the turkey. Completely cover tight with foil and place in an oven that has been preheated to 325 degrees. Cook according to the weight of the bird, but an 18 to 20 pound turkey will cook for about 4 hours. Do not remove the foil until the last twenty minutes of cooking. You will want the turkey to brown so raise the oven temp. to 400 degrees and leave in the oven for about another twenty minutes or until your cooking turkey is golden brown.

Once your cooking turkey is done, let it set for another 15-20 minutes before carving it. It should be nice and tender and delicious. You can baste the turkey before carving it with the drippings in the bottom of the pan. Once the turkey is removed you can use the drippings later to make gravy or the base for turkey and noodles. Cooking turkey can be a very rewarding experience. Once you have done it, you won’t be afraid of it ever again. Using the proper type, and size of pan can be very helpful when cooking turkey and there are many good choices available.