Thanksgiving is almost here and who doesn't want to serve their guests?
A perfect turkey. This holiday for advice on how to prepare a delicious bird.
We're joined by Chef Joshua
R
from the Institute of Culinary Education.
Welcome back. Chef. Nice to see you. Good morning. Thank you for me back.
This is a huge turkey.
So what's the first step when it comes to preparing and cleaning that turkey? Yes.
So the first thing that we want to do is we are going to actually brine our turkey.
So we wanna get it into a saltwater solution.
And the reason is that we want our big bird to season from the inside out,
not just being on the outside. We wanna get the whole thing seasoned.
The other thing is by brining it.
You're gonna actually cause for more moisture retention during cooking.
So if you want your white meat to stay juicy while the dark meat gets nice and tender,
this is the best way to do that.
So with the brining is there
seasoning, you use to make the brine or you just said salt. Yeah.
So salt has to be in there. But I like to add in things like some wonderful fresh herbs.
So we've got sage thyme and rosemary,
which are gonna bring about those classic holiday flavors.
And then for my dry spices, I like to add in some coriander seed,
black pepper and a little bit of red pepper flake as well.
All right, chef take us through this.
So,
what we're gonna do is we've got our hot water over here and we're gonna take our salt
and we're gonna add that in.
We're gonna add in some sugar as well to help make sure that everything is balanced.
We don't want it to just be too salty
and then we're gonna add in our dry seasonings.
We add our coriander seed, our red pepper flake and our black pepper,
which have all been toasted
and then we're gonna give that a whisk and we
wanna get this to the point where everything dissolves Jeff.
What do people do wrong when they're brining? Because it seems simple enough. Yeah.
So the most important thing is by letting it go for the right amount of time.
You don't wanna let it brine for too long because then your uh,
turkey is gonna be over salted.
If you don't let it go long enough, then the salt just stays on the outside.
It doesn't penetrate all the way through.
All right, we'll add in our fresh herbs as well to get those flavors in there.
And then what we'll do is we would let this cool all the,
before we add the turkey in there, you don't want to add in a hot turk.
Uh, sorry, a turkey into a hot brine because then you'll actually start to cook it.
Not what you're looking for.
We want this to roast in the oven, not cook in the,
let's move on to buttering the turkey.
Yeah.
So once our turkey has come out a brine like this one has,
we're gonna hit it with a little bit of salt at the end.
But we also want to get butter right underneath the skin all along the breast area.
And how much butter.
So I've got about half a pound for each of us to go on each side of the turkey.
About a pound for, this is a £15 bird. So about a pound for that
is what we're looking for. And it's important that that butter is room temperature.
So we want it to be nice and soft. So it's malleable and it works underneath the skin.
So where does the butter go?
So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna come back here to the bottom part of the breast.
We're gonna just free underneath that area, we're gonna free up the skin.
You can see you can get your whole hand
underneath there and I got pretty big mittens on me. So you can see that we get it all
freed up.
And then once we've done that,
we're gonna go ahead and start getting the butter underneath that skin.
What's the secret to evenly spread
the butter?
The most important thing is having that butter be room temperature because if
it's cold then you're gonna end up with kind of uneven splotchiness.
But when it's room temperature you can work it from the outside
and that way you can get it nice and even can we brine now, or is it still not cool?
So this one's actually already come out of the brine.
So this one's already ready to go for us. Yeah, we're gonna do it together.
You're gonna help me out with this one.
So we've got our butter here. We're just gonna take a little piece.
We're just gonna shove it up underneath that skin
and then you can just use the outside hand here
to just kind of spread it out. Nice and thin. Yeah, perfect.
And what's nice about this process is you're gonna add in flavor because obviously
uh butter has a lot of fat and fat is flavor in cooking.
That's what we like to say.
Um But it also provides some moisture
and because you're putting the fat underneath the skin as well,
it's gonna help the whole skin get crispy
and that's the most important part of it.
I asked you what mistakes people are making when they're brining.
What about just making a turkey in general?
Yeah, I mean, the most important thing is to not overcook it, you know,
because it can come out super dry.
So, get that thermometer. Yeah, absolutely.
A digital thermometer is the best way, you know, the one that they put in there, uh,
actually will go off at a higher temperature than what it needs to be fully done.
So, the best thing to use is a digital thermometer.
So, yeah, you're doing a great job and we just wanna get it.
So that way we're getting all up in the skin.
We're gonna come right up over here actually.
Is there a full fool proof way to do this for people that might be a little reluctant.
This is kind of the, the best way that you can work on it.
I don't know if there's a,
I don't know if I would use like a syringe
or anything like that to get that butter in there.
Now, we're looking like we've got
good coverage. Yep. So we're getting in the thigh area as well.
We're gonna come right up here. I keep helping you out as well.
And how long do we keep this in the oven?
So this guy is gonna roast for about one hour for every 2 to £3 of turkey. I believe it is
3 to 4 off the top of my head. I might be remembering that right.
Um
And then again, just be checking and when we're temping the turkey,
we wanna temp in both the breast
and the leg and thigh. You wanna make sure that everything is getting cooked.
What about sides?
That's people always kind of struggle with the best sides to serve. Yeah, the sides.
So for me, I love doing things like sweet potatoes. I love doing roasted potatoes.
Uh I'm doing this year. Roasted cauliflower as well.
Get a little bit, uh,
more veggies on the plate because you gotta have veggies with it.
And then of course,
you gotta have the classic gravy which is gonna be
made using the carcass from your turkey as well.
And very quickly, we had gloves on. Why do we have gloves on? Chef?
This is all about safety and sanitation.
You wanna make sure that you're not spreading around any
of the bacteria that could be on this bird.
You wanna make sure that you're being safe for all your guests. Ok?
Thank you so much chef and you'll be back later in the show to
how to carve a turkey.
Very important. Our turkey is nice and cooked. How do you know when the bird is done?
So again,
so what we wanna use is a digital thermometer because that's gonna
be the most accurate and the fastest way to do it.
And we wanna temp in both the thickest part of the breast area right up here.
But you also wanna be temping in the thighs.
So you wanna temp down here near the bone but
all around and you wanna make sure that your turkeys
cooked to at least 100 and 60 to 100 and 65 degrees before it comes out of the oven.
Ok. That's a really good tip. Is there
color we should be looking out for.
Yeah, we wanna make sure that we get our turkey to what we call GB D golden brown,
delicious, golden brown, delicious.
When you get things to be golden brown,
that means that you've caramelized the meat proteins on
the inside or the outside of the product.
And that way we know that we build up depth of flavor,
which is gonna make our turkey even better.
OK. It's on a cutting board.
What's the proper way to carve your turkey? So we want to start on the cutting board.
That's important. Not on your counter.
Don't do it on the platter because the platter
can break if you're using a nice sharp knife.
So we wanna use the uh the uh the cutting board
for it and we wanna have the channels facing up.
So that way it catches any juices that fall off and
don't end up all over your table or your uh countertop.
So uh what I like to do is I like to start by removing the legs and the thighs.
I'm just gonna start on this side to keep things a little bit easier,
but we're just gonna separate the skin and we
can literally just use our hands here to simply
pull all the meat away and you can see
how it's just coming apart because it's properly cooked
and then we're just gonna separate off those muscles like that. And now you've got,
and now you've got all your dark meat removed. That looks beautiful.
Do you start with either the thigh or breast?
Yeah,
I like to start with the thighs first because that way it opens up the breast more.
So you can see how on this side, we can see a little bit more
of the protein.
So that way you can see a little bit more.
It's gonna make removing the breast that much easier.
What are some of the more common mistakes
you see when people are carving their turkey?
Yeah,
I think that people often times are gonna be uh trying to hack
at it a little bit or they're using the wrong type of knife.
I like to use this knife,
which is a slicing knife long and thin instead of the electric knife,
which is basically
two little blades that are sawing back and forth and they're gonna shred your meat
also. Great advice.
Which direction should you, should you be aiming when you're cutting? Yes.
You wanna make sure that you're always cutting against the grain.
So the turkey proteins run this way from back to front.
So kind of from the head down to the butt. So we wanna slice against that.
So that way you get nice even bites for everyone. So we've got our thigh here
and we've got our legs, we've got half of our dark meat now removed
and now to remove the breast, what we'll do is we'll start by removing the wing
and we're gonna separate it down here between the second and the third joint.
So, basically at the turkey's elbow.
So
that way you've got that piece that's now removed. What a nice cut.
Yeah, it looks great.
And now we're gonna go ahead and we'll remove the white meat.
So, what we'll do is we'll start by making cut right down the middle
and then we're just gonna use our fingers to get in here so we can separate
and we wanna run right along
the rib cage going all the way around the turkey.
You can see nice and juicy did people store their leftover turkey chef?
That's a very popular question. Yeah, absolutely.
You wanna make sure that you're storing in an airtight container?
So it's always good to hang on to your leftover tupperware
or any take out containers that you get your hands on.
Always good to hang on to those. So that way you get a nice air tight seal in there.
What should uh, the perfect final carved turkey look like?
Well, I like to make sure that I have nice bite size pieces for everyone,
especially on the white meat where it's the bigger pieces.
So you can see that we're slicing it into nice thin pieces.
So that way everyone can make sure they get their hands on some
and then with the dark meat that's a little bit more, uh, you know,
shredded as you go type of thing.
Let people take it how they want to get their hands at it.
Ok. Another popular debate.
Do you carve at the kitchen inside the kitchen or at the table?
I prefer to present the turkey and then show it to the guests and then come
back into the kitchen and do it in a place that I feel most comfortable.
Oh, so then you go back in exactly
what are some of the more mistakes you make?
Uh you see people make during Thanksgiving holidays?
I think a lot of people overthink a lot
of the elements that they're putting on their plate.
And then what happens is, is that you don't get to enjoy the holiday.
Remember this is all about getting together with family and friends.
You wanna make sure that you're enjoying it as the chef,
as much as anyone else on the table.
I'm gonna have a piece of
it. Thank you so much to chef Joshua
Resnick with the Institute of Culinary Education. Happy Thanksgiving.
I'm gonna have some of this delicious turkey.
We're gonna save you some back to you, my friend. Oh,
it looks great. Hannah. Thank you so much and thanks to the chef there.