Going for a 10-12 pounder vs. the 25 pound pterodactyls we normally roast using the Alton Brown brine + 500 degrees for half hour + 350 degrees until done method. Any methods I should be doing instead with the smaller bird?
1 Like
Rabbit pot pie , with scalloped potatoes and gruyere cheese.
1 Like
I can’t find the recipe and technique online, but ever since I found this method in “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home” I have used it. It is a deconstructed turkey.
The first thing you you is take the turkey apart. Cut off the leg quarters. Then separate the back quarter from the breast and wing quarter (this takes good poultry shears and elbow grease). Dry brine the breast quarter. Use the back quarter, the wing tips and the neck along with aromatics to make stock.
The leg quarters take some work, but it pays off wonderfully. Bone the thighs using a sharp boning or paring knife. Crack the thigh bones with a cleaver (you need a cleaver for this method) and toss them in the stock. Cleave the nubbins off the end of the drumsticks and into the stock as well. This step will amaze you later on. Dry brine the leg quarters as well.
Make your dressing.
On the day stuff your boned thighs and truss them with old school pins and twine. Mound your dressing under your breast quarter and roast all of it at 350 until 165 in the breast and thighs.
Use needlenose pliers to remove the ligaments protruding from the drumsticks now that the nubbins are gone. You won’t believe how succulent the dark meat is without the ligaments. Untruss the thighs and slice like rouladen. Carve the breast. Best turkey ever.
You probably have to buy the cookbook as my description most likely won’t be enough. Here is the link. https://smile.amazon.com/Julia-Jacques-Cooking-at-Home/dp/0375404317/ref=sr_1_2?crid=GJIQMQ9A3MDS&dchild=1&keywords=julia+and+jacques+cooking+at+home+cookbook&qid=1605682444&sprefix=julia+and+ja%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-2 Best turkey I have ever made and Thanksgiving is my favorite meal to cook.
2 Likes
1 Like