Turkey Cooking

Since my immediate family came over for Thanksgiving this year, I wanted to make my first turkey.  I found a recipe on Annie's Eats which she adapted from the very popular Alton Brown (of the Food Network) recipe.  Now the biggest bird part I've ever cooked before is a chicken wing, so I prepared myself for possible failure.  It actually turned out really moist and yummy!

I started with a 14lb frozen turkey.

I let it thaw for 2-3 days and then removed the bag-o-neck thing.  I'm glad my dad told me there is also another bag in some secret front cavity with other turkey parts in it, or I would have cooked it with the bag still inside!

Chris prepared the brine the night before so it would be cooled by the time we were ready to brine.  We opted to use large bags to put the brine and turkey in instead of a bucket because it seemed to cover the whole turkey well.  Note:  Reynolds Oven Bags work well, but not if you are trying to carry the turkey in them....our turkey maaaaay have ended up on the floor for a second.  Good thing the brine wasn't in there yet!

the brine pot

We let the turkey brine for 24ish hours in it's bag inside a cooler with ice.

The next day we stuffed it with steeped aromatics (and debated for a long time on how to say "aromatics") before cooking it.  Alton Brown's recipe has you cook the turkey for 30 minutes at 500 degrees to brown it and then finish cooking it at 350 degrees until the breast meat is 161 degrees.  The turkey wears this foil hat to keep the white meat from over heating while getting the dark meat cooked properly.  Smart!

 Finished turkey!