Chef D’Amico’s Tasty Turkey Tips for Thanksgiving
Before you stress over your Thanksgiving shopping remember the wise words from the brilliantly talented Chef D’Amico who says that the best dishes are high in quality and simple in ingredients. So avoid dry meat, unhappy guests, and ask yourself “who doesn’t want all that juicy goodness on their plates instead of down the drain?”
Chef Chris D’Amico shares another one of his tasty recipes to make your Thanksgiving turkey surely the talk of the town:
I love to brine turkey to keep it moist and juicy. I hate dry turkey. So I brine the turkey for 1 day. The recipe I use to brine the turkey is really simple.
1 gallon water
Just add the salt and sugar to the water. A hint I can offer is to use warm water because it helps the salt and sugar dissolve. Then just place the turkey in the solution on Tuesday, 2 days before Thanksgiving and keep it refrigerated. Remove the turkey from the solution late on Wednesday and add the aromatic vegetables to the cavity of the turkey.
1 fennel, diced
A 12 pound turkey should take somewhere between 3 and a half to 4 hours at 350 degrees to cook thoroughly. You are looking for an internal temperature of 180 degrees.That will be enough time to get the stuffing and the cranberry sauce ready.
The last hint I offer is to give the turkey enough time to rest before carving. For a 12 pound turkey I would personally leave it for about 40 minutes before cutting into it. This will ensure that the juices inside the meat will have time to redistribute back into the drier areas and when you cut into it the juices won’t drip onto your cutting board. They will stay inside the meat and who does not want all that juicy goodness on their plates instead of down the drain.
Finally my tip for basting the turkey is to add white wine to the pan juices. Not a lot of wine is needed. Just think of it as the bird is joining in the celebration and he wants a glass of wine so why not indulge him since he is going to be so good.
Just don’t eat this little guy. Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble Gobble!
