First, I brined the turkey. I’ve never done that before. I’ll never fail to again. It certainly made the turkey moister. (I like that word.) Irrefutably.
I didn’t let it soak overnight, though. It soaked in the brine about five hours before I rinsed it and then I let it sit on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet in the fridge, uncovered, overnight, so the skin would be dry so it would crisp up when roasting. It worked like a charm. After roasting, the meat was juicy and the skin was crispy. The texture of both was wow.
And I herbed it before I roasted it.
Into a food processor: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Yep, straight out of the song. Spun em together to chop em fine, and then shallot, garlic, lemon zest, Dijon, and avocado oil. It processed into a sort of a paste. Wow, did the house ever smell good.
I worked my hand under the turkey’s skin to loosen it from the meat of the breasts and the legs and thighs. (I like that thought, too.) The skin stretched just fine after a night in the fridge “drying out.” Then I worked that herb paste in under the skin. You’ve never had a tastier turkey.
Good old fluffy tatoes and gravy and dressing; but Sondra’s dressing won the blue ribbon, out-shining my awesome turkey.
Get this: cornbread and chorizo sausage. Yep. Magnificent. First brown the sausage, of course. Sautée onion and celery, of course. Then diced apple, chopped pecans, crasins, sage, thyme, chives, melted butter, and chicken stock. It gets wet. Into a 9×13 in the oven for 45 minutes and it becomes ambrosial. Ambrosial. Jaw-dropping.
I’m going to work it into breakfast with eggs somehow tomorrow morning. And I’m gonna go have some more right now, before I drool on my happy tummy.
Talkin Thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving evening, turkeys. ☺