Now is the time for turkey

Butterflied High Roast Turkey
Originally uploaded by gennabby.

The other day M brought home a turkey that the grocery was practically giving away after the holiday, along with all of the trimmings. We decided to cook the turkey and just save it for weeknight dinners. Also, since we wern't interested in a big presentation, we tried a new cooking method from our favorite cookbook The New Best Recipe (p. 377).

What follows is Matthew's explanation of why we'd go to the trouble of cooking a bird right after the holidays: This recipe, called "Crisp-skin butterflied high-roast turkey" is an attempt to solve the problem that plagues most roasted birds: by the time the thigh is cooked, the breast is so dry it needs to be thoroughly doused in gravy to be edible. This problem can be solved with chicken by roasting it at a high temperature for a shorter amount of time, but a turkey is too big to be thoroughly cooked using this method, unless you flatten it out by butterflying it. As you can see in the picture (sorry, we tasted it before taking the pic), a butterflied turkey is one with the backbone and ribs cut out, and then the breastbone is flattened using a rolling pin (or sledgehammer, whatever you have lying around). This way, the legs shield the thinner part of the breast when they are arranged as shown, and this 12-pound bird was only about 2-3 inches thick all the way around. (Note from G: The process of de-backboning and sledge-hammering the bird is gruesome--I'll never look at my marble rolling pin the same way again--I suggest you attempt this only if you've got brawn and a stomach to match it! Even the sound grossed me out; I went and took a nap--no joke.)

Second, the problem of the drippings causing a lot of smoke (because you're cooking the bird now at 450 degrees) is solved by putting your dressing (sans butter, because the drippings season it) in the roasting pan under the turkey, which is then placed on top of the pan on a broiler grate and brushed with butter. The roasting only takes about 90 minutes, at which time the thigh is up to 175 by the time the breast is at 165, leaving both parts fully cooked and still very moist, not to mention that crispy skin. The other secret is to brine the turkey in about 1/2 cups each of salt and sugar in a large stockpot with about a gallon of water. This step allows the turkey to absorb the seasoning throughout the meat and causes it to retain more moisture during cooking. We left ours to brine overnight in the fridge and it was just right.

Finally, we took the backbone and giblets and roasted them in a pan with some celery, onion and garlic to make a base for the gravy, because, of course, you sacrifice the turkey drippings for the stuffing, which, by the way, turns out at least as good as any in-the-bird stuffing.

So there you have it folks, delicious turkey, stuffing, and gravy in under 2 hours, with the only sacrifice being the presentation (though we think this butterflied bird looks nice). So now that all of these items are on a fire sale at the grocery, it's time to give it a try!