Transcription
This video is sponsored by Tyer. What's up, dude? Let me start this video with a bit of a reality check. It's not the turkey that sucks. It's the way that you've been cooking it. In this video, I'm going to show you how to make mouthwatering, juicy turkey all in under 2 hours. I'll also walk you through my most popular recipe of all time. A simple 5-minute rosemary salt recipe that's been made by millions of people all around the world. And if that wasn't enough, we're finishing with a gravy. So good, so delicious, so delectable, you might just drink it. NOW, LET'S GO.
NOW, the very first thing we have to do is break down this turkey. And it only takes about 10 minutes or less, depending [music] on your skill level. But if you do that, you will save yourself hours of stress on Thanksgiving Day. It is absolutely worth it. So, right here, I have a 15lb thawed turkey. I'll show you how to do this. To start, just remove the neck that's inside the turkey. We're going to be using this to make our stock and in turn make our gravy. It's an important piece of the puzzle. You could also use the organs here that come with the turkey in the gravy if you want. I leave them on the side. My wife likes to cook them and eat them up. As far as tools go, I'm just using a really sharp slicer knife. You could use a boner boner. As far as tools go, I'm just using a really sharp slicer knife here. You could use a bon knife as well. Both will work. And even more important, a dry microfiber towel because this enables me to grab this bird without having everything slip around. And that's what can be dangerous. So, this is really kind of important. I'll put a link to the ones I buy on Amazon if you don't have them.
And what we're going to do here is turn the bird up on its side. And we're going to start by removing these wings. And so, I'll just lift that wing up, tension it a little bit, and then I'll take my knife and I'll just draw a circle like all the way around that wing. And what you should really keep in mind as you're doing this is it's like 50% knife work, 50% you just using your hands, right? The knife is part of it, but it's really only half. Because what we do is we take that wing and I'm going to push it that way. Right? There's the top of the bird. So, I'm just snapping it down like that, right? Exposing this joint. So, as I snap that, you see the joint get exposed right there. They're really bright and white. And all we're doing is just slicing under that joint. It really is that simple. Nice and easy. I want to keep everything nice and dry. I'm going to flip the bird over. We're just going to pull up the other wing and do the exact same thing. And as you can see, the wing extends all the way here. You're seeing it from a different angle now. You don't want to slice through like right here. You want to catch that area right there and then all the way around. And again, from here, we just bring it up. There we go. You'll hear it snap like that and slice through.
Now, again, with the bird on its side, its back is facing you. This is the best angle for you to see the next cup because we're going to remove these legs. And you want to go deep here, right? You don't want to slice through here. It'll be slicing right through the thigh. So, we're going to go deep around. Make that slice right through here. Pull it around the other side. And then once you've sliced through as much as you can with your knife again, knife down. It's a lot of hand work. We open it up. And we're just going to like literally open up that thigh just like you would open your thigh. The thighs are actually a lot easier than the wings because you can now see the joint here and the joint here. You see that they've been separated and all we're going to do is run our knife through the middle of those joints. It really is that easy. One leg off. Now we'll flip her around and I'll show you from the other side this time what that looks like. So again, I'm just grabbing the leg right there. And from this side, we're going to slice like this. You can do it both ways. And just remember to carve it down the back, trying to remove that oyster along with it. And from there, we're just going to open it up. You're seeing that? See the joint just popped out? And we'll just take our knife and guide it through.
And now what we're left with here is just the breast. And we need to get these out. But it's going to be extremely hard and dangerous to do that with the spine still in cuz it just falls over. So what I like to do is just stand this up. And I'm going to hold here. And I'm just going to [music] begin slicing down a bit here. The best thing you could use here is like a a cleaver. You just don't want to destroy your knife, but it really doesn't take a lot of work. Again, it's with the hands, right? So, I'm just going to push like that, right? You hear it breaking. And we can basically just probably trying to rip it out. Might need a few little more slicing, but there it goes. Cut the SKIN HERE. [screaming and groaning] THIS is so barbaric, huh? And there's your spine. Save it all. This is going to make the best turkey stock and therefore gravy of all time. And I think it's also a good idea to sort of, it's a little bit messy, but just twist that spine. Might have to make one little slice here just to get it into a couple more pieces. It just makes more surface area, therefore more browning, therefore better flavor on your stock.
And what we're left with here is now just the breast. But there's one more thing we need to do, which is to remove this wishbone that is sitting right in here. Because if you try to slice out that breast right now, your knife is going to catch on that wishbone. So to get a really clean slice, it's best to take it out. And so to locate that wishbone, we're just going to take that little top portion of skin where the giblets were. And now you can see this little Vshape right here. The wishbone is just right there. If you run your finger along it, you'll just feel this big wishbone. So what I'm going to do is take my knife here and just slice along either side of this bone like [music] so. And at the top or well bottom of the V as well. Takes a little bit of work and finessing it. If you can get it out in one piece, you've earned mega points. But slicing along, I'm going to get a little bit of a smaller knife cuz the hardest part is actually the very top of it right here. [music] Tends to just get caught on there in a little ligament or something. And as you can see, once I freed that top bit, it should come out. Just a little stuck here on the end. We'll just cut either side on the end here. And there's our little wishbone out. Definitely save it for the stock. Flip that skin back. And then you can cut off any excess skin if you need to, but you do want it wrapping around the breast just to keep it nice and moist.
And now what you're left with here is the crown, right? A lot of restaurants will actually cook this whole thing because it's encased in [music] skin or almost. So you do have that option of leaving this hole and cooking it, which would be really nice and probably give you peak tenderness. But since we're going for speed, we're going to cut out the breasts. And so all we're going to do is just use our fingers, locate that middle bone there. And then I just want to go gently on one side of it. Nice long strokes. Just trying to stay as close to the bone on the middle as I can. So, I'm just guiding my knife down, and it really just wants to come out. Slice through. Just when you're doing this, just make sure you're staying as close to this as possible and away from this. You don't want all this meat stuck over there. So, I'm just going slowly. And there she goes. Easy as that. I'm pretty happy with that job. Right. There's a tiny little layer of meat left on, but that's it. So, same thing other side. Nice long strokes when you do this. There's our other breast. And there's your whole turkey pieced up. You have [music] two wings, two legs, and two breasts. Simple as that. And then on another tray, I have the carcass, I have the neck, and any other [music] scraps that were made when I was piecing out the turkey. And with this method, you can do it all on Thanksgiving Day if you like, but you could also do this 2 days before easily, which gives you that time to make your stock, make your gravy, and just take all the pressure off of Thanksgiving Day. I highly recommend you do do it prior to Thanksgiving just to make that day more fun. But if you want to do this on the same day too, you absolutely can. Just start a little bit earlier.
Now, let it be known if you want to cook this turkey right now. Season it up however you want and just jam it in the oven. Absolutely, you can do that. However, I've done that in all my previous turkey videos and it is absolutely killer. It's amazing. That's why it's beautiful. However, if you're making it ahead of time, you might as well take all your turkey, put it on a sheet pan, lined with a wire rack, and stick it in the fridge overnight till the next day when you want to cook it. And what that's going to do is just simply dry out that skin. Drier skin equals crispier skin, more even cook, more golden brown color. And we love all those things. And this technique is just one of many things you can do to make your Thanksgiving more stress-free. And I think it goes without saying that getting that turkey right and having the meat just perfectly done is one of the biggest hurdles you have on a Thanksgiving table. And when it comes to nailing that task, precise temperature control is the name of the game. And that's why I'm using the Typher Sync Gold wireless thermometer. Tyer is the sponsor of today's video. And I've been using their digital wireless thermometers to make my turkey for the last 3 years now with excellent results. Because when it comes to holiday cooking, removing as much stress as possible from that situation is really what I'm after. You can easily set your target temperature right on the screen, go about your day, and it'll alert you the moment your meat hits perfection. Thanks to the dual probes, I can cook breasts and thighs to different temperatures at the same time. And each probe has six sensors, one for ambient temperature and five internal ones for incredibly accurate readings. And there's no need to stay tethered to your phone because you can use the smart base for easy control. Plus, there are no more lost connections, so you can be up to 3,000 ft away and still have a signal. And it's not just for turkey, my friends. I also use this for roast chicken, prime rib, brisket, and a whole lot more. At the end of the day, the results speak for themselves because I just know my last three turkeys, the last three years have been absolute perfection. And right now, with their Black Friday lowest price of the year, you can get an extra 15% off by clicking the link down in [music] the description and using code sunnyold at checkout. Thank you, Tyer, for sponsoring this video. Now, back to the recipe.
Moving on. Just make sure to dry off your turkey scraps with some paper towel before this next step. And so, all I'm going to do with my carcass and scraps here is just sprinkle them with a little bit of oil. I don't know why I said sprinkle, drizzle, a little oil. And I'll just hit them with a little touch of salt as well. We don't need a lot of seasoning because we're going to be seasoning this all up later, but I just like doing a little. I'll just make sure they're nicely coated with the oil here. And we'll jam them in a 400° Fahrenheit oven. That's 205 C. And while those bones roast in the oven, I'm going to show you how to take two yellow onions and turn them into like serious flavor bombs for our stock. And all we're going to do with these is just take off the tail as well as the top, the root end, and then just slice in half, remove the peels, set a large sauté pan over high heat, let it really heat up for about 3 minutes before adding a little bit of neutral oil, and then placing in those onions cut side down. And when they hit that pan, we're going to want to hear a strong sizzle. And what we're trying to do here is blacken these onions. When onions are burnt, they have the best flavor. And adding that to your turkey stock is going to make it so deep, so rich, and so delicious. And I roasted the bones for 1 hour total. Except after 30 minutes, I took them out of the oven and then flipped them over to a new side so we could get some more browning. At the end of the day here, we're just trying to maximize on flavor. So the flip is definitely a good move. All you got to do now is put all your bones in a big stock pot and then take some boiling water and delaze that sheet pan that the bones were cooking on. All that golden brown stuff stuck to the bottom is called fond and it is literally a flavor packet waiting to be unlocked. So it would be such a shame to waste this and just wash it all down the drain. Then just add everything from the sheetpan back to the stock pot and top it off with water.
So after about 6 7 minutes on the stove, I liked the color I had on my onions. Really nice and dark. I know to you it may look burned, but you got to trust me on this. That burned onion flavor is just incredible. Now, as far as vegetables and aromatics in the turkey stock, I do carrots, I do those burnt onions, I do thyme, I do peppercorns and a little bit of bay leaf. I don't put celery. I don't put garlic. I just feel like those flavors take over too much in broth. I like them in other preparations, just not in a stock like this. But, of course, it'll be good no matter what [music] you do. But that's how I do it if you want to know. And all I'm going to do is keep this on a low simmer. Just a little gentle bubbling around the edges and let it go for a couple hours. And for this turkey stock and for any stock in general, it's very, very, very lightly seasoned. I don't know if I'm going to take this, reduce it, make a sauce. I'm making gravy with it. It's going to get other salty ingredients. So, you want to keep your stock lightly salted because you don't know what you're going to do with it. And if it's too seasoned to begin with and then you reduce it and add more salty stuff, you're just going to ruin it. So, lightly salted really is the way to go. Just makes a lot of sense. And after two and a half hours of a nice gentle simmer, your turkey stock should be complete. Just run it through a strainer and then we can get started on the gravy right away.
And to do that, the first thing we need to do is just build a r. And it's extremely simple. Here's how you do it. We just have a little pot here over medium low heat. I'm adding unsalted butter. And we're just going to melt that down. Once that's melted, we're going to add about equal weight in flour, but the full recipe for this gravy and r will be in the description. And just give it a quick mix to form this sort of wet sand type of consistency. And keeping that heat on medium low or even a little lower than that, we're going to just slowly let this rue cook off, stirring it pretty frequently. And let me tell you something, friends, there are many different types of rue, right? There are some that you cook for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, like a blonde r. There are special casian rs that you cook for like an hour. That's what you use to make gumbo. And those are like almost black. So after about 7 or 8 minutes, you can see it's a de golden brown color here. I'm going to take it a little bit further to match the color of my stock, but it's almost there. And after about 10 or 12 minutes of cooking, I was happy with the color of my ruse, so I just remove that into a little bowl. Then I'm going to take about six cups of my turkey stock. It's about half of it, maybe a little less than half. And we're going to bring that up to a simmer. In the past, I would always just build the rue in this pan and then add the stock to that little by little and whisk it in. But I recently discovered a new technique where you just drop your R into your hot liquid, whether it be for bashamel or for a gravy like [music] this. And you actually end up with a much smoother final product because when you're adding it little by little, all that stuff is caking along the sides and then hitting that dry heat and then getting mixed back in. And not only does this method avoid all of that, but it's also extremely easy. So, it's a win-win. And now to reveal my secret family ingredient that I swear to you makes the best gravy of all time. It's Marmite, which is a yeast extract. It's like this black goopy thick paste that is just kind of weird tasting on its own, but when you use it as a flavor in a sauce like this, it's actually unbelievable. Trust me on this Marmite. Just read the comments. You'll see people who love this stuff in their [music] gravy. And once my liquid is simmering, I'm just going to start adding my root. Quite a lot of it. I'm going to do almost all, but I'll reserve a little in case it gets too thick for some reason. But I've tested this out, so should be fine. And then we'll just whisk. Now, whenever you're working with any kind of rue in a liquid, you need to let the liquid come back to a simmer or a boil before you'll see how thick it got from the amount of R you added. So, give it some time here. Just give it a good whisk. Can already tell it's going to take the rest of it. In it goes. Oh, there we go. She's really starting to thicken up now. You can always test your consistency by just getting it on a spoon. Draw a line through the back. You know, some people like it thicker, some people like it thinner. I'm definitely on the thinner side. Last little bit of R. So, the recipe that's in the description is actually just perfect. And here we go with our Marmite, my friends. I do about two teaspoons for this batch of gravy. It's really strong stuff. You don't need a lot. And it'll also sort of darken [music] your gravy, which is awesome. And that Marmite also has salt, so we got to taste for seasoning after we add it. Starting with Sergeant Gilbert reporting for duty. That's just black pepper. And I like to do quite a lot. I just like black pepper in the gravy. If you don't or you want to put less, do less. I do about two teaspoons or maybe a teaspoon and a half kind of thing. Work it in. I just taste it for seasoning. It's going to need some salt as our broth was lightly salted. In it goes. And definitely let it cook for a few minutes before you taste it again for seasoning. So that salt really has time to dissolve. Absolutely loving the way this looks. Just need one more final taste for seasoning. Dude, that is the gravy recipe. Please. It's a gift from my family to yours. Don't change don't change it. If I If my family gave you a painting we treasured for hundreds of years as a gift, you wouldn't draw a mustache on it, right? It's the same thing. Does that make sense? And so the recipe in the description is going to get you gravy of this kind of consistency, which for me, I really love. It's not too thick, it's not too thin. [music] That is just absolutely perfect.
Now, for probably the most important part of this entire video, I'm going to show you how to make a homemade seasoning that will not just change your Thanksgiving game forever, but will change your whole cooking game forever. This stuff is legit. And if you don't believe me, just go read the comments under this video from people who put it on their turkey last year, and they will tell you. All right, the the consensus is in. It is is darn fine. So, I'm starting with a whole bunch of kosher salt going into a food processor. This whole process takes literally 5 minutes or less, which is also a great part about this recipe. It's extremely easy. And then all we need to do is strip a bunch of fresh rosemary into the salt. Simple as that. Next, we're taking a bunch of fresh sage leaves and just picking those leaves off the stem. Those go in there along with the rosemary. Couple cloves of fresh garlic and the zest of one whole lemon. We'll pop a lid on that and blend it up for about a minute. But definitely do some pulses along the way so it mixes evenly. And trust me, when you pop this lid off, I mean, it's just like filling the room with this smell of the holidays. This for me is the flavor of the holidays. And it's not just good on turkey. It's good on beef, chicken, pork, lamb. I've had it on salmon, all kinds of root vegetables. People put it on popcorn, whatever you can think of. Make fkaca with it. That would be amazing. It is the stuff. It will last for literally months in your fridge. Although, I just pop it in a Tupperware container. I try to use it up within 2 or 3 weeks just [music] for that optimal fresh flavor, but it will be good for a long time.
And here's our turkey after sitting in the fridge overnight uncovered. The skin definitely looks different to me. It's less white. You're starting to see the muscle that's underneath now. And if you look at them side by side, you can really see the difference. We should be able to achieve some really great color and browning on this [music] turkey. Okay, my friends, only one thing left to do, and that's cook our turkey. For the last few years, I've been experimenting with [music] different times and temperatures when it comes to how I cook the breasts, as well as the legs and thighs. And I have learned a hell of a lot in those tests. So, here's what I do. So, let's start with our legs and thighs here, as they take the longest. And all I'm going to do here is just hit these with a little touch of neutral oil. That really just helps the seasoning adhere. [music] And now, I'm going to give them a really good dousing with that rosemary salt. I'm going a little heavier than I would like on a steak just because these are big legs. They can take good amount of seasoning, but don't go too crazy. This is salt. I see people getting carried away with the rosemary salt all the time. Just use it [music] like salt. And there we are. And I'm going to take my trusted Typherink Gold. Take out probe number one. Set my target temp to 205° F. And then simply just push it into the deepest part of your turkey thigh. And for these legs, I've tested temperatures anywhere from 180 all the way up to 205. And we found that 205 just gives you that melt in your mouth almost like barbecue like texture, which is just really good. For some reason you don't like that texture and you want them a little firmer, go for like at least 190, I would say. And then straight into a 400°ree oven. Although if you're using convection, meaning there's a fan in your oven, probably do about 350. One vage, my friends.
Now for our breasts here, same exact thing. We're just going to hit them with a little neutral oil and then give them a really good season with our rosemary salt. Again, these are big pieces of meat, so you can go a little heavier than normal. I'm also just doing the wings on the same sheet pan as the breasts, cuz actually they'll probably be done right around the same time. A douse of the salt. And for the breast, I set my target temp to 145° F. It will carry up much more than that, but that has just been the most perfect, juicy, tender turkey breast I've ever had. And I've tried temperatures all the way from 145 to like 160. And off they go into the oven along with the thighs and the legs. And the breasts were done after just 45 minutes in the oven. They had hit their internal temp of 145. So I pulled them out and put them onto a sheetpan lined with a wire rack to rest. And you may notice at this stage these breasts were actually a little pale that didn't actually have a deep golden brown color. But I'm going to show you a really great pro trick you can use to recrisp that skin right before serving. You may have also noticed when you pull turkey or chicken out of the oven, the skin feels crispy, like really crispy. But you wait 10 minutes and all that steam that's trying to escape from the inside is hitting that skin from the bottom and just basically making it soggy. But the trick I'm about to teach you will fix that. So after these breasts have had a good 30 minute rest at least, what I'm going to do is just bring a large sauté pan up to mediumigh heat, hit it with a little neutral oil, and just sear that skin for about a minute or 90 seconds just to recrisp it. It will go really quick because it's already cooked. And because it's already rested and you've just got the heat on the skin with this technique, you can just slice and serve right away. There's no need to rerest after this. The legs and thighs took double time, so an hour and a half or 90 minutes to reach their target temp. Treat them just like the breasts here. Get them onto a sheet pan line with a rack and let them rest. And that's it. Job done.
Upon slicing into this breast, you can really see like the juice is just running out. That was pulled at 145. It is absolutely cooked through and cooked perfectly. The legs and thighs, on the other hand, have a more sort of barbecue sort of feel, right? Like you cook brisket to 205. It's just falling apart. It's just a much softer mouth feel. Let's plate it up. Hit it with a just comical amount of gravy and then give it a taste with Marcus. What should we try first? Rest. This is little extra sauce. It's a perfect bite of food. It's all I ever wanted in life. People who don't like turkey can shut up. >> That's just as tender as any chicken breast I've ever had. I mean, dude, someone comes to your house for Thanksgiving. You're like, "Here you go. Got it done in 2 hours." You're going to blow their mind. And then you're going to tell them to subscribe to our channel. And you're going to subscribe, too. >> I've literally done this like seven times. I've had people who have always hated turkey say, "This is the best turkey I've ever had, and I've actually liked turkey." So, just do [music] it this way. >> There you go. All these years, us Americans have been over complicating this turkey. Oh, brine. And then I And I used to do it, too. I'm going to brine it and air dry it. I'm going to stuff butter and orange peels under the skin and I'm going to sprinkle it with coriander and then spin it around in my fridge so it air dries while it's 360 rotating. And then I'm going to have a monk blessed and then you know what I mean? Like it's just so overkill. All you had to do was cook it to 145. That that's literally it. And season it well and make some baller gravy. Ready for some thigh? Marcus sauce. Here's the thigh. Different experience in the breast cuz like it's more braise feeling, you know, like slowcooked that kind of texture. How was that bite? >> I'm a little vat of gravy next to you. >> I don't know what else to say but like this is just making me happy right now. You know, I just feel good. I feel better than I didn't when I wasn't eating it. Now that I've eaten it, feel like a good boy. A happy little boy. Good boy with a big head. >> Turkey slaps. And if you disagree, you're wrong. Make it. >> Make it. Thanks for watching today, my friends. I sincerely hope this video makes your Thanksgiving just a little bit easier and a little bit more tasty. If it does that, then I have done my job. You know, one of my favorite comment [music] sections of all time is the turkey video from 3 years ago because I can really just see how many people it actually helped and that just makes me feel good. Just straight up. I love that it really, really helped. If you like written recipes, definitely check out my Master in the Making ebook. It's linked down in the description. It has 55 of my personal favorite recipes from this channel, and they are all just winners. And if you don't yet have all your Thanksgiving sides chosen out, here are two more of my personal favorites. Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. And until NEXT TIME, YOU KNOW I love you in a moment.