Thanksgiving Gratitude and a 24-Hour Turkey
Thanksgiving is so great. It’s about gratitude, not attitude. It’s about cooking, eating, and gathering with the friends and family I love.
I really enjoy helping home cooks make their holiday meal a stress-free event. When it comes to the turkey on Thanksgiving, there is a lot of lore, a lot of myth, debate, mysticism--a legend of the turkey and the myriad ways to cook it. Do you brine or not, do you cover it with bacon or do you cover it with cheesecloth, do you tent it, do you start low or do you start high? The answer is that all of these are correct, and fine, which just makes it even more confusing.
I remember when I did radio, I had a show called Food Talk on WOR, and I did two live Thanksgiving shows, from 5 AM until about 1 PM, just taking calls all morning to help home cooks with their dilemmas. It got me thinking: let me come up with the perfect version of a brined, marinated, roasted turkey with gravy and vegetables all in one.
So I set out to bring together the perfect combination of the brined and roasted turkey where the brine becomes the gravy, the vegetables are part of the marinade, the brine and marinade are one in same, and everything gets used, so there isn’t this separate brining process, roasting process, gravy process, and vegetable process. I combined them into one master recipe, and that became my 24-hour Turkey.
Rocco’s 24-Hour Turkey
From Rocco Gets Real
Ingredients:
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
3 tablespoons sugar
2 onions, cut into medium chunks
15 garlic cloves, peeled
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into medium chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into medium chunks
2 white turnips, peeled and cut into medium chunks
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh sage, leaves roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh rosemary, leaves roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves roughly chopped
2 to 3 bay leaves
2/3 cup Bertolli® extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
1 13-pound turkey (thawed, if frozen), giblet bag and neck removed and reserved
Freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons cornstarch
Directions:
1. In an extra-large mixing bowl (about 8 quarts), combine broth, wine, the 1 tablespoon salt, peppercorns, sugar, onions, garlic, parsnip, carrots, turnips, fresh herbs, and bay leaves.
2. Put turkey in a clean, unscented garbage bag; pour marinade over. Twist bag and seal with an extra-large twist tie or tie with twine. Place in a very large bowl and refrigerate for about 18 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 200ºF. Remove turkey from marinade. Remove vegetables from marinade, reserving each separately. In a large saucepan combine marinade, giblets, and neck. Simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Strain, reserving broth. (You should have 4 to 5 cups of broth.)
4. Toss vegetables with the 2/3 cup olive oil and spread in the bottom of a large, heavy, flameproof roasting pan. Place turkey on a roasting rack on top of vegetables. Season turkey with salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast for 3 1/2 hours, rotating pan every hour. Turn oven to 425ºF. Brush turkey with olive oil; roast for another 45 to 55 minutes, or until skin is golden brown and meat is just cooked through.
5. Remove turkey from the pan and place on a carving board or serving platter. Cover lightly with foil and let rest for 30 minutes while you make the gravy. (If vegetables aren’t tender, return them to the oven and continue to roast until they are done.)
6. Remove vegetables from roasting pan; cover lightly with foil to keep warm. Pour all but 1 cup of the strained broth into the roasting pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk remaining broth with cornstarch mixture into boiling broth. Cook, whisking, over medium heat until gravy consistency is achieved, about 2 minutes. Strain and season to taste. Return vegetables to gravy.
7. Carve turkey and serve with vegetable gravy.
Makes 20 servings
© Meredith Corporation
on November 18, 2008 at 03:10 PM
Awesome, this is the recipe I have been looking for! I have been searching for days. All the ingredients: the wine, the olive oil and chicken broth, and the seasonings: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (there's a reason it's in the song). It should be both moist and flavorful. I can't wait to try it, I'm so excited.