Holiday Turkey Recipes

There almost as many ways to prepare turkey as there are turkeys who try to cook them.

I haven't deep fried a turkey but I've oven-roasted, grilled (with and without a rotisserie), and smoked turkeys.

I prefer smoking for small turkeys and oven roasting for large turkeys.

I have found that left-over smoked turkey is juicer and better tasting than roasted turkey, but I don't know why.

I believe that overcooking a turkey is the most common mistake. If you cook a turkey to the recommended 180 degrees Fahrenheit in the breast, you have overcooked it and the meat will be dry, dry, dry.

I prefer injecting liquid over brining.

My injection liquid recipe follows.

TURKEY INJECTION LIQUID

Ingredients
• ½ cup Apple juice
• ½ cup Chicken Stock
• ¼ cup garlic infused olive oil ( I use Renaldo’s Organic Garlic Gold Oil)
• 1 Tbl lemon juice
• 1 Tbl chicken (or other) rub

Directions

Combine ingredients and whisk briskly to blend the oil with the juice and stock.

The night before cooking, inject the liquid into the turkey at 1 inch intervals in breasts, thighs, and legs. Cover and refrigerate.

Smoking a turkey

Many turkey smoking recipes suggest using a butterball or rubbing butter inside the skin after separating it from the meat. Baloney! Too many smokers are fat, beer-bellied, suspender-wearing, tobacco smoking gents who don't give a damn about what they eat or drink except that it be alcoholic, fatty, fried, or sweet, or some combination thereof. You don't need butter to smoke a tasty bird!

Select a hormone-free fresh hen between 10 and 13 pounds for smoking.

Use the injection liquid recipe the night before smoking.

Just before smoking, spray the bird with high-heat canola oil and sprinkle the turkey with the same rub you used in the injection liquid, and insert a few apple slices in the cavity.

Use a small amount of apple and hickory chunks for the smoke. Be careful not to over-smoke the turkey because the skin may get an awful tasting bark.

Smoke at a temperature of 225 degrees Fahrenheit until the breast reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, spraying the bird with apple juice every hour or so.

As always, let the turkey sit for awhile covered with aluminum foil.

Oven Roast Turkey

Only cook a fresh, hormone-free bird, preferably a hen.

Use the injection recipe and procedure the night before roasting.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stuff the bird with your favorite stuffing or insert a few a apple quarters.

Lightly spray the entire bird with Spectrum high heat canola oil.

Place the turkey in an aluminum foil pan, breast side up.

Cover the entire top of the turkey with two or three layers of cheese cloth, then brush or spray the cheesecloth with canola oil.

Place in oven and reduce heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

After two hours, using either canola oil (early-on) or the juices collecting in the pan (later), baste the turkey soaking all the cheesecloth.

Note: you can use the giblets and neck to create a basting liquid and as part of the gravy, if you make it. To do so, place the giblets and neck in a medium sized pot, fill the pot halfway with water. Bring the pot to a boil for 30 minutes skimming off the floating debris.

Remove the turkey when the breast meat reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit and let sit covered for about 1/2 hour.