| Level: | Advanced |
| Total: | 1 day 5 hr 40 min |
| Prep: | 40 min |
| Inactive: | 1 day 1 hr |
| Cook: | 4 hr |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- One 20- to 22-pound organic turkey
- 2 carrots
- 2 onions
- 3 stalks celery
- 4 Granny Smith apples
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 1 bunch fresh rosemary
- 2 1/2 cups cold duck fat
- 1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
- 3 fresh bay leaves, chopped
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Separate the turkey legs from the breast, keeping the backbone intact and the legs still attached in the center. Cut the remaining backbone piece from the breast and save (use it in the roasting pan when you cook the turkey). Peel the carrots and onions and roughly chop. Roughly chop the celery. Cut the apples in quarters and remove the cores. Place 1/3 of the vegetables and apples in a container large enough to accommodate the turkey with the vegetables and apples. Season the turkey inside and out with salt and pepper. Rub the cider vinegar into the turkey. Place the breast into the container and top with 1/3 of the vegetables and apples. Add the legs and top with the remaining vegetables and apples. Place in the refrigerator and let marinate overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the turkey from the refrigerator 1 hour before cooking so the turkey can come to room temperature. Place the vegetables and apples into the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the legs, skin side up, on top of the vegetables, being sure there is room to add the breast later. Put the legs in the oven to cook first, about 1 hour 45 minutes.
- While the legs are cooking, make the Herb Compound Duck Fat. Place the cold duck fat in the bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Add all the chopped herbs and lemon zest. Add the salt and pepper and mix for 1 minute until herbs are evenly dispersed. Place the duck fat-herb mixture in a thick line along the long side of an 18-inch long piece of plastic wrap. Roll into a tube, twist the ends until tight, and then place in the refrigerator to set but not get hard, 30 to 40 minutes.
- Slide your hand underneath the skin on top of the turkey breast to separate the skin from the breast. Cut one of the ends off the duck fat tube. Squeeze half of the mixture under the skin on top of one of the breasts and the remaining onto the other breast.
- After the legs have cooked, place the thyme and rosemary in the roasting pan. Place the breast on top of the herbs. Roast until both the legs and breast reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 2 hours and 30 minutes longer. Once you remove the bird from the oven, let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting it. Now dig in and have a great day.
Reviews
Best one I have ever had! This will be my turkey when I cook it.
This recipe makes wonderful, super moist white and dark turkey meat!
I had to use the duck fat/herb mixture before it was cold enough to squeeze elegantly under the breast skin. Like McMotoYama, I had duck fat escaping from the top of the breast and slathered all over my hands. But the bird still ended up bronzed and beautiful.
FYI–The recipe does produce juice to make gravy. But I was glad I made turkey broth a day earlier with extra turkey parts, vegs etc. that I bought for that purpose. I added the homemade broth to the pan juices to make the gravy.
I used that gravy in my dressing and in a gravy boat and still had plenty to use for leftovers. Also, the gravy from the recipe was sweeter than I prefer because of the apples, so I was glad to mix it with the broth I made that had no apples in it. The resulting gravy was still sweet, but not like it would have been.
This recipe makes the juiciest bird with the crispiest skin you’ve ever seen!
Delicious!!!
This is the best turkey I have ever had. I used this recipe last year and don’t plan to cook my turkey any other way EVER!!!! I told one of my friends about this recipe and she refused to use it because she likes the drama of the whole bird being presented at the table. I’m like looks or taste? I’m going for taste every time!!!!
AMAZING! This was perfection. I did have a bit of trouble butchering as the video was not super instructive on that part. Also, it never said what to do with the neck and backbone. Just said “set it aside and we’ll use that later” but never said what to do with it. Anyway, the turkey turned out so amazing. I had to order the Duck Fat from Amazon. It was shipped from a company in Canada. Was pretty inexpensive and I will use it with other things too!
Excellent recipe. For the past few years I have been using Alton’s recipe (which is also great), but wanted to try something new. After seeing this on TV I worked from memory of what I saw and the recipe. A few changes I made were to use mostly butter (with some duck fat from a roast I made the week before) and I used Alton’s brine recipe because I didnt see any details in the recipe for what to use and didnt have the video to rewatch.
Hmm… have to limit this to 1000 chars… see my blog for what I did with the gravy…
http://kanedijkman.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/trying-a-new-turkey-recipe/
For years, I have made Alton Brown’s turkey, I didn’t think it could be beat.
This turkey is better. It came out amazing. I used butter instead of duck fat.The only thing I changed was the vinegar. I used Sherry vinegar because I had it already.
Crispy skin, great flavor. I was so worried it wouldn’t be as good as a brined turkey.
This was truly amazing. I had a 15lb bird. Cooked legs for one hour and then added the breast. It took about two hours longer.I did add a little butter under the leg meat too.
This will be my turkey recipe now! Thanks Chris :
This turkey is better. It came out amazing. I used butter instead of duck fat.The only thing I changed was the vinegar. I used Sherry vinegar because I had it already.
Crispy skin, great flavor. I was so worried it wouldn’t be as good as a brined turkey.
This was truly amazing. I had a 15lb bird. Cooked legs for one hour and then added the breast. It took about two hours longer.I did add a little butter under the leg meat too.
This will be my turkey recipe now! Thanks Chris :
@McMotoYama – Thanks for the review! I was just wondering to what you adjusted the cooking times to? We are using a 13lb turkey as well. Since duck fat is almost impossible to find, I am going to use an herbed butter. Guess we’ll see how it all turns out.
Get ready for a beautiful presentation. When this comes out of the oven, you’ll impress your guests with an herbed bronze bird surrounded by roasted vegetables, and apples. The breast meat will be tender and moist. Make sure your herbed duck fat is solidified before squeezing it into the bird. Our attempt at it made a mess. We all laughed about how it was good hand moisturizer and, in the end, the bird had plenty of duck fat in it. Finding duck fat where I live was a challenge. A local restaurant ordered some for me. We used a 13 lb. turkey and adjusted the cooking times.