Gluten-Free Holiday Recipes: Perfect Roasted Turkey

Before:

After:

This year we hosted our first Thanksgiving. For hosting my first holiday dinner, I was pretty calm except for the anxiety I had over the turkey. The night before I felt like I was going to have a heart attack because I was so worried on how it would turn out!  I had never made a brine before and was worried the turkey would have no flavoring. I know how to cook, I’m not sure why I was panicking so much.

The Food Network always airs many holiday cooking shows in November and December so I made sure to Tivo some of my favorites. Alton Brown, the host of Good Eats hosted a show on how to brine a turkey using this recipe: Good Eats Roast Turkey. I used his recipe along with my own tweaks and the turkey turned out amazing. It was moist and flavorful. My family usually cooks a turkey on Christmas day, so for you guys out there that do the same– I highly recommend this brine recipe. It is so easy!

Ingredients: (With my tweaks)

1 14-16 lb. frozen young turkey

1 five gallon bucket

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 gallon chicken or turkey stock

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 1/2 teaspoons all-spice berries

6 pieces candied ginger or I used 6 ginger chews, cut in half

1 gallon heavily iced water

1 head garlic, remove cloves and smash the garlic cloves. There is no need to mince the cloves.

For aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 teaspoon cinnamon, or 1 cinnamon stick

1 cup water

6 sage leaves, remove from stems and rough chop

3 sprigs of thyme, remove from stems

5 sprigs of rosemary, remove from stems and rough chop

Canola oil

Spices on top of turkey:

2 T Garlic powder, sprinkled over bird

Salt, sprinkled liberally over the bird

Pepper

1 teaspoon Cayenne, sprinkled over bird

Instructions:

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator

Combine the chicken stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, garlic and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to make sure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels. Top with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the thyme,  rosemary and sage. Coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Instructions for original recipe at Food Network.

ENJOY!