Every year, about this time, I pull out my soapbox and start preaching about the benefits and deliciousness of crispy turkey skin by way of the Spatchcocked-Turkey recipe from my favorite scientific chef, “JKLA”. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt from Serious Eats will rock your Thanksgiving world with this recipe, which you will love! It will save you considerable time and I feel that it is a better way to handle multiple birds if your crowd is especially large, this year. You can find his recipe here. With multiple birds, you can have a Norman Rockwell-looking classic turkey and another , spatchcocked one for your crowd to ooh and ahh over.
Now for another idea. Have you considered moving from a wet brine to a dry brine? What you’re not brining your turkey with a web brine? That’s understandable as it is tough to handle without a pro walk-in cooler or a large cooler with loads of ice and multiple days of maintaining a safe cold temperature for the turkey. So, how about trying a dry brine? It is a lot easier and the crisp skin objective is further enhanced by avoiding a wet brine.
In order to tackle a dry brine you must first create an herbal paste with these ingredients:
Dry Brining Fresh Herbal Paste
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves finely chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh sage leaves finely chopped
2 Tsp. fresh rosemary leaves finely chopped
2 Tsp. finely ground white pepper
2 Tsp. lemon zest using a micro-plane
2 Tsp. orange zest using a micro-plane
2 Bay leaves for decoration (Hold these for insertion under the turkey skin, not a part of the fresh herbal paste.)
2 Tbsp. Kosher salt
Now comes the hard part. Follow JKLA’s spatchcocked-turkey recipe to spatchcock your turkey. Then, loosen the turkey skin with your fingers and without any rings on. Make sure to loosen the turkey skin as far as you can and even onto the turkey’s drumstick legs. Next, insert the herbal paste under the turkey skin using a little more olive oil if needed. Once you have completed the herbal paste insertion, you can now rub the entire turkey with the Kosher salt making sure to cover all sides. Lastly, insert the two sage leaves one on each side of the turkey breast as a decoration.
Place the turkey in your refrigerator and let rest uncovered overnight. This will help firm up the skin and impart a lot more flavor as the fresh herb dry brine works it’s magic.