Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cajun Brined Turkey (Thanksgiving)

Every Thanksgiving I always trek back to Virginia for a gathering at either my parents, or grandparents house.  With Jackson's arrival, this year was a little different.  Since babies take so much stuff (everyone says it, but they really do!), we thought it would be a great year to have family come to Birmingham.  So my parents, as well my sister Erin and her boyfriend Erik made the journey to Alabama.

Since Leah and I were hosting Thanksgiving, we were also responsible for putting together the menu for the meal.  We decided to do a few things different from the traditional Thanksgiving menu.  Leah took the sides - including chipotle smashed sweet potatoes, and atomic peas; and I took the turkey.

We've started recording Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction on the Food Network, where he uses every type of grill imaginable (including a Big Green Egg) and really wanted to try a recipe he recently featured for a Cajun Brined Turkey on the Big Green Egg.


All of the ingredients

Bobby's cooking has a large Southwestern influence, and this recipe called for a few harder to find ingredients to go into the handmade Cajun rub.  A trip to the local Mexican grocery store took care of the last ingredients (New Mexican Chiles, Chile de Arbol, etc.).

Apparently there is a difference between chili and chile powder. Chili powder is commonly found in grocery stores and typically includes Cumin, Salt, and Oregano among other things.  Chile powder is pure ground chiles.  Since this recipe called for New Mexican Chile powder, I bought whole  New Mexican Chiles, and used a food processor/coffee grinder to grind them into Chile Powder.  It smelled phenomenal!

New Mexican Chile Powder

Next, I put the turkey into the brine (salt, sugar, and half the spice rub among other things) for 24 hours.

In the brine

After 24 hours in the brine, the turkey was rinsed, patted dry, and left in the fridge to air out and let the skin crisp up/better take the rub.

All rubbed up and ready to go

I set the BGE up with the plate setter for indirect cooking at 350 degrees, using apple chips and chunks for added smoke.  I used a roast rack and a foil drip pan to catch all the runoff for the gravy. (which turned out great, it captured all the flavors of the rub in the gravy).

Two hours later, here's the finished product - 165 degrees in the breast, and 175 degrees in the thigh.

Moneyshot!

As you can tell from the video, it was incredibly juicy!  All of the reviews were great, so I think this will have to be a keeper.  Here's a shot of it carved for the Thanksgiving table.


1 comment:

  1. As an aside... if your wife uses the drippings to make gravy she should remember that if you brine the turkey it's already plenty salty and unless you want the Dead Sea on your mashed potatoes she should lay off adding any salt. Lesson learned!

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