We're in the thick of it now. It's officially Thanksgiving week, which means my counters and fridge are overflowing with ingredients, ready to tackle the mountain of dishes I plan to cook up this week, including all the necessary ingredients to make and freeze some leftover turkey pot pies.
Despite *Science telling us otherwise, our favorite has continued to be the Alton Brown wet brine. We have made many birds many ways in our past 21 Thanksgivings as a couple, including the pre-brining years, dry brines and wet brines of various ilk, the miserably attempted smoked year (threw the whole thing out it was so bad), the amazing sous vide year, and various combos of whole, pieced, and spatchcocked.
Every year we don't make the Alton bird, we regret it. We go a couple years without it, trying new ways, then do the Alton wet brine and go "yeah, this is the best for us." We experimented the last two years, and had resolved to do the Alton method this year--our first in the new house. But never content to Just Do The Thing Already, I had a thought...Also, I will be spatchcocking again, putting aromatics in a little foil nest under the center of the bird and a ring of stuffing around the outside. This is a method I developed for myself years ago when I discovered spatchcocking of poultry generally, and as well wanted turkey drippings to still flavor the stuffing without the food-borne illness concerns of stuffing a whole bird.
Here's 2020, spatchcocked goodness:
Video of Alton's brine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKr1rByVVCI
Written recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe-1950271
* Kenji throwing down the science that supposedly proves me wrong. But you can't argue with our taste buds, Kenji!! https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-the-truth-about-brining-turkey-thanksgiving
