(music with a driving beat)
♫ Gonna smoke me a fatted brisket.
Got my barbecue shoes on
Gonna smoke me a fatted brisket ♫
- Welcome to BBQPitBoys.com
Today, we're gonna be cookin' up Apple Cider Turkey,
and it's real easy to do.
Alright, here I've got about a 13 lb, almost 14 lb, turkey.
It's already been washed, prepped and,
what we're gonna do here is, we're gonna brine this thing.
It's gonna take, oh, maybe 18 to 24 hours brining,
So, we're doing this the day before the cook.
Alright, for this brine, it's real simple.
We're gonna start out with one gallon of apple cider.
Now, you could substitute apple juice,
but you wanna get yourself a gallon of apple cider,
if you can. A real good flavor.
Now, the reason we're gonna do brining, is because,
it adds a lot of moisture to that turkey.
So, you don't wanna hafta eat anymore of
that momma's dried out turkey, right, on that holiday.
You do it like this, and it'll be good every time.
Now, a brine always has salt, and we're putting in 1 cup.
Kosher salt. And here I've got one cup of dark brown sugar.
And, we're putting 'em in this pan. We're gonna heat 'em up,
Because, we wanna dissolve the salt, the sugar,
in this gallon of apple cider.
That only takes a few minutes.
Alright, the salt and the sugar have been dissolved.
Here we're gonna add some flavoring to this brine.
And I've got about eight or 10 cloves of garlic,
and you just wanna crush 'em like this.
Oh, yeah, you gotta have some garlic in the brine.
And it's gonna taste real good.
Now, if you've never had a apple cider turkey before,
you definitely gotta check this out.
This is some good eatin' at The Pit.
Now, here, I've got some ginger,
and I'm gonna slice up maybe a handful of ginger.
Man.
This adds a lotta nice flavor right to this brine.
Alright, garlic and ginger are done.
And here I've got four oranges.
I'm just gonna quarter 'em up.
Simple enough.
Yeah, and it's gonna add a little bit of tang to that brine.
The citrus flavor, oh yeah, it tastes good.
Alright.
Let's put this together.
(mellow county music)
Now, the best way to brine, or easiest way to brine,
is to get yourself a paint bucket, like this,
or maybe you've got an old cooler, or something like that.
Cuz, you're gonna need it to sit,
like I said, 18 to 24 hours.
You're gonna have to keep it cold. Right?
So, here I'm gonna throw this dissolved salt and sugar,
and apple cider into this bucket.
Mmm, yeah.
I'm gonna touch it with a little bit of water,
because we want enough liquid in there to cover the turkey.
I'm gonna add just a little bit of water.
Now, here's a little bit of magic to this brine.
And I'm puttin' about, oh, maybe,
a quarter to a third of a cup of apple cider vinegar.
Alright. Let's throw the garlic and the ginger in there.
And here' I've got some chili pepper flakes. Pepper flakes.
I put in about 2 tablespoons.
Oh, man. This here's gonna taste good.
Now, I'm gonna take the turkey, and drop it in this bucket,
but before we do that, here I've got some savory.
What we have here is sprigs of sage and rosemary and thyme.
Not too much. You don't wanna overdo it.
You don't wanna overpower the taste of this brine.
So, you just use a couple of sprigs
of the sage, rosemary and thyme. Oh, yeah.
And here, we'll drop it in the bucket.
Mmmm.
Of course, we wanna keep this turkey real cold.
So, we're gonna add a bag of ice in there.
This way, it'll marinate in ice overnight.
You don't have to worry about it getting too warm.
Makes sense now, doesn't it.
Oh, Yeah.
Alright.
The brine is done.
Turkey is marinating.
All you have to do now, is put the cover on,
and wait for the morning.
Now, through the miracle of time,
this turkey has been brined.
Oh, yeah. Man.
Just take a look at that.
Man.
It smells good.
Now, what I'm gonna do here is put it in a roasting pan,
and we're gonna dry it off.
You also want to get these sprigs of savory out of here.
You don't need 'em anymore.
You got enough flavoring in there.
Now, you're gonna wipe down the turkey real good.
Get it nice and dry.
Get that brine off of there.
You really don't have to rinse it.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, hear it. Food Police are lookin' for the Pit Boys.
You bet.
Alright, that bird has been dried off.
We're gonna use this roasting pan here.
It's got a grate inside to keep it off the bottom.
And here we've got some of them giblets. Right?
Neck. Liver. Heart. Kidneys.
Just throw it in that pan.
Those drippings will get into that gravy. Right?
Now, before we throw it on the grill,
we're gonna hit this turkey with a little bit of EVOO,
or what they call Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Just use an olive oil or any good veggie oil.
Brush it on like that.
It's gonna help seal that skin.
Yeah.
Now we wanna oil up this side, too.
Now, the technique we're gonna use here,
is we're gonna cook this bird for the first hour,
maybe an hour and 20 minutes, with the breast side down.
And this here is gonna help it cook it right. Nice and even.
Right?
And here I'm adding a bottle of ale.
Choose your favorite ale.
This is going to keep the moisture level up
here on this long cook.
It's gonna take about maybe three and a half hours,
maybe four hours at 300 - 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
You wanna keep the temperatures fairly low
to keep that moisture in there.
Oh, yeah.
Nothin' left to do now but wait.
Alright, about an hour and 20 minutes has gone by,
with the breast side down.
What we wanna do now is, we're gonna be flipping it. Right?
Cook it the rest of the way with the breast side up.
The traditional way.
And, like I said, we do this, so the dark meat,
and the white meat, cook evenly.
And, we'll just flip it.
Yeah.
Smells good enough to eat already.
But no, we got awhile to go yet.
Of course, you wanna baste it
every time you're lookin' at the bird or whatever,
get that turkey baster out and just hit it.
Bringing up all those flavors. Right?
Yeah.
Put the cover on.
Wait a little bit more.
Alright, we're about 2 hours,
2 and a half hours in this here,
and we need to raise the temperature of this grill
a little bit. It's gettin' down below 250.
So, we're just gonna add some more pre lit charcoal to this.
You may or may not have to do that with your grill.
But again we want to keep those temperatures
about 300 to 325.
Of course, we're gonna baste it again.
Oh, yeah.
Now, you do it this way,
your momma's gonna have you do the turkey every holiday.
You watch.
Of course that leaves momma's oven open for all them sides
she's gotta cook. Right? Heh heh hehe.
Alright, put the cover on.
Another hour or so to go.
Alright, during the last hour or so,
what we got here is some melted butter.
We're gonna paint some melted butter on there,
and this here is gonna give us a nice crispy skin,
give it some color. Make it look real pretty.
Mmmm. Oh, yeah.
There's gonna be some good eatin' at The Pit.
Alright. Not long to go.
Just kick back, get a fire going, get ready for supper.
Alright. I say this turkey is done.
Alright. Ohhh. Take a look at that.
Do a little bit more of that ale, beer, turkey drippings,
baste it good like that.
Alright.
Now, of course you wanna check the temperature of this bird,
right here we got a instant read thermometer.
And we're looking for about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Don't wanna cook it much more than that,
because we're gonna let it sit on that cutting board there
where it'll continue to cook.
It won't dry out that turkey.
What we're gonna do here is tent it with some aluminum.
Right? You know all about that.
Let it sit.
Let that moisture inside that turkey re-permeate.
To assure it's nice and moist. Juicy. Tender.
Now with a turkey this size,
you wanna let it rest for about an hour.
I say it's time to eat.
(music with a driving beat)
See that moisture in there?
Oh, gravy.
You hungry, or what?
Of course, as always, we do apologize,
but we're gonna hafta eat some of this
right in front of you.
We call this Pit Master Privilege. Mmmmm.
(music with driving beat)
So, the next time you're looking for a recipe
for your barbeque, you check out BBQPitBoys.com