How to Braise a Turkey for Maximum Flavor and Tenderness

Last Thanksgiving, I decided that I wanted a heritage turkey. Reading about how commercial turkey meat is bland compared to meat from wild and heritage turkeys and how they are selectively bred So, I asked The Fiancé. Prices may be different, but they’re high enough that you should ask your partner’s permission before you buy. She said, “yes” because she rocks.

When Thanksgiving morning arrived and my turkey had not, I worried. I called the farmer to ask when I should expect it. With worry in her voice, she told me that the turkey had already been delivered FOUR DAYS AGO. Like a man on death row, I went to the front desk of my apartment building to see if they had forgotten any packages for me. I knew my fears were confirmed as I opened the office door – I COULD SMELL IT.

The office smelled like spoiled meat. “I got this a few days ago, I must have forgotten to give you a notice,” the office worker said when she found the package. ” In what I think was a steady voice, I said, “That’s my Thanksgiving turkey. ” Without missing a beat she replied, “We were wondering what that smell was. A new turkey would be bought for me by the management office FOUR DAYS AFTER THANKSGIVING as a way to end the comedy2. I told them where they could stuff their turkey.

So, I had to go shopping for turkey on Thanksgiving, but I didn’t have time to thaw and cook a whole turkey before dinner with my future mother-in-law. Clearly, the only thing to do was to make THE BEST TURKEY EVER.

As I looked at the turkey thighs I had chosen to use instead of a whole turkey, I thought about why I would roast a turkey. Due to its enormous size, it’s hard not to dry out some of the meat. And it hit me, the braise. The century old technique for softening tough meats to delectable tender goodness. Did you make the best turkey ever? If so, here is the recipe I used last year. This is also the recipe we will use this year for Thanksgiving because you asked for it.

Those who have followed these posts will not be surprised that I am going to talk about browning…again. I am not going to go into the science of browning again, only emphasize how important it is. If you want to learn more about how browning works scientifically, read this post. Are you ready for the emphasizing? I’m going to use italics just to be extra emphatic. Brace yourself.

It doesn’t bother me about the other things, but I don’t like it when you serve bland food, so let’s brown it. To do this we are going to start by removing the skin from the turkey thighs. The skin won’t help with a braise, and it will keep the meat from browning in the pan.

“But Ben,” you say, “I love the crispy skin. ” Well hold your horse there, Buffalo Bill. We can still make crisp skin. We’ll just put the skin on a baking sheet, sprinkle it with salt, and bake it at 400F for about 30 minutes, or until it’s browned and crispy. There we go, we just made turkey cracklins. Serve that over your finished braise for that crisp brown skin flourish. Now, back to the turkey.

With the skin off, we are going to heat our braiser3 over medium-high heat on the stovetop. Yes, we are using the pan we will eventually braise in. That way, any food that sticks to the pan or turns brown will get into the liquids we use for braising. We sear the turkey thighs on each side until well browned then get them out of the pan. Next we’ll do our vegetables. A quick saute over high heat to develop some browning on the outside. We are not going to eat these vegetables, they are simply providing flavor to our braising liquid. After making a pan full of tasty brown flavors, it’s time for the main event: the braise.

The braising technique is a simple one and absolutely ideal for creating tender meat. In its French form, braising meant cooking something in a pot with a lid (a braiser4) that was surrounded on all sides by hot coals. Now the term means to cook in a closed pot with a small amount of liquid. You can braise on the stove or in the oven, but I like to do mine in the oven because the less direct heat makes it less likely that all the liquids will evaporate. For our turkey, we will just put the aromatics (herbs and garlic) and the liquids (cider, stock, and wine) into the pan with the vegetables that are cooking. The lid goes on, the turkey thighs go on top, and the whole thing goes into the oven. Physics will take care of the rest.

So the obvious question is, “What is happening in the pot that makes the meat so tender?”

When the pot gets to 212F, the liquids will start to turn into vapor, which will fill the pot. This helps our cooking process because steam is more efficient at transferring energy than air. This means our meat is cooking faster, even though it’s only 212F and not 325F. Don’t believe me? Try this experiment at home: Cut 8 new potatoes of the same size in half. Put 8 halves on a baking sheet and put it in an oven set to 325 degrees. Put the other 8 halves in a steamer basket over boiling water with the lid on top. Test each for doneness with a skewer at after 5, 8, 10, and 15 minutes. Which finished cooking first?.

Here is the surprising part…this actually makes our meat less juicy. Before you accuse me of drying out your meat like a Transylvanian villager with a torch and a pitchfork, it doesn’t matter if the meat in your braise isn’t juicy. Juiciness is a measure of the water content of the meat. When the meat is done braising, we mix it with the liquids in the pan to make it moist and juicy again. So loosing the juices isn’t really a concern. We want to pay attention to the tenderness, which is a measure of how easily the meat falls apart. It doesn’t matter what Otis Redding says; holding and squeezing her is not the best way to get close. The best way, scientifically speaking, is low, prolonged heat. The best temperature for collagen to turn into gelatin is low and slow. Collagen is the connective tissue that holds meat together. When the gelatin cools, it hardens, which is why leftover braises can have a jello-like substance around them. But when it’s hot, it stays liquid. If you have ever eaten meat that was mostly crumbles, it means it was cooked for a long time in a dry oven. The same conversion of collagen to gelatin will occur, only over a longer period of time. But since there are no liquids to rehydrate the meat, you end up with very dry, crumbly meat that looks like sawdust.

With the gelatin on top of the turkey and the juices swirling around in the pan, the meat is the perfect mix of tender and juicy. We’re ready to serve some turkey that will impress even my mother-in-law. Happy cooking and a Happy Thanksgiving.

CHEF’S NOTES 1. The turkeys we buy for Thanksgiving cannot naturally procreate anymore – they have to be artificially inseminated. 2. I don’t mean “ha ha, that’s so funny” in the modern sense. I mean “how ironic that everyone died horrible, but fitting deaths” in the ancient Greek sense. 3. A wide 3-4 inch deep pan with tight-fitting lid. 4. Not the same as a brassiere, though I doubt the French wouldn’t figure out a way to cook in one of those too.

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