SERVES 6
Skill Level: EASY
Cook Time: 1–1 1/2 hrs.
Prep Time: 10 mins.
Cost: $
Inactive Prep Time: 12 hrs.
I might never have come up with this recipe if my car hadn’t broken down on the way to a catering job. My client was looking forward to my cooking turkey at her home. She was psyched about the house filling up with the aroma of it roasting in the oven. Well, it took so long to get the car fixed that by the time I arrived at her house, I wouldn’t have been able to cook and serve dinner until very late. And then I remembered how often I had been told that you can think of a turkey as a big chicken, so I cut it into parts: wing, drumstick, thigh, breast. It cut down the cooking time by two-thirds, and everyone really liked the way we rescued Thanksgiving.
FOR THE BRINING LIQUID:
4 cups water
1/2–3/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
10 whole allspice
10 whole cloves
10 whole black peppercorns
5 star anise
7–8 sprigs thyme
1/2 cup olive oil
1 12- to 15-pound turkey, cut into 8 pieces
FOR THE SPICY GREMOLATA:
1 1/2 cups packed flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup sage leaves
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3 tablespoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1. Combine all the brining ingredients in a large resealable plastic bag, and shake to dissolve the salt and sugar. Place the turkey parts in the bag, and place in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.
2. Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse thoroughly. Pat dry. Gently loosen the skin from the turkey pieces. Combine the spicy gremolata ingredients and liberally rub the gremolata under the skin on each part.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Heat a heavy skillet to medium-high heat. Sear each piece until golden brown on all sides. Place seared pieces on a sheet pan, and finish cooking them in the oven. Cook for 1–1 1/2 hours until all the pieces have an internal temperature of 170 °F.
Special bonus … shelf space!
If you’re the one making Thanksgiving, no doubt you are familiar with the problem of too much food in too small of a refrigerator. Breaking the turkey down in smaller parts is a much more compact way to store it overnight. That should help with your space problem, although refrigerators, just like people, tend to get overstuffed at holiday time.