It all started out innocently as my wife and I decided to host Thanksgiving, but soon it turned into not just one turkey but 3 of the big birds. We bought our first bird early. Then later in the day while shopping for other ingredients for the meal at a local grocery store we discovered that we could by 2 extra birds for $10 based on the stuffing, cream, yams, butter, etc. we were buying. My wife chimed in first, that it would be more then worth it just on using one for stock. I agreed and took it further saying we should save the breasts and sous vide them in butter. Then I thought well I might as well get a third and put my BBQ grill to work before the rainy season starts.
Tuesday - We'll start with the sous vide, Barbara did a fantastic job of butchery and removed the breast from the carcass. From there I removed the skin from the breast and divided them into 2 pieces. I then placed the breasts in a simple wet brine that I also used for the BBQ bird. Both were set in the brine for 4 hours, would have done the one for the BBQ longer but needed to have done by sundown.
I removed the skin from the breast and saved for crisping up on Thanksgiving Day. For the sous vide I combined 1/2 cup of soft butter with 2 Tablespoons of Bell's Seasoning and a teaspoon of kosher salt.
I divided the mixture in two and used each half of the mixture in one pouch with each breast and vacuum sealed and placed in the fridge until Thanksgiving Day.
Due to the threat of rain I had to BBQ the smoked bird on Tuesday. To expedite the cooking process I removed the back bone. It was brined for 4 hours, and then placed over a pan filled with a bottle of white wine, 2 wine bottles of water, a bunch of green onions, and a lemon halved and a very hot indirect fire. Grilled bird hot for about 1 hour & 45 minutes, until the internal temp reached 165. Removing the back bone took off about an hour of grilling time.
Also on Tuesday the regular roasted turkey was given its
dry brine. And placed in the fridge till Thanksgiving morning.
Thanksgiving Day arrives and the the dry brined bird is removed from the fridge and its breast is buttered after resting for an hour out of the fridge. Then it was placed in a 375 degree oven for about 3 hours until it reached an internal temp of 165.
While the dry brine bird was roasting away our buttered breasts were put into the Sous Vide Supreme at 150 for about 3 hours. Then when the roasted bird finished in the oven, the breast skins were placed on a sheet pan and crisped up in the oven to add crunch to the sous vide breasts. Also cooked smoked bird was carved and placed in the sous vide supreme 30 minutes prior to eating to take the chill off the bird.
Of course since I was cooking for a group of hungry people, and making gravy, biscuits, sweet potatoes etc... I wasn't able to get a photo of the finished birds. Luckily my brother took a photo of the buffet before it was demolished. And of the three birds the one to end up on top as the taste favorite was the sous vide breast. With one guest proclaiming normally to be a dark meat fan, but was won over by the juiciness of the sous vide bird. Second was the BBQ bird, the smoky flavor added a real taste sensation, and while the roasted bird was good it was just not as good as the other two. Next year just one bird, broken down and done sous vide. Its not that we didn't love the other birds, but doing just one is a lot less complicated.
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