Easy & Delicious Thanksgiving Turkey _ Flavorful & Juicy Turkey Recipe #MrMakeItHappen #Turkey.

What's up guys, welcome back. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and it is time for the main event. I'm going to show you guys how to make a spatchcocked Thanksgiving turkey. But before we do that, please take a quick second to subscribe to the channel. Make sure to hit that bell to enable notifications as well. Alright guys, today is the big day. My very first hardcover cookbook is officially available for pre-order. It's a collaboration between myself and Smokin' Grillin' with AB. We've been working on this cookbook for almost a year now and we're super excited to make this available for pre-order. The orders will ship in mid-December. Hopefully have it to you guys before Christmas. That's the goal. I've been getting a ton of requests for a cookbook and it's finally here. It's finally available. It's one of the biggest moments in my life and I'm super excited to share it with you guys. I know that you're going to love it and I can't wait for you guys to get your hands on this cookbook. Also, grab yours soon so you can get free shipping. Use the code FREESHIP at checkout and you'll receive free shipping on your order. Also, AB and myself are planning a book tour so let me know in the comments what city we should visit so we can do a nice little pop-up, let you guys taste some food, get you a signed copy of the cookbook, and just get an opportunity to meet you guys. And again, I'm extremely grateful for all the support and love you guys show. Please get your copy of the cookbook. The link's in the description and I'll see you guys soon. Alright guys, meet me in the kitchen. Let's make it happen. Now, turkey kind of gets a bad rep. A lot of people say that it's bland, boring, and dry, but today I'm going to show you guys how to make an absolutely fantastic turkey that's moist and packed with flavor. And the first thing we got to do in order to pull that off is to brine this bad boy. This is the brine that I'm using today, but you can find plenty of these at your local grocery store or on Amazon. So to get things started, you're going to need about two and a half gallons of water. You can get you one of these big brine buckets online or at Home Depot, different places sell these, or you can just buy these extra large Ziploc bags and they work great for brining turkeys. So first things first, bring about a half gallon of water up to a boil, and then we're going to add in our brine mix. I'll also include a homemade version in the description box for you as well. We're also going to add a few tablespoons of my all-purpose seasoning. If you haven't tried that yet, you can get yours via the link in my description box. There's a discount code for you there as well. And then we're going in with one tablespoon of better than bouillon turkey base. You could also use garlic base or chicken base for this as well. And now it's time to bring the citrus to the party. We're going to squeeze in the juice of two fresh oranges. Then we're going to squeeze in the juice of a lemon also. There we go. And then we're going to try to squeeze an onion, but obviously you can't do that. So we're just going to throw the onion on in there. That's two onions, a couple stalks of celery, some herbs. We've got some rosemary, thyme, a few bay leaves, tons of flavor in this brine, guys. This is going to make your bird super juicy, packed with flavor. We're going to bring that up to a boil and then we're going to kill the heat. We really just need to boil this long enough for the seasonings to dissolve into the water. It doesn't take that long, maybe 15 to 30 minutes or so. And then we're going to fish everything out and add it to our brine bucket or to our extra large Ziploc bag, whatever you decide to brine this turkey in. And then we're going to pour our liquid into two gallons of water to kind of dilute things a little bit. That's going to also help us submerge the turkey completely, which is very necessary for this. And now you just want to get in there and stir everything around to ensure everything is evenly distributed. And the next critical step is to cool this off. It has to be at least room temperature before you add your turkey to it. So in order to do that, we're going to add a few pounds of ice to cool this off a little bit faster. Once your brining liquid is cooled off enough, we're going to clean our turkey, remove the neck and the giblets and all that good stuff. And then we're going to submerge the turkey into this brining solution and put it in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours. So once your turkey is fully submerged, say goodnight to the bird and put it in the refrigerator, allow it time to really soak up all that delicious flavor that we built in our brine. Oh man, this turkey is going to be fantastic. And now my friends, it's time to talk about the spatchcock method. What I recommend is grabbing one of these large sheet pans with a wire rack. This is my favorite way to do this for a turkey. We're going to cut up some onions and aromatics to place underneath the turkey. That's going to add tons of flavor, both to the bird and to our gravy. So grab whatever onion you like or whatever you have on hand. You can use a yellow, white onion, doesn't really matter. We just need to peel the skin off and slice it into rings as you see me doing right here. Once your onion is prepped, we're going to move on and do the same exact thing to the lemon. Once you've got your onion and your lemon prepped, we're going to go ahead and basically build a bird's nest here. So line your sheet pan with aluminum foil, and then we're going to evenly spread out the onions and the lemon. And then we're going to go down with some herbs as well. This technique is not only going to make your house smell absolutely amazing on Thanksgiving day, but it's also going to combine with all the drippings from the turkey and make the most flavorful gravy you've ever had in your life. As you can see here, we've evenly distributed the onions and the lemon. We went down with some green onions as well, because why the hell not? We have some rosemary, some thyme. We're going to hit this with some olive oil to make sure these things don't scorch in the oven too bad. And then we're going to place that wire rack right on top, and that's going to be what the turkey rests on. All the flavor from the turkey is going to drip down into that pan and accumulate. And now my friends, it's time to play doctor. You can grab one of these from the store or on Amazon. A lot of grocery stores are selling these nowadays. You can use this for turkey injection. You can inject all types of poultry, chicken, all that good stuff. This is my favorite chicken or turkey injection, but you can also buy Tony's from the grocery store. It's relatively cheap and it comes with an injector. So you can kind of kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended. Either one of these products will work just fine. So into a protein shaker bottle that I have not been using nearly enough, but that's a story for another day. We're going to add one scoop of this bird booster into some water and shake it up. And that's going to be what we're going to use for our injection. So there you have it, guys. We've brined our turkey. We are going to inject the turkey. It's just coming out of the brine now. We're going to dry this as thoroughly as possible. And then we're going to use some sharp kitchen scissors and remove the backbone, effectively spatchcocking this turkey. I know that sounds like a dirty word, but basically it just means remove the backbone and flatten it out. One of the most difficult things about cooking a turkey is getting the breast meat done at the same time as the dark meat. And that's where the spatchcock method comes into play. It flattens everything out and makes sure everything cooks a lot more evenly. That way your breast is not overcooked by the time your legs are finished. This method also drastically reduces the total cook time for your turkey. So if you're looking to save a little bit of time this year, this is the way to go. And it's super easy. All you need is some sharp kitchen scissors and you can remove the backbone just like you saw me do right there. Cut down both sides and it comes right out. Next, you want to take a nice sharp knife and make an incision right where the breast plate is. That's going to be able to flatten this thing out here in just a second. So all you really need to do is lay this down flat and then use a little bit of your weight to push down. That's going to flatten everything out and ensure that this turkey cooks nice and evenly for you. Next up, we need to take some paper towels and dry this turkey thoroughly. A dry skin will end up a crispy skin in the oven. So just dry both sides of the bird. And then we're going to take our kitchen scissors again and just trim things up a little bit. Any excess fat, bone, cartilage, skin, anything that you don't want on there, just go ahead and trim that off. Once you've gotten it right where you want it, it's time to season this bad boy up. And what better seasoning to use than my all-purpose seasoning. It's a blend of salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder. It's also low sodium. We've already brined and we're going to inject this turkey. So you don't want it to be too salty. So a low sodium seasoning is perfect for this. So once you get the backside of your turkey evenly coated in that seasoning, we're going to flip it over and then we're going to tuck the wings behind the turkey. So it looks like it's kind of chilling on the rack. That's what we're looking for. And that's important because the wing tips tend to burn in the oven and that'll throw off our presentation. And that is not what we want on our big day with this turkey. So make the turkey nice and comfortable. And then we're going to get ready to inject it with that marinade that we made earlier. So for the injection, you just want to spread it out evenly. Make sure you get the thighs, the drums, the wings, the breast. Make sure you hit every point of the turkey, but don't overdo it. If you're going to overdo it on one part of the turkey, the breast is the place to do that because it is the driest part of the turkey. So if you add a little extra injection there, I won't be mad at you. Once you have the turkey fully injected, we're going to break out the AP seasoning again and give a nice even coat to the top of the turkey as well. This is going to help get some color on the skin. And once your turkey is seasoned to perfection, we're going to add a cup or two of chicken broth to the bottom of the pan. That's going to help create a little bit of steam and some moisture, which is also going to keep your turkey moist as well. Now we're going to pop that turkey into a 400 degree oven. The total cook time is about an hour and a half, depending on the size of your bird. But we want to go ahead and start basting this every 20 minutes or so. So we have some melted butter here that we're going to baste the skin with. That's going to add flavor and help the turkey brown up nicely. Now, if at any point the turkey is starting to brown too much, you can cover it with aluminum foil to ensure that it doesn't get too dark on you. But this butter is just going to add additional flavor and it's Thanksgiving, so a stick of butter is required in basically every dish. I'm going to cover this with a little bit of aluminum foil because I don't want it to get too dark. We're going to pop that back into the oven. You know the turkey's done when the breast registers 165 degrees internal temperature and the dark meat should be around 175. Total cook time is about an hour and a half for this 11 pound bird. As you can see here, we're just going to baste it with a little bit more butter because why the hell not? Say it with me guys, looking good. Let me know in the comments if you guys are planning to make a turkey for the first time or if you make a turkey every year. Let me know what your menu's looking like. As you can see here, we have about 175 to 180 on the dark meat and 165 on the white meat, so we are good to go. You want to let your bird rest for about 30 minutes before you carve it, which gives us just enough time to make this gravy. As you can see, all those pan drippings, we're going to strain those into a measuring cup and make the most fantastic gravy ever. Going in with our melted butter, a little bit of flour, all the specific measurements and ingredients are included in the description box for you as well, so don't forget to check that out. So as with all gravy, this starts with the roux. We're going in with our butter and flour. We want to mix that and cook the raw flour taste off. Allow that to brown up just a little bit and then we're going to add our pan drippings. You should have at least a cup and a half of the pan drippings that we're going to add to the roux. Break out the whisk and mix to combine. We're going to bring that up to a boil and then we're going to reduce it down to a simmer. Add a little splash of heavy cream and then we're going in with some chicken stock as well. Just keep on mixing with your whisk. You want to make sure that this comes together and the gravy is nice and smooth, smoother than a three-day weekend. Oh man, this is going to be packed with flavor guys. All those pan drippings are going to make a fantastic gravy. As you can see here, we have a great color going. We're going to season it to taste with a little bit more all-purpose seasoning or just a little salt and pepper if it needs it. As always guys, taste as you go and adjust the flavor to your preference. This is the perfect gravy consistency in my opinion. Only thing missing is a little splash of worst word in the world sauce, about a teaspoon or so. That's going to provide a little umami to the flavor profile and darken the gravy up just a little bit. And there you have it folks. That is the best turkey gravy that you're going to have on Thanksgiving. You got to have that on your table. As you can see, it's thickened up nicely. Add that to your gravy boat and set it aside. And now my friends, it's time for the fun part. Let's carve this bird up. I'm going to remove the leg quarter first. Set that aside. As you can see, this is super moist and juicy. There's the wings. We're going to remove those next. And last but not least, we're going to carve that breast right off the breastbone so we can make some nice slices. Oh man, still nice and hot. You can see the steam coming off of there. You do want to let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes at least. Look at the turkey breast. Oh my goodness, just dripping. Super moist as you can see right there. Using a nice sharp knife, we're going to carve this bad boy up. As you can see, the skin is staying intact, which is what you want to see. You don't want to have any bites of turkey without that delicious crispy skin. Speaking of a bite, let's go on for a quick taste test. It doesn't get much better than this guys. We're going to plate this up on our Martha Stewart tip again, just because I need you guys to click on that thumbnail. Brace yourself for a trademark money shot. We're going down with that fantastic gravy all over the turkey. Oh man, it doesn't get much better than this guys. Going in for another taste test. You guys already know this one is a winner. I hope you guys give this recipe a try along with all the other fantastic Thanksgiving recipes I have on the channel, but most importantly, I hope you have a safe and happy holidays with your family. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and that bell to enable notifications and as always, thank you for your support.