We loved planning the menu for Thanksgiving. I think preparing and cooking Thanksgiving dinner might be more fun and satisfying than eating it; of course, I'm perfectly happy to sit down to eat with our family after spending a full day in the kitchen!
Our bird took a special bit of planning, and for the main course, we brought the sous vide machine along! Cooking en sous vide is cooking in a water bath at a very specific temperature that results in perfectly, evenly cooked food that's super juicy. It's actually really easy, but at first intimidated me. In the last year, it has become Andrew's specialty; he's made some incredible meals for us using sous vide recipes!
After brining our turkey with apple cider, star anise, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves, we put all the pieces in bags with sage, thyme, and duck fat, and placed them into the sous vide machine. With the water at an exact 149 degrees, the turkey was done in about two hours. But the beauty of sous vide cooking allowed everything to stay in the water bath for another three hours without overcooking (and we had the oven free!) Ahh, science! We deep fried the breasts, pan seared the thighs, and grilled the drumsticks on the grill outside, just as it was starting to snow.
Everything tasted so good, I'm getting hungry remembering it all. Of course, we had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods to accompany our "modern" turkey: mashed potatoes, cranberries, green bean casserole, brown-butter and sage Brussels sprouts, sweet potato casserole, creamed corn, baked sweet potatoes, sausage and wild rice stuffing...and this doesn't include the appetizers and desserts! I think it's a good thing we ran that morning!
Here are some more pictures from our two-day cooking and baking extravaganza:
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Are you hungry now? I'm ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner all over again!
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