Recipe from Padma Lakshmi
Adapted by Genevieve Ko
- Total Time
- About 6 hours, plus 2 days’ brining
- Rating
- 4(1,383)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Padma Lakshmi likes big, bold flavors — spices and citrus especially — and infuses her Thanksgiving turkey with them. She prepares the bird over a bed of herbs and produce, then uses those pan juices to create a fruity yet savory gravy. To keep the turkey moist, Ms. Lakshmi starts with a buttermilk brine, then roasts the bird at a low temperature to make sure it cooks through but doesn’t dry out. But first, an initial blast in a very hot oven darkens the turkey in spots thanks to the sugar in the buttermilk brine. A final basting and uncovered cooking in the oven helps even out the mottled skin and ensures a delicate crispness. You can garnish the platter with the fruits, vegetables and herbs used in the recipe or serve the bird unadorned. —Genevieve Ko
Featured in: Padma Lakshmi’s Thanksgiving Turkey: Slow Roasted and Richly Sauced
Learn: How to Make Gravy
Learn: How to Cook a Turkey
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 12 servings
- 8fresh bay leaves
- 2½quarts buttermilk
- ½cup granulated sugar
- ½cup coarse sea salt
- 1tablespoon black peppercorns, toasted and ground (see Tip)
- 1½teaspoons ground cayenne
- 1(14-pound) fresh or thawed frozen whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
- 20fresh bay leaves
- 3small Fuji or Honeycrisp apples, cored and cut into wedges
- 2small Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into wedges
- 2small fennel bulbs, sliced
- 1medium red onion, sliced
- 1medium yellow onion, sliced
- 1small bunch thyme
- 10slices fresh ginger
- 12garlic cloves, sliced
- 1orange, cut into 1-inch wedges
- Coarse sea salt
- 1½tablespoons black peppercorns, toasted (see Tip), plus more toasted and ground for seasoning
- 1lemon, quartered
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- ½cup unsalted butter
- ¼cup all-purpose flour
- 2tablespoons brandy, preferably Pomona or Calvados (optional)
- Salt and pepper
For the Brine
For the Turkey
For the Gravy
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Brine the turkey: Tear the bay leaves to release their natural oils. Place in a large bowl with the buttermilk, sugar, salt, black pepper and cayenne, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Place the turkey in a brining bag or clean unscented garbage bag, pour in the buttermilk mixture and tightly tie the bag closed. Place in a pot or bowl that holds it snugly, making sure the legs are fully immersed in the brine, and refrigerate for at least 48 hours and up to 72 hours.
Step
2
Make the turkey: Position a rack at the bottom of the oven and heat oven (not convection) to 450 degrees. Tear the bay leaves to release their natural oils. Spread the apples, fennel, onions, 12 bay leaves and half of the thyme, ginger, garlic and orange across the bottom of a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and the whole peppercorns.
Step
3
Drain the turkey and wipe dry. (Discard the brine.) Place the turkey in the pan breast side up, and rub its cavity with salt and ground pepper. Stuff the cavity with the lemon and the remaining bay leaves, thyme, ginger, garlic and orange. Tuck the wings underneath and tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Sprinkle the turkey with salt and ground pepper, and drizzle everything with oil. Drizzle more oil all over the turkey and rub to generously and evenly coat the skin. Transfer to the oven and roast until browned in spots all over but not burned, 20 to 40 minutes. (Ovens vary widely in how quickly they brown such a large bird, so start checking at 20 minutes and keep going until it’s spotted all over.)
Step
4
Pour 2 cups water into the pan, cover the turkey with foil and loosely crimp around the edges of the pan. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees and slide the pan back into the oven. Slow-roast until the turkey is almost cooked through (a meat thermometer will register 150 degrees in the thickest part of the breast and 160 degrees in the thigh), about 4 hours.
Step
5
Uncover, baste all over with the pan juices and roast uncovered until the skin is more evenly browned and the meat registers 155 degrees in the breast and 165 degrees in the thigh, 30 to 45 minutes. The internal temperature will continue to rise as the turkey rests. Let cool slightly in the pan, then transfer the turkey to a serving platter.
Step
6
Make the gravy: Smash the fruits and vegetables in the roasting pan. Set a colander with small holes or a medium-mesh strainer over a bowl or pot, and pour in everything from the pan, working in batches if needed. Press hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible along with fruit and vegetable pulp. Discard the solids in the colander; scrape any strained pulp into the bowl. Skim and discard fat from the strained juices.
Step
7
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk until deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. While whisking, add the defatted pan juices a little at a time, whisking until smooth, then stir in the brandy. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Keep warm over low.
Step
8
When ready to serve, season the gravy to taste with salt and pepper. Carve the turkey and serve with the hot gravy.
Tip
- Ms. Lakshmi toasts her peppercorns dry in a metal ladle held and swirled over a medium flame on a gas stove until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. You can do the same or use a small skillet instead. She pounds her pepper in a mortar with a pestle. You can as well or use a spice grinder.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,383
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Mel Harte
A 22-24 lb turkey usually means overcooked outer meat as the innermost part gets cooked. My physicist husband noted years ago that I could cook 2 12 lb turkeys simultaneously in our standard oven by aligning the 2 pans with the narrow ends facing the door. He was right. In about 3 hours I have 24 lbs of stuffed succulent turkey, none of which is dry... and we love the extra dark meat!
Tristan
Does the turkey just sit on the apples and fennel, etc., covering the bottom of the pan or should it rest on a roasting rack in the pan? The bottom doesn’t get soggy if it’s not raised above?
Lesley
Do not brine your turkey in a garbage bag! They are not made from food-safe plastic and can leach toxins into your food.
Rosh Disch
Yes would very much like to know the time adaptation for a larger turkey of 22-24lbs.
Dan C
Dietary restrictions in our house prohibit the buttermilk, but everything else in this recipe sounds absolutely stunning. It’ll just be three of us this year, so, how long should just a turkey breast (say, 6 lbs) spend in the oven? I’m guessing about 90-120 minutes covered, 20-30 uncovered.
Padma Lakshmi
Pls don’t use dried buttermilk. You can use whole milk in a pinch. You don’t need to peel the fruit but peeling apples makes it easier to pass through the fine mesh strainer. But strainer should catch the peel. Leave orange peel. You can use a rack but I don’t. You can strew apples etc around the bird in the pan if you have space. The best thing about this recipe is the gravy you make with the pan juices and the pulp that you pass through the strainer which gives it body. Enjoy everyone!!!
Sissy Ashby
Can dried buttermilk be used instead of a wet brine?
Padma Lakshmi
Hey everyone. Thx for letting me share my recipe with you all. Pls send pics of your process or results to @padmalakshmi so I can repost on my social. Good luck and happy cooking!!!!
mt
Buttermilk brine for birds (turkey and chicken) is amazing!! The bird is tender, moist and delicious. It turns out even better than the French method I’ve used for years (salt brine for 2 days, tuck butter and herbs under the skin prior to cooking and baste frequently) without as much work and attention to the bird. I never thought I would switch my approach to roasting a turkey, but this easier approach is my new ‘go-to’. Thanks for including this recipe!
Jennifer Popovich
Pickle juice! You can emulate buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to a cup of milk. You can brine your chicken in pickle juice instead of buttermilk.
Marc Grobman
One caution: US Dept of Agriculture site warnsHow NOT to Thaw a TurkeyIn case you are wondering, here are some thawing methods that are not recommended…thawing a turkey in a brown paper grocery bag or plastic garbage bagSource:https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/11/18/how-safely-thaw-turkeyPosted by Marianne Gravely, Food Safety Education Staff, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA in Initiatives Health and SafetyFeb 21, 2017
RHK
Any idea if I can do this with a spatchco*cked turkey?
Joe M-C
Are the orange and lemon peeled or include the rind?
Padma Lakshmi
Dry bay leaves can make the gravy taste bitter. Use fresh or skip!
Lori Pottinger
Do you recommend using a rack under the bird, or is the mass of fruits and veg acting as the rack?
Gustavo A.
I used a Gaggenau convection oven for a 13.5 lbs turkey. Browning the skin at 400 degrees created burned spots, so after 20 minutes I covered the bird with aluminum foil and lowered the temperature to 280, with a thermometer probe in it to monitor the inner temperature. Once the inner temp was 150 degrees, I uncovered the bird and cooked it at 350 degrees until the inner temp reached 170 degrees (Gaggenau's recommendation). The browning was great and the meat was moist. Best turkey we ever had.
Roo
I've made this twice and both times it has been tasty and moist. However, both times it has finished cooking in substantially less time than the recipe states. It has become my go-to turkey for Thanksgiving, but I'll have to do some recalculating next year.
David
The specification of two different types of apples seems a bit pretentious. Can you possibly tell the difference? Otherwise, this sounds like a nice recipe.
SBC
Has anyone put any stuffing inside the bird with this recipe, either instead of or alongside the lemon and orange, etc?
Rodrigo Sierra
Loved how passionately Padma talks about food.
Harrison
Didn't follow the cooking instructions but I did enjoy the aromatics and gravy.
Eileen
Amazing! Delicious! And the gravy -in a class of its own. Did per recipe and as another noted -was done much faster than timing noted in recipe. Found fresh bay leaves at Walmart
Mel Avallone
I made this turkey as well as a dry-brined turkey. The dry brined turkey was just as juicy and had better flavor. It was also easier to prepare.
Peter Gorlin,
By far the best turkey I ever made (and I'm very old). Total family hit. Very tempting to keep recipe as a secret from year to year.
Ngrimmick
I followed this recipe to the letter. I hunted down fresh bay leaves and brined the thawed bird for as long as I could which turned out to be 42 hours. The turkey was 18 lbs and it took closer to 50 minutes to get any browning as was described in the 1st step of cooking. The turkey was definitely done after roasting covered for 3 hours - but it hadn’t browned all the way so I basted and turned on the convection and it was nicely brown after another 25 min. Succulent and sweet! Gravy was delish!
Kymore
Cooked in the smoker. No changes to the recipe except using a "large" foil pan to spread out the apples, fennel, bay leaves, etc., to cook the turkey. We cooked a 16 lb. turkey in the oval-shaped foil pan, and the breast was done way before the thighs because there wasn't enough room with all the goodies to cook it evenly. Five stars for the gravy!
malamia
We had an almost 15 lb Turkey that I buttermilk basted for three days. The Turkey was divine, but I will note that we flipped the Turkey several times to avoid over-browning on one side. Very juicy bird and everyone enjoyed it. I'll be honest though -- I wasn't a fan of the gravy even though I was hoping to love it. It was missing some depth/complexity to me, and the apple flavor threw me off. Maybe I'm a traditionalist. I'll skip that part next year and just use the brine.
Bruce Cushing
It was great following instructions brined for 72 hours. my daughter even said I could make it again.
Catherine
At my family's request, I repeated this recipe this year, and again, it's just beyond compare. To answer some questions, I had a 20lb bird this year, and it was done in 4 hours. I think covering it and letting it slow cook makes it cook more quickly. And no, it was not dry. I basted twice in the 4 hours. Yes, I mostly let it rest on the bed of fruits and vegetables -- the dark meat was just luscious!! All my guests kept going after the piece of dark meat on the platter. Make this!!
Kate
Did this with a 18 pound turkey and a 72 hour brine. I did let the bird hang out in the fridge for 12 hours after the brine to really dry the skin before roasting. This is by far the best turkey I've ever made and the gravy is remarkable. I agree with the other comments about it taking less time to cook than recommended, so check it early. I might actually make turkey more than once a year with this recipe.
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