Chef Jean-Pierre's Traditional Turkey

[ecowper]

This is more or less how I cooked turkey before I got brave enough to try it Meathead's way. I learned it from my grandma, who did not stuff the bird. She cooked the dressing in the oven and stuffed the bird with fruit and herbs like the Chef here does.

If you are looking for a really great traditional approach in the oven, this is it. Right down to turning the neck into gravy!

And I LOVE listening to Chef Jean-Pierre!

Also, if you just want some of the greatest carving instruction there are, skip to about 17:50 in the video.

[willxfmr]

Great video. He always reminds me of Julia Child, but with more liquor to calm his nerves.

[ecowper]

Totally agree. And love listening to him

[Troutman]

He reminds me more of a goofy Emeril but he is an accomplished chef. Ive done maybe 15 or so of his recipes, good straight forward teacher.

[smokin fool]

Cool vid, especially the carving portion.
I have to admit I always carved the breast meat off the bird, it was just this year I learned to remove the entire breast and then cut it like this chef did.
Such a simple thing but I never did it before.

[ecowper]

Removing the entire breast is fairly new to me, as well. I think I first did it 2 years ago. Before that, I always carved the traditional way. Jean-Pierre’s way means everyone gets a nice crispy slice of skin and seasoning.

[fzxdoc]

The best part is using that fork to better expose the hip and knee joints prior to slicing through and skooching the breast meat aside to more easily scrape it off the keel bone and ribs.

I never used a meat fork like that on a turkey. I'll give it a try this year.

Thanks, ecowper for posting the video.

Kathryn

[bbqLuv]

Chef Jean-Pierre's Traditional Turkey, sure makes it look simple and easy.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Excellent carving instructions that I want to use this year. And, he is very entertaining and immediately like able. I subscribed!

[fkrall]

Fun to watch, and great tips as well. He's the gourmet chef's answer to pizza's Vito Iacopelli!

[SierraBBQGuy]

Chef Jean Pierre is posting a Thanksgiving dish every day this week on his YouTube channel. Love this guy, so much knowledge and entertaining. So far, his Gravy and Cornbread Chorizo stuffing recipes are on my menu.

[ecowper]

Shingle Springs? I had a very good friend who lived there when I was a kid. I grew up in Rocklin when it was nothing but 1500 people many moons ago.

[barelfly]

Excellent! I have only cooked a whole turkey once in my life. And that was 20 years ago. I just ordered a free-range turkey off CC for half price, thinking, heck, I need to cook a turkey over the holidays. Perhaps I’ll bake the bird even though I’m really thinking of smoking it. But, good to see this pop up so I know I have some varied approaches I can educate myself on.

Thanks for posting!

[ecowper]

Totally welcome … other than his over the top butter thing, this is pretty darn close to how I did it before I figured out that you can BBQ a bird. My grandmother taught me how to do it. This method will turn out great!

[rickgregory]

On the Food Network, Michael Symon used a really interesting method to 'baste' the turkey. Instead of actually basting it or slathering it in butter, he melted a stick of butter with some mezcal and aromatics (herbs, shallots etc IIRC). Once that was done he took a piece of cheesecloth and tossed it in the butter mixture, stirring it around so the cloth absorbed most or all of the butter. Then he draped it over the turkey and roasted it, removing the cloth at the end.

If you have a cable subscription or other sub that lets you watch Food Network, this is the episode (start at about 2 mins in): https://watch.foodnetwork.com/tv-sho...giving-special

[Troutman]

Forget all that nonsense and just drink the mezcal 👍

[58limited]

Chef Jean-Pierre posted an updated turkey video today:

[ecowper]

I like his approach to gravy. Doing a test run tonight with a chicken on the SnS. So far, the gravy is outstanding

[fzxdoc]

Keep us posted. For me, adding a nice flour/butter roux at the end to thicken the gravy ticks two boxes: 1. a delicious way to cook the flour and 2. already contains the butter that he has to add at the very end.
I'm not such a fan of cornstarch thickening, but I may do it differently this year, because I trust his methods.

Golly, I love his videos. I want to invite him to our house to meet all our friends!

K.

[ecowper]

fzxdoc I made his gravy last night along with a grilled chicken. I added flour at the beginning, cooked it for about 30 minutes. I did not add butter at the end and it didn’t need it. My wife said it’s the best gravy I’ve made. She normally doesn’t eat gravy because she gets an upset stomach. THis time, she agreed to try and see what would happen. She did not get an upset stomach and really enjoyed the mashed potatoes and gravy.

[fzxdoc]

Good to know. Thanks!

K.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Would these instructions change materially if you were slicing up an uncooked bird? I think not, but don’t want to assume.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Never mind. I see Serious Eats has plenty of uncooked bird carving instructions that are identical.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I carved my turkey for tomorrow’s cook per the video. Super easy and highly efficient. What a great technique! Much better than mangling the poor bird with my carving knife after the fact. Wonderful!!!