Turkey Day Trepidation

Botch · November 27

This year I wanted to try Meat Church’s Mexican Turkey Breast for the main. It’s basically a turkey breast marinated in a 28-oz can of pickled jalapeños overnight, then sprinkled with a “give-me-your-moneyyy!” Meat Church rub (I’ve got a stupid-large collection of Dizzy Pigs, will use one of those). The detail of his cook that caught my eye was a lo-und-slo cook, and he fairly quickly transferred the breast to an aluminum pan, and then began basting with butter. One thing I dislike about doing turkey on the Egg is the lack of drippings for gravy, but with MC’s technique I’d end up with a pan with a stick of melted butter (fat), smoke, and at least some turkey drippings, yeah! So I went with it.

Bought the breast last week, and the label said to allow 1-3 days to defrost. I keep my fridge kinda cold, so I gave it three days, ending this morning. I cut the wrapper off, and it was still half-frozen. Plus I realized that MC was using a half-breast, and I had this half-frozen full-breast monstrosity that still included the ribs, sternum and a bit of backbone. It was the size of a volleyball, and my 32-oz jar of pickled jalapeños was the size of a softball. Hmm, what to do…

I couldn’t fit it into any bowl that I had and still fit it into the fridge, plus it still wouldn’t have fully defrosted by tomorrow. So I dropped it into my largest bowl breast-side down, dumped the jalapeños/juice over (it covered the meaty portions of the breast, and I stuffed a bunch of the slices into the cavity), and then set the bowl into my large Igloo, snapped it shut, and won’t open it again until Egg time. Tomorrow I will do a spot-Thermapen check of different sections, and see how warm anything got. I also searched and finally found the thread about Little Steven’s “suitcase chicken” (realized it was actually called “luggage chicken”) and think I may be safe (I won’t take any raw bites).

I’ll follow up on this thread tomorrow with the temps, and if you don’t hear from me after that I’m probably dead. Happy Thanksgiving!

RRP · November 27

BTW over the years I have used an Igloo approach as well to marinate my birds. And to do so I put the x-head end down inside a clean new "tall kitchen" plastic trash bag and then slide it into my Igloo. Then I would pour in my marinade into the bag - not the Igloo - which would fill and surround the bird. By carefully squeezing the bag I could get most of the air out before sealing. Then before closing the bag with a twisty I would insert the end of a wire thermometer into the water within the cavity of the bird and then run the wire out and snap on the Igloo lid. Now depending on how cold it was here in IL I would either set it all out in my garage or if too warm I'd dump in sufficient ice cubes on top the sealed bag and then the lid. That has made my turkeys very delicious.

Paolo · November 27

I’m also using a Meat Church rub on my turkey — an all-purpose ‘The Gospel’ that I picked up on my last trip to the US. I mixed it with pink salt and a bit of baking soda for a 24-hour dry brine.

About the drippings: last year I managed to recover some from the drip pan (most of it was burned and blackened) and made a decent gravy. This year I’m planning to collect the drippings halfway during the cook — let’s see if it works.

Have a great Thanksgiving Day, everyone. I took a remote-working day today to take care of the cooking and to let my (American) mother enjoy a proper Thanksgiving gathering with the family.

Paolo · November 27

I'll take this as the official 2025 Thanksgiving Turkey thread if @Botch doesn't mind.
Here a couple of random pics of our dinner.
The bird was smallish (13 pounds or so) and took only 2 hours at 350 to reach 160 internal.

My daughter took care of the dessert as usual:

Looking forward to seeing the Mexican turkey as well as any other version that you guys will want to share

johnmitchell · November 28

@Paolo. Spectacular 😋😋

lousubcap · November 28

@Paolo - one of the best American calendar Thanksgiving banquets I ever enjoyed was in Italy (Sardinia) many years ago. The turkey was the acknowledgement of the day (and exceptional) but the remainder of the meal was off the chart. One course after another from the starter thru the fish (seconded alongside the turkey), sides and a challenge selection of tiramisu and gelato. (I opted for both...)
What an experience.
Your banquet above would be the envy of those of us on this side of the pond.
Great feast!

Paolo · November 28

Thanks! I can’t imagine what brought you to Sardinia in November, but it’s certainly a beautiful region with amazing sea and mountain landscapes.

Our small Thanksgiving gathering was great — my mother even treated us to some delicious monster cookies.

Now I’m ready to get back to our regular Italian habits

JohnInCarolina · November 28

Paolo said:

Thanks! I can’t imagine what brought you to Sardinia in November

Probably a submarine.

johnmitchell · November 28

JohnInCarolina said:

Paolo said:

Thanks! I can’t imagine what brought you to Sardinia in November

Probably a submarine.

😂😂 Sharp for an early riser😂

JohnInCarolina · November 28

Botch said:

I’ll follow up on this thread tomorrow with the temps, and if you don’t hear from me after that I’m probably dead.

Ahmmm…

Stormbringer · November 28

Paging @Botch for signs of life ...

Gulfcoastguy · November 28

Botch · November 28

Bird was fine. My avian butchery skills are wanting, ended up with three bandaids by the time I got the extraneous stuff cut off. Kind've a pity tossing all those pickles jalapeños:

Need to calibrate my Egg thermometer; it read 300º while my probe read 260º (target was 275) and it took forever to reach temp (4 hours late), dried out a bit.

Jalapeño brine was okay, I did forget to remove the skin (per Meat Church) which would've helped the brine penetrate, but the skin came out pretty good. Way too many leftovers, need to stick to a duck or something (chipotle sweet potatoes, stuffing out of a red box).

Hope everyone had a great TG!

JohnInCarolina · November 28

@Botch - you had us worried!

I bet the leftover turkey will make for a good batch of turkey green chili.

dmourati · November 28

I think I saw Matt from Meat Church bringing out a turkey during the Cowboys game yesterday.

Turkey Day Trepidation

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