As many of us know, cooking the perfect turkey can be a challenging task. With sous vide technology becoming more accessible for home cooks in recent years, Kenji Lopez-Alt has revolutionized the way we can achieve tender, juicy turkey year after year. In this article, I’ll share Kenji’s sous vide turkey tips and techniques to help you wow your guests and make holiday dinners a breeze.
Kenji remembers the first time he tried cooking a whole turkey sous vide back in 2007 He bagged the bone-in breast and legs separately and cooked them at different temperatures overnight. When he seared them off the next day – it was a total fail The breast meat was dry, the legs were tough, and the skin got smoky and greasy trying to crisp it up. His sous vide turkey tasted nothing like a roasted bird. Kenji learned a lot since then, refining his methods over the years to nail down the perfect sous vide turkey. With new tools like the Anova Precision Cooker, we can all cook turkey like a pro.
Understanding Pasteurization
It’s easy to think bacteria are instantly killed when meat reaches 165°F. But pasteurization is really more of a siege – slowly destroying bacteria over time at a given temperature. For example, at 165°F, it takes 10 seconds to eliminate harmful bacteria. However, holding turkey for 30 minutes at just 140°F is equally safe. Pasteurization guidelines allow us to sous vide turkey safely at much lower temperatures for ideal texture. Kenji breaks down exact time and temperatures for safely cooking turkey in the Anova app.
Finding the Best Time and Temp
After researching safety, Kenji tested turkey cooked at 5 degree intervals from 130 to 160°F to find the ideal texture and moisture. Here are some of his recommended time and temps
- Very pink and ultra-moist: 130°F for 4 hours
- Pale pink and moist: 136°F for 3 hours
- White and tender: 145°F for 2.5 hours
- Traditional roast texture: 150°F for 2 hours
Kenji’s favorite is 145°F for 25 hours – producing breast meat nearly as moist as roasted turkey but more tender
Should You Cook Turkey with the Skin On?
Next, Kenji tested whether skin-on or boneless turkey cooked better sous vide. He cooked two breast halves from the same turkey – one bone-in and one boneless. After removing the skin and bones, he found little difference in texture when tasted side-by-side.
However, the boneless turkey did become slightly dry at the tapered ends, since it reached target temperature faster without bones insulating it. Bones act as a buffer, slowing heat transfer.
While skin-on appeared ideal, Kenji shaped the breast in a better way.
Shaping Turkey Breasts for Even Cooking
To prevent uneven cooking, Kenji stacks two turkey breasts in opposite directions. This creates one evenly shaped cylinder that cooks at the same rate throughout. Tying it at 1” intervals evens out any minor differences.
This “jigsaw” shape also lets you season the inside of turkey rolls, helping them stick together. Salt dissolves turkey proteins, allowing them to bind the two halves into one solid roast – like a good sausage.
Getting Perfectly Crisp Turkey Skin
Of course, we still want that crisp turkey skin and roasted flavor. Roasting the skin separately gives both. Spreading skin flat on parchment and sandwiching between baking sheets lets it roast evenly into one giant crisp sheet.
Since this skin isn’t wrapped around hot meat, it stays crunchy much longer than typical turkey skin. And you get intense roasted flavor absent when cooking skin-on sous vide. It’s the best of both worlds!
Putting It All Together
Follow these tips from Kenji for sous-vide success:
-
Stack two breasts in opposite directions to form an even cylinder.
-
Tie at 1” intervals to even shape. Season the inside.
-
Cook at 145°F for 2.5 hours for ideal moisture and texture.
-
Meanwhile, roast the skin flat between baking sheets for crispiness.
-
Make gravy from the trimmed breast bones for authentic flavor.
With perfect moist meat, shatteringly crisp skin, and rich gravy – you’ll have the sous vide turkey of your dreams. Impress your family with your mastery of this high-tech cooking technique.
If you’re new to sous vide, don’t worry – Kenji breaks down every step clearly in the Anova Culinary app. With these simple tips and tricks from the expert himself, your next holiday dinner will be a breeze. Say goodbye to dry, disappointing turkey and let sous vide be your holiday hero.
Why Sous Vide Is Perfect for Lean Meat
When cooking meat, especially lean, delicate meats that tend to dry out, like turkey, sous vide methods have a lot of benefits. First off, it lets you cook the meat perfectly evenly from edge to center. When you cook in a regular oven, the temperature outside is higher than the temperature you want the meat to be, so there is always a temperature difference in the meat. On the other hand, a sous vide cooker cooks at the exact temperature you want the meat to reach when it’s done.
Sous vide cookers are also very accurate, so you can keep your meat at a relatively low temperature for a long enough time to pasteurize it, which makes it safer to eat while still being juicy and tender. Hows that work?.
When looked at through a microscope, turkey muscles (and all muscles) look like very long strings of coaxial cable, all lined up closely next to each other. Each one of these cables contains meaty juices. Proteins get smaller as the turkey cooks, and the bundles get squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. This lets the juices leak out. The turkey dries out faster when the final temperature is higher. This is because the bundles get squeezed more tightly.
The middle of a turkey roast will be about 145 to 150°F (63 to 66°C) in a normal oven, while the outside will have already reached well over 170°F (77°C). Your meat wont be bone-dry, but it wont be as moist as possible, either. With sous vide cooking, you can get the whole bird to the same temperature, which means less juices will be lost. In addition, bacteria are killed at temperatures that are much lower than those recommended for traditional cooking. There are no bacteria that can survive at 140°F (60°C). If you let a turkey rest at that temperature for about 30 minutes, it’s just as safe as if you had cooked it all the way to 165°F (74°C) using normal methods.
This means that with sous vide, you can not only cook more evenly, but you can also cook to a lower temperature. Both of these facts make for a juicier bird.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__s__2013__11__20131024-turkey-porchetta-recipe-thanksgiving-69-1d74b28b20614fb9a1da3f4605428efc.jpg)
Serving Turkey Porchetta
For the salt to stick to the still-wet fat surface, it should be added right away after coming out of the deep fryer, along with everything else. And because it was cooked sous vide, there won’t be much of a temperature difference inside (caused by the deep-frying phase). This means that it can be sliced and served almost right away, making the crust as crispy as possible.
Can you picture the looks on your family’s faces when this golden-brown, crackling roast arrives at the Thanksgiving table? If they weren’t already thankful, they are now.
Because it has no bones, it’s very easy to carve, and no one has to fight over who gets the most skin or the ends of the thin breast that are dry and stuck together. The only thing that’s worth arguing about is who gets to eat the extra-crispy ends. But in my family, that’s not even a fight. Every year, my wife and the kid sister sneak the crispy bits off the cutting board right in front of everyone else.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__s__2013__11__20131024-turkey-porchetta-recipe-thanksgiving-74-e5502746f4164ecfbf9a0cd516eb06bd.jpg)
Pretty, right? If you’re smart or good at following directions, you’ll make at least one more of these than you need for dinner because they’re great as sandwiches the next day.
How to Make Porchetta-Style Turkey Breast With Your Sous Vide Cooker
FAQ
How long does it take to sous vide a turkey?
|
Sous Vide Turkey Temperatures and Times
|
|
|
|
Very pink, soft, extra moist
|
132°F (56°C)
|
4 hours
|
|
Pale pink, soft, moist
|
138°F (59°C)
|
3 hours
|
|
White, tender, moist
|
145°F (63°C)
|
2 1/2 hours
|
|
White; traditional roast texture
|
152°F (67°C)
|
2 hours
|
Is sous vide turkey worth it?
Can you cook a turkey at 150 degrees?
Can you cook turkey to 145?