- 2 months ago
In this Food Wishes video, Chef John shares his amazing recipe for Turkey Porchetta. This is the perfect way to transform a standard turkey breast into a stunning, flavorful roast, rolled with garlic, citrus zest, and herbs. This video will show you the step-by-step process, from butterflying the meat to making a delicious pan gravy.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwitches.com with Turkey Porchetta.
00:08That's right, if it works well for pork, it almost always works well for turkey.
00:13And this garlicky orby porchetta approach was no different.
00:17And while this won't be the most traditional turkey you've ever had,
00:21there's a really good chance it will be the most flavorful.
00:24And to get started, we're going to prep our breast,
00:27which is a boneless but skin-on turkey breast.
00:31And technically half a breast, since it's just one side.
00:34And as you can see, this came with the tenderloin attached, which most do.
00:39And what we'll do is kind of flip that over to the thinner side of the breast.
00:42And then we'll take a nice sharp thin knife,
00:45and we will make a slightly angled cut like this, right into the thickest part.
00:50And as we're slicing, we're kind of pulling and rolling the meat away from the cut.
00:54And once that first one's been done, we can make some smaller cuts,
00:58wherever we think the meat's thick enough.
01:01And we can do that on both sides,
01:03with the goal of creating as much surface area as possible for our seasoning.
01:08And do not worry about precision.
01:10Once this is tied and roasted,
01:12once sliced, I promise you, it's going to look amazing.
01:15And that's it.
01:16Once our meat's been splayed out,
01:18we will begin our seasoning and flavoring with a generous amount of kosher salt,
01:23as well as some freshly and fairly coarsely ground black pepper.
01:28And while it's never a bad idea to spread things evenly,
01:31since this is going to be rolled up and tied,
01:33everything's going to find its way.
01:35So again, do not obsess with perfection,
01:38here or anywhere else for that matter.
01:41And then after the salt and pepper,
01:42I'm going to do some chili flakes,
01:44just for a little extra zing,
01:47which I'm going to follow with a ton of crushed garlic.
01:51And I'm going to go ahead and take my freakishly small wooden spoon,
01:54and spread that out into a fairly even layer.
01:57And then once our fresh garlic's been applied,
02:00I'm going to grate over the zest of an orange and lemon.
02:03And if you've ever wondered if a microplane gets dull,
02:07well, yes, apparently it does.
02:08Because I was grating fairly enthusiastically,
02:11but very little was happening,
02:13so after struggling through the orange,
02:16I grabbed my other microplane zester,
02:18and used that for the lemon,
02:20with much better results.
02:23And then besides the black pepper, citrus, and garlic,
02:25one of the other signature flavorings of porchetta,
02:29would be some crushed fennel seeds.
02:31But pro tip,
02:32we're definitely going to want to toast those a little bit first,
02:35in a dry pan set over medium heat,
02:37just for a couple minutes,
02:38until we can smell that beautiful fennel aroma.
02:42And once we can,
02:42we'll transfer those into our mortar,
02:44and we will pestle them for a few seconds,
02:47to crush them up a bit.
02:49At which point,
02:49we'll go ahead and sprinkle those over as well.
02:52And of course,
02:53we'll want to do that ahead of time.
02:55And then the last mandatory ingredient,
02:57will be some freshly chopped rosemary.
03:00Which, by the way,
03:01I didn't quite mince fine enough.
03:02Okay, I was in a hurry as usual.
03:05And I should have spent a few more seconds,
03:07chopping that a little smaller.
03:09And yes,
03:09I used a ridiculous amount,
03:11of that and pretty much everything.
03:13Which is usually my game plan,
03:15with a porch porchetta.
03:16So feel free to dial those back,
03:18if you don't want something quite as intense.
03:21And that's it,
03:22one season.
03:23We'll gather that back together,
03:26sort of reassembling it,
03:27or as close as we're able.
03:29And it really does not matter,
03:31as long as we end up with a seam at the bottom.
03:33Since, as I mentioned,
03:35we're going to tie this all together,
03:36nice and tightly.
03:38Which is going to be our next step.
03:40And for that,
03:41we'll take four lengths of kitchen twine,
03:43and we'll slide that underneath,
03:44about three inches from the end.
03:47And we will twist that string through,
03:48about three or four times.
03:50Which will allow us to cinch it up,
03:51nice and tightly,
03:53before we finish with a knot.
03:55And after trimming off the excess,
03:57we'll do that three more times.
03:59Placing the next one in the center,
04:01a couple inches away from the first tie.
04:04And once those two in the center have been completed,
04:06we will do two more on either end.
04:09And I know we've done this before,
04:10and just started at one of the ends,
04:12and worked our way back.
04:13Before this turkey breast,
04:15I think it's easier if we get the two ties in the middle done first.
04:19Which is where most of the meat is.
04:20And I feel like once that's secured,
04:22the ties on the ends are a little easier.
04:24And once that's been completed,
04:27we can do an optional step,
04:28a sort of pulling down the skin wherever it's cinched up.
04:31Okay, it's not really a big deal,
04:33and you don't have to.
04:35I mean, you are after all the Loretta Lynn,
04:37of your porchetta skin.
04:39But I do think it looks a little nicer,
04:41if that skin's nice and tight.
04:44And that's it.
04:44We'll go ahead and grab that,
04:45and bring it over to our roasting pan.
04:48But before we place it on the rack,
04:50I'm going to add some diced celery,
04:51carrots, and onions to the bottom of the pan.
04:54Just to get those beautiful aromatics as we roast.
04:57Plus, as you'll see,
04:59it's going to make our optional gravy much more delicious later.
05:02And once those are in and our rack is down,
05:05we'll place our turkey on top.
05:06And then I like to take a paper towel,
05:08and make sure the skin is dry,
05:10as well as maybe brush off a few pieces of rosemary,
05:14since I enjoy a fairly pristine golden brown skin.
05:17And then before this goes in the oven,
05:19we'll go ahead and season the top with some more salt.
05:22At which point this is ready to transfer into the upper center
05:25of a 475 degree oven for exactly 30 minutes.
05:30At which point we'll lower our heat to 300,
05:33and we'll let that cook for another 45 minutes or so,
05:36or until we've hit our desired internal temp,
05:39which for me is between 145 and 150.
05:42And that's it.
05:43Once done, we'll go ahead and pull that out.
05:45And we will immediately transfer that onto a plate.
05:48And we will very loosely cover that with foil.
05:52At which point we're going to let that rest
05:53for a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes.
05:56And while our meat's resting, if you want,
05:59and trust me, you really do,
06:00we will transfer our roasted vegetable bits
06:02into a saucepan with some melted butter,
06:05set over medium heat.
06:07And what we'll do is transfer in some flour,
06:09and we will cook that stirring for about 2 or 3 minutes.
06:13And no, those burned black bits are not going to be a problem.
06:16They're actually going to give our gravy a beautiful deeper color,
06:19and any almost undetectable flavor they do add
06:22would be a very subtle bittersweetness,
06:24which will actually help amplify all the other flavors.
06:28So I know they look like a problem,
06:30but they are so not a problem.
06:31And once we have cooked our flour a little bit,
06:35we will transfer in some cold chicken or turkey broth.
06:38And yes, mine was homemade,
06:40which is why it looks gelatinous.
06:42And as you well know,
06:43if you stir a cold liquid into a hot roux,
06:46you will never, under any circumstances, have lumps.
06:49So we'll go ahead and whisk that in,
06:52and we'll raise our heat to medium high,
06:54and we will cook this stirring occasionally,
06:56until it starts to boil.
06:57And once it does,
06:59that's as thick as your sauce is going to get.
07:02And if that's too thick for you,
07:04just simply add some more broth.
07:06Or if it's too thin,
07:07just simply reduce it a bit.
07:09But other than those adjustments,
07:10and of course tasting for seasoning,
07:13our gravy is ready to use.
07:15And I am going to strain it before I do.
07:17But of course that's up to you.
07:19And that's it once our gravy's done,
07:21and our turkey porchetta is rested,
07:24we'll go ahead and slice in.
07:25And if everything's gone according to plan,
07:29when you reveal the cross-section,
07:31it should look exactly like two turkey claws coming at you.
07:34Oh yeah, look at those talons.
07:37So I was absolutely thrilled with how that looked,
07:40and I proceeded to slice up one half,
07:42before transferring it into a platter for service,
07:45on top of some mustard greens,
07:47along with some simple but beautifully roasted potatoes.
07:49And then I finished up by ladling over a little bit of our gravy,
07:53plus one more nice big pinch of chili flakes.
07:57And by the way, in real life,
07:58just sauce the turkey once it's on the plate.
08:01All right, I just did this,
08:02because I have to take some contractually obligated pictures.
08:05And I really wanted those to include some glistening gravy.
08:08And that's it, our turkey porchetta is ready to enjoy.
08:12Which I'm going to do by eating one piece right out of the platter,
08:15because I simply couldn't wait.
08:17It was just looking and smelling so incredible.
08:20And that, my friends, really was a phenomenal bite of roast turkey.
08:24And after that little bit of a chef snack,
08:26I went ahead and plated up one properly.
08:29And after applying some of that gravy to my potatoes and meat,
08:32I tossed on a pinch of chili flakes,
08:35and then grabbed a fork and knife to go in for the official taste.
08:39And as far as the texture goes,
08:41as long as you do pull this at 145 to 150 internal temp,
08:45you're going to have absolutely beautiful, tender, juicy meat.
08:48And while the times and temps in your grandma's cookbook might disagree with me,
08:52it is perfectly safe,
08:54and far superior to that dry meat you would have gotten.
08:57And as far as the taste goes,
08:59I know garlic is not classically paired with holiday turkey,
09:02but pretty much every other ingredient we used is.
09:05And because garlic does work so well with all those things,
09:08I think you'll agree with me that it works really, really well here.
09:12And as I said earlier,
09:14I was very aggressive with the amount of seasoning,
09:17as I usually am.
09:18But other than the salt,
09:20if you wanted to cut down on some of the ingredient amounts
09:22for something slightly more subtle,
09:24that is totally up to you.
09:27But no matter what you do,
09:28I think this poor kind of preparation
09:30is perfect for a boneless turkey breast.
09:32And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
09:37So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
09:40a printable written recipe,
09:41and much more info as usual.
09:44And as always,
09:46enjoy.
09:47ceux..
09:48ooooh
09:49o Ω
09:50o
09:51o
09:51i
09:51o
09:52o
09:53o
09:53o
09:54o
09:55o
09:55o
09:56Amen.
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