Better than it looks!

“I’m going to have to email your Mom…”

My wife, Betsy, replied, “Yep.”

I had just made the best roasted turkey of my life and the planned Thanksgiving menu was going to have to come to a screeching halt to accommodate it.

Betsy and I normally spend Thanksgivings with her side of the family and over the years they’ve slowly relinquished control of most of the meal to me. There are, of course, exceptions. Betsy’s mom is always in charge of mashed potatoes and gravy because I can’t imagine that I could improve them in any way from her versions.

So, I’m normally in charge of the bird, stuffing, rolls, one or two sides, and maybe a pie or two if I’m feeling frisky. Normally, I just use Alton’s fantastic turkey brine recipe that makes a very solid bird.

Unfortunately though, I’m not sure I can ever go back to that recipe after trying the brine in this post. Hands down, best roasted turkey I’ve ever had.

I just did a turkey breast for this version, but you could easily cook an entire turkey with the same brine mixture. I intend to do just that in about 10 days.

Apple Cider Brined Turkey Breast

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours + overnight brine

Ingredients:

Note: If you want to do a whole turkey, just double this recipe.

1 whole turkey breast (5-6 pounds)
1 quart apple cider
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
4 whole star anise pods
3 garlic cloves
3 scallions, sliced
3 inches fresh ginger, sliced thick
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cinnamon stick
A few sprigs of cilantro
10 cups cold water

For cooking:
1 green apples
1 lemon

Helpful Equipment:
Digital Probe Thermometer

Directions:

1) Mix the cider, salt, soy sauce, and sugar in a medium pot and bring it to a simmer to dissolve the salt and sugar.

2) Add all the other brine ingredients except the turkey and the cold water. Let the brine simmer for about 5 minutes. Then kill the heat and let the brine slowly cool to room temperature.

3) Mix cold water in with brine and submerge turkey breast in brine. If you don't have enough brine to cover the whole turkey breast, just make sure the actual breast meat is submerged in the brine.

4) Stick this in the fridge overnight to brine.

5) When ready to cook, preheat oven to 475 degrees. Rinse off turkey breasts with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brine.

6) Slice apples into 1/4 inch slices. Add two slices of apple and the lemon (cut into eighths) into the cavity of the turkey.

7) Set turkey, breast side up, in a roasting pan on a bed of the sliced apples.

8) Cook turkey breast at 475 for 30 minutes. Then remove and insert digital thermometer.

9) Turn oven heat down to 350 degrees and cook turkey until it registered 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast, probably about another 75-90 minutes. If you don't have a probe thermometer, I would check the temperature after 60 minutes and go from there.

10) Once the turkey is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes.

11) Slice off each breast and slice them across the grain into 1/8-1/4 inch slices.

Adapted from November 2011 Bon Appetit.

Preparing the Brine

I’m not going to get into the science of why brining is good, but basically it results in a cooked turkey that’s much more moist than its unbrined brother due to the way that salt reacts with the proteins in the meat. Just trust me. It’s good and worth the time.

I’ll admit, there are a lot of ingredients in this brine. They all serve a purpose, but if you can’t find them all, don’t feel like you can’t make this brine. At the end of the day, I’d say 80% of the flavor comes from the apple cider. As long as you have that, you can make this happen.

The base of the brine and really all you need to make this if you’re in a pinch.

The basics of a brine.

Of course, if possible, any of these spices will just up the flavor complexity of the brine. Use as many of them as you can, but don’t freak out if you’re missing one.

Bring the cider, brown sugar, soy sauce, and salt to a simmer in a medium or large pot. Then add in all your spices and herbs. The only prep I did to my spices was chop my garlic cloves and scallions in half and slice my ginger into coins. Then just toss everything in the pot.

This will smell good.

Let this simmer for about 5 minutes, then kill the heat and let it slowly cool to room temperature. This will give plenty of time for the flavors to infuse into the brine.

Once the brine is room temperature, add the cold water and you’re ready to brine.

Brining the Bird

If you’re doing a full bird, make sure you have a large bucket or pot that can fit your entire bird. Most years, I use a small cooler for this honestly. It works great.

I was just doing a turkey breast though so I just used a large bowl and make sure that my breasts were submerged in the brine. When I do it with a full bird, I’ll make sure the whole bird is submerged.

That's a big bowl FYI.

Whatever device you use, cover it well and place it in a refrigerated place overnight. Depending on the temperature, sometimes I’ll just stash my turkey cooler setup outside somewhere or in a cool garage for the night. Just make sure your temperature outside is around or under 40 degrees and make sure rodents can’t get to it.

Cooking the Bird

When it’s time to cook, take your bird out of the brine and discard your brine. There’s no reason to keep it. It’s done all it can do to help us out.

Then rinse off your turkey really well with cold water. The brine is very salty and you don’t want it coating the bird. There’s plenty of flavor soaked into the bird. Trust me.

So rinse off the bird and then pat it dry with some paper towels.

At this point I’d recommend adding some lemons and apple slices to the cavity of the bird. This will just give it a bit more flavor and moisture as it cooks.

Stuffed with flavor.

The next step is very far from necessary in my mind, but Bon Appetit recommended it so I tried it out. I’m not entirely sure what it accomplished. Basically you just set the turkey on a bed of apple slices in the roasting pan.

It did make it a bit easier to take the bird out of the roaster after cooking because it wasn’t stuck to the pan at all.

I would call it an element of flare. It’s not necessary though by any stretch.

A bed of apples...

Lately I’ve used Alton’s technique when it comes to cooking turkey and it works really well.

Basically, you start the turkey in a super-hot, 475 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then pull the turkey out and insert your probe thermometer if you have one. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue to cook it until it reaches 165 degrees internally (thickest part of the breast in my case here, or thickest part of the thigh if you’re cooking a full bird).

This was my breast after 30 minutes cooking in the super-hot oven.

NOTE: If you’re using a probe thermometer you can’t have it in for this part of the cooking. It could melt.

After the high heat bake.

Total cooking time for your bird at this point will depend on a huge number of factors so I’m not even going to try. I’ll tell you that my 5-6 pound turkey breast here took about 70 minutes to finish cooking at 350 degrees.

If you’re doing a whole turkey, obviously this will be much longer, but in the past, my turkeys have finished in about 3 hours. The quick, hot cooking period at the beginning really speeds up the overall time. I can’t even imagine cooking a turkey without some sort of thermometer so just rely on yours to tell you when the bird is done.

If you are cooking a whole bird though, I high recommend watching Alton’s videos (sound!) to learn how to use a foil triangle to keep your breast meat from drying out. It cooks a lot faster than the dark meat so by covering it in foil, you can make sure the breast meat and dark meat are perfectly done at the same time. It’s a crucial technique and easy to do.

Resting and Slicing

Once your bird hits its temperature, pull it out, cover it in foil and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. This is maybe the most important part of the whole process. If you slice right into it, all the juices will run out and you’ll have a much dryer bird.

For my breasts, after they had rested I just sliced them off the breast bone so I could slice them up nicely.

These breasts are around 2 pounds each.

Then I slice them across the grain into thick coins. This is how I carve a full turkey also. It’s makes sure everyone gets some of the crispy skin and just makes it a lot easier to serve.

Very juicy.

I know you can’t smell this, but I’ll hold it up really close anyway.

It has a really faint apple cider and spice taste and smell that’s just out of this world.

Delicious piece of turkey.

Well, this has been a long post, but it’s an important one.

You still have over a week to make this happen for Thanksgiving. I highly, highly, recommend you give it a shot.

Have you brined a turkey? Have you apple cider brined a turkey? Leave a comment!

That said, the recipe still has some ingredients that may not be commonplace in your kitchen. But, if you are willing to make a few spice investments, this spice rubbed pork chop is definitely worth the effort.

This was a good plate of food.

There’s really three parts to this dish: The spice rubbed pork chop, the blackberry sauce, and the yam fries. I also made a very simple fresh corn salad that I served with it. I’ll give you that recipe at the end.

Pork Chops with Blackberry Sauce

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large boneless pork chops
2 large sweet potatoes for fries

Spice Rub (Adapted from the Red Sage Cookbook)
1 Teaspoon dried Thyme
1/8 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon allspice
1/2 Teaspoon star anise
1/2 Teaspoon coriander
1 Teaspoon Szechuan Pepper (or black pepper is fine)
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Blackberry Sauce (Adapted from the Red Sage Cookbook)
3 Ancho Chiles, I used dried but he used fresh which he roasted at 200 degrees for a few minutes.
2 Cups chicken stock, homemade is best
1 Cinnamon stick
2 pints blackberries
2 sprigs of mint
1 Tablespoon lime juice
4 Tablespoons sugar (he lists this as optional, but my sauce was very bitter without it.)

Seasoning Mix for Fries:
1 Tablespoon Chile Powder
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (my addition and I like it although I'll note that it's hot. If you don't like cayenne heat, decrease this or leave it out.)
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt

Directions:

1) Rub each chop with a liberal amount of rub and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Stick them in the fridge overnight to give the rub some time to really flavor the meat.

2) Chop up the peppers into cubes and add the peppers, stock, and cinnamon stick to a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to bubble.

3) Add the blackberries and mint and cook it for another 10 minutes or so.

4) Remove the cinnamon stick and mint from the sauce and blend it up until it is smooth.

5) Add the lime juice and taste for sugar (3 – 4 Tablespoons) and salt. Once it’s blended, strain it and pour it back to the saucepan.

Note: You can either keep the sauce on low heat so it stays warm or you could make it a few hours ahead and then reheat it when you need it.

6) Peel the yams and chop them into a normal fry shape. Mix the simple seasoning.

7) Take the chops out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook them so they can come up to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

8) Roasted the chops for about 30 minutes total, turning them halfway through the cooking time. You just need to cook them until they have an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

9) As soon as you stick the chops in the oven, heat a few quarts of canola or peanut oil in a large saucepan until it registers 350-360 degrees.

10) Toss in the fries and cook them until the bubbling stops (about 10-12 minutes a batch).

11) Toss the fries with the seasoning right away while they are hot.

12) Serve chops with fries and possibly a quick corn salad.

One thing that is really important when tackling a new recipe, especially if you think it may be a complicated one, is to break it down to it parts and then plan when you’re going to do what. This recipe broke down really nicely into those three parts and by the time my guests had arrived, I was done with about 90% of the work.

Let’s start at the very beginning, which for this recipe is the previous night.

Rubbing the Chops

I didn’t use the exact spice rub that Chef Miller gave in the book. I didn’t have Mexican oregano around (or any oregano at all for that matter) and I wanted to add some peppercorns to the mix. Other than adding the Szechuan Peppers and leaving out the oregano, this is what he intended.

For the visual learners:

Kind of intense.

As you can see, I used mostly whole spices because I had them. Use whatever you can find though and I would definitely encourage substitutions. I honestly wouldn’t recommend going out and buying all of these if you don’t have them. In my opinion, the most important spices for the rub are the coriander, cinnamon, and allspice.

After a quick spin in the grinder:

This smells awesome.

Now what you don’t want to do with this very amazing rub, is slather it on some cheap, thin chop. The rub would just overpower the meat. It’s definitely worth it to spend the extra money on some really nice, thick chops for this recipe.

Rub each chop with a liberal amount of rub and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Stick them in the fridge overnight to give the rub some time to really flavor the meat.

No need to go light on the rub.

So the chops are basically done. All we have to do is actually cook them. Let’s move on to item two which is the blackberry sauce.

Making the Blackberry Sauce

I was really skeptical about how this sauce would work out but surprisingly, Chef Miller knows how to make an awesome sauce that pairs perfectly with the chops. That was a joke by the way. It’s silly that I would ever be skeptical of something that a chef of his caliber would make.

All you really need to do to make this is to chop up the peppers into cubes and add the peppers, stock, and cinnamon stick to a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to bubble. Then add the blackberries and mint and cook it for another 10 minutes or so.

Then remove the cinnamon stick and mint from the sauce and blend it up until it is smooth. Add the lime juice and taste for sugar and salt. I had to add about 3-4 Tablespoons of sugar to remove some of the bitterness from my sauce. It was really tasty though at that point.

Pretty solid sauce.

Once it’s blended, I would recommend straining it and pouring it back to the saucepan. I let my sauce bubble for another 10 minutes or so to thicken it a bit more. You can either keep it over low heat so it stays warm or you could make it a few hours ahead and then reheat it when you need it.

Making the Fries

Ok. So Chef Miller serves this chop with yam chips, but I don’t have a mandolin so I decided fries would be a safer bet.

I did 3 yams for 4 people and I think I would do 4 if I were doing it again because these suckers were delicious.

Basically, just peel them and chop them into your normal fry shape.

Sliced and diced.

Again for the visual learners on the seasoning for the fries:

Maybe too much cayenne...

Roasting the Chops

Take your chops out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook them so they can come up to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I would have messed up cooking these chops big time. I probably would’ve tried to sear these chops in a hot pan and it would’ve been a disaster. The spice rub on these guys would’ve burned instantly. Chef Miller recommends roasting them on a rack so that they roast evenly and the rub doesn’t get scorched.

Ready for roasting.

This worked like a charm! I roasted them for about 30 minutes total, turning them halfway through the cooking time. You just need to cook them until they have an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

Cooking the Fries

The timing works out perfectly to start cooking your fries as soon as you stick your chops in the oven. Heat a few quarts of canola or peanut oil in a large saucepan until it registers 350-360 degrees.

Then toss in the fries and cook them until the bubbling stops. I found that they need to cook for about 10-12 minutes a batch. Don’t throw too many in at once or it will just decrease your oil temperature and you won’t end up with an awesome crispy fry.

A fry like this:

Addictive. Seriously addictive.

Toss the fries with the seasoning right away while they are hot. Once my guests arrived all I had to do was finish off the fries and plate everything!

So excellent.

As you can see, I also served a simple corn salad with this which was just fresh corn, blanched green beans, halved grape tomatoes and scallions. I tossed those ingredients in a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and let it chill in the fridge until I needed it.

Ok. So this meal may look intimidating, but if you deconstruct it into its parts, it isn’t really all that bad. That said, if you make anything out of this meal, make the fries with the seasoned salt mix. Those were incredibly tasty.

Helpful Equipment for this Post:

- A mandolin (if you want chips instead of fries)
- Spice Grinder
- Rack for roasting

I abandoned microwave popcorn years ago and have never really looked back. Popcorn is dirt cheap and once you know how to correctly make it on the stove you can experiment with all kinds of interesting toppings. I’ve made two other varieties of popcorn before on Macheesmo, the caramel variety in that post is especially delicious.

One of the things I’ve been trying out more recently is using whole spices and mixing my own spice mixtures. A few weeks ago I worked out a pretty solid Five Spice powder and turns out you can put it on popcorn!

Not shabby!

There are a lot of different varieties of five spice powder, but most involve something with some heat, something with an anise flavor, cinnamon, and in most cases clove. It’s normally put on cuts of meat like duck and chicken, but I figured it might work great on popcorn.

The nice thing about this spice powder is that it is pretty flexible. If you like more heat, add more peppercorns. If you don’t like anise so much, substitute the fennel seeds or star anise with something like ground ginger or maybe coriander.

Below is the mix I made and I thought it was a good start, but if you try this, taste it and adjust to your liking.

Five Spice Popcorn

Yield: A big bowl of popcorn

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Five Spice Powder:
1 part ground cloves (1/2 Teaspoon)
2 part Cassia or cinnamon (1 Teaspoon)
6 parts fennel seed (1 Tablespoon)
6 parts star anise (about 8.)
12 parts Szechuan peppercorn (2 Tablespoons)

Helpful Equipment:
Spice Grinder (Nothing fancy, but this one gets the job done.)

Directions:

1) Lightly toast spices for a few minutes over medium heat.

2) Grind up in spice grinder.

3) Get a medium to large saucepan. It needs a tight fitting lid.

4) Sprinkle some popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan until they cover the bottom in a single layer. If you do any more than that, they most likely won’t all pop.

5) Pour in vegetable or canola oil until the oil just covers the kernels.

6) Put the lid on tight and put it over medium-high heat. In a few minutes the kernels should start popping! Once they do, hold the lid on the pot with one hand and gentle shake the pan with the other hand.

7) After about a minute or two, the kernels should all (or mostly) be popped!

8) Pour the popcorn into a bowl and sprinkle some salt and five spice powder on it right away while it’s still hot.

I tried to use all whole spices for this powder. If you are interested in trying this out but can’t find some of these, I highly recommend Penzeys Spices. They sell quality stuff. Also, if you live in a metropolitan area, you can probably find most of these at an Asian market.

Smells good!

I used a good amount of peppercorns cause I wanted some heat to the powder. I think I may actually up it even more if I were to make this again. I think the ratios I listed above are a good starting point though. Adjust according to your tastes as I said.

For the whole spices, I decided to lightly toast them to bring out some of the flavors even more. The peppercorns definitely benefited from the toasting. I’m actually not sure that I would toast the others if I was making it again. I don’t know that it added much and you run the risk of burning them.

Toasting these guys is a good idea.

If you do toast them up, just keep a close eye on them. They will only need a few minutes over medium heat.

Then buzz them up in your spice grinder! You should end up with a pretty fine powder. It’s okay to have some difference in sizes though. It gives it some texture.

Be careful with the fumes!

Oh and don’t forget the fifth ingredient! I used this Vietnamese stuff because I have a mild spice addiction. It definitely is more intense than the normal cinnamon, but I think you could use the normal stuff and be just fine.

Go light with this stuff.

Making the popcorn

Making popcorn on the stove is super easy. Once you try it once you’ll never go back. It honestly takes about the same time as microwave popcorn. Ok. Maybe it takes like five minutes total, but it’s SO much better.

Get a medium to large saucepan. I’ve made popcorn in a bunch of different pots over the years and the only really important thing is that it has a tight fitting lid.

Sprinkle some popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan until they cover the bottom in a single layer. If you do any more than that, they most likely won’t all pop.

Then pour in vegetable or canola oil until the oil just covers the kernels. For this version I tried adding a little butter also, but I think just oil works best.

Just covered is the key. I poured some of this out.

Put the lid on tight and put it over medium-high heat. In a few minutes the kernels should start popping! Once they do, hold the lid on the pot with one hand and gentle shake the pan with the other hand. The goal is to keep the kernels moving so they don’t burn while also keeping the pan on the heat. After about a minute or two, the kernels should all (or mostly) be popped!

Pour the popcorn into a bowl and sprinkle some salt and five spice powder on it right away while it’s still hot.

Adjust the spice and salt to your tastes, but that’s pretty much it!

Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks.

This isn’t exactly how five spice powder is intended to be used, but I found it to be pretty good. If I were to make it again, I think I would increase the peppercorn and maybe add some coriander or something to give it a bit more complexity. I think the real key is to go light on the cinnamon. It can very quickly overpower the spice mix.

You can store any leftover spice mix in an airtight container.

Has anyone else made this before or have any other spices suggestions? Leave a comment!

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