How to Make Holiday Cooking Stress-Free Part Three

The Easiest and Juiciest Turkey + A Holiday Timeline + Holiday Cooking Thread

We are officially 10 days away. If you’re not prepared, you’re going to have a Clark Griswold Turkey situation on your hands. But fret not, friend. I’ve got the solution. With all my resources, you will be the turkey guru to your friends and family from now on and you can do it all stress-free.

We are on Part Three of my three part series: How to Make Holiday Cooking Stress Free

• Part One: Everything But the Bird This Friday, November 8 in the evening, I will be sending all my paid subscribers an Ebook with over 20 real food recipes for everything from appetizers to sides, brunch to leftovers, including drinks, too.

• Part Two: Prepare for Success - Last week I share all my very favorite tools, pans and other kitchen equipment to make preparing your holiday feasts enjoyable. From the absolute necessities to those I dream of receiving, in this post, I’m spilling the tea on all of it!

• Part Three: Real Food Sanity Holiday Edition - Today I’m sharing my method for the juiciest bird (Hint: no hoisting a 10 lb bird out of slimy turkey water) and my meal prep secrets for making holiday dinners in advance so you can actually enjoy the day. I’ve included a downloadable PDF at the bottom to help you get it done little by little and I’ve opened up something special for you, too. Keep reading to find out what it is.

Last Day (seriously this time) for my Holiday Discount

Today, November 18th at 11:59 CST, this offer will go away.

Get full access to my digital holiday cookbook, "Everything But the Bird”, the PDF for today’s post, an invitation to my chat community so you can reach out to me directly while prepping for holiday meals (see more on this below) or any time thereafter, Weekly Budget Friendly Meal Plans in an organized PDF, and more at 20% off for the year making it under $1.25 a week!

The First and Biggest Step to Roasting a Juicy Turkey

Roasting the turkey has always been the most daunting task for Thanksgiving. Then one year, I tried something new and haven’t turned back.

Brining

If you no idea what this word means, it is simply a method for infusing food with flavor. Some meat, especially very lean meats without brining can be dry and flavorless. There are two ways to brine meat and I will first break down what each means then I will share my experiences with both.

1. Wet Brining - A combination of salt, sugar (sometimes), herbs and spices with water. Meat sits in the brine bath for 8 and up to 48 hours depending on the cut of meat. An example of wet brining are my Double Espresso Pork Chops

2. Dry Brining - A combination of salt, sugar (sometimes), herbs and spices. The mixture is rubbed all over meat and the sits uncovered in the fridge for up to a few days but really only needs an hour or two if it’s a boneless cut.

Wet Brining

Have you ever tried to brine a 12-16 pound bird? Bathing a wiggly infant is FAR easier and you don’t have to worry about salmonella if they splash!

For several years, we wet brined turkeys in an ice chest and had to keep it cold which may or may not be easy in any given year in November. Besides the salmonella splash risk, there was also the question of what to do with half an ice chest full of cold turkey water once we were done. Then the cleanup that had to take place made me feel like I needed a hazmat suit on.

Then there’s the aftercare to prepare wet-brined birds for cooking. There are two steps once you wrestle them out of the water.

1. Rinse them well to remove excess salt

2. Dry them well to make sure they will get a good sear.

With the mess and extra steps, needless to say, I’m not a fan of this method, at least for turkey and chicken.

Dry Brining

I discovered this method probably in the last 8-10 years. I don’t remember exactly when, but it’s a game changer. Now I use this method not only for whole turkeys and chickens, but steaks, ribs and even chicken breasts.

Dry Brining allows the meat to be dry on the surface when you start cooking, so you get that crispy outside. It only requires two steps.

1. Prepare your dry rub mixture.

2. Rub it on.

Once you’re ready to cook there’s nothing else to do.

Resources for Make Your Holiday Cooking Stress-Free

Turkey Method and Holiday Meal Prep Timeline

I’ve created a PDF that will give you not only all the steps to my juicy turkey method, but also the Real Food Sanity meal prep method for getting everything else made in advance. Download below.

Holiday Cooking Hotline

I’ve created a Holiday Cooking Chat Thread for any questions regarding holiday cooking. Please start your post with your question in ALL CAPS. This will help me know I need to answer ASAP. You can always ask me questions or comment in the chat. It’s really meant to be our community gathering place to share kind of like a Facebook group without the algorithm. But consider this particular thread your Holiday Cooking Hotline.