Maple-Bourbon Glazed Turkey
This Maple-Bourbon Glazed Turkey is the show stopping dish you need this Thanksgiving! It's gloriously juicy throughout and it's slathered in the most incredible maple-bourbon glaze and roasted to crispy perfection.Spatchcocking the turkey saves time and oven space and ensures that your turkey cooks evenly throughout (no more dry white meat!). And I cannot say enough about the glaze! It comes together with butter, maple syrup, dijon, sage, thyme, and bourbon--it's so good you'll want to put it on everything.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Makes: 10 - 14 servings
Ingredients
Dry-Brined Turkey
- 12-14 lb turkey, defrosted
- 1/3 cup kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage
- 2 yellow onions, quartered
- 4 large carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 bulb of garlic, top removed to expose the cloves
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 4 sprigs sage
- 1 1/2 cups turkey stock
- 1 cup white wine
Maple-Bourbon Glaze
- 2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 3 tablespoons bourbon
Instructions
- Mix the dry brine. In a small bowl, mix together the salt, pepper, sugar, and sage. Set aside.
- Prep the turkey. First, remove the neck and giblets from the turkey cavity and make sure it’s completely defrosted (if using a frozen turkey). Place the turkey on a large cutting board and pat it very dry with paper towels. Make sure your cutting board is stable--if it doesn't have rubber feet, place a wet paper towel under the cutting board to keep it from sliding. Arrange the turkey breast-side down on the cutting board with the legs facing you.
- Spatchcock the turkey. Using heavy-duty kitchen shears, cut along one side of the turkey spine, separating it from the ribs. Be sure to cut as close to the spine as you can so that you do not end up discarding any more of the turkey meat than necessary. Repeat on the other side of the spine. Flip the turkey so that the breasts face upward and the legs face outward. Using the palm of your hands, press along the breast bone. You should hear a small crack and the bird should lay flat.
- Coat the turkey with the dry brine. Use your fingers to separate some of the skin from the breast and leg meat to create some space. Rub the salt mixture into the turkey all over, including on the underside and under the skin so that the bird is well coated. Place the turkey on a baking sheet, breast side up, and transfer to the fridge uncovered for 24 hours, up to 48 hours.
- Preheat an oven to 400 F.
- Make the glaze. Combine the butter, maple syrup, dijon, and herbs in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the bourbon and stir well. Set aside to cool.
- Prep the turkey for roasting. Remove the turkey from the fridge an hour before you plan to cook it. Add the onions, carrots, herbs, and garlic to the bottom of a roasting pan and pour in the wine and turkey stock. Place the turkey, breast side up, in the roasting pan on top of the veggies. Transfer the roasting pan to the oven.
- Roast and baste the turkey. Let the turkey roast for 45 minutes. Then, baste the turkey liberally every 10-15 minutes with the maple-bourbon butter, until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the turkey leg reaches 160 F, about 80-90 minutes total cooking time. If parts of the turkey start to get too dark, tent those areas with foil. Remove the turkey from the oven and carefully transfer just the turkey to a large cutting board and loosely tent it with foil. Let the turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving.
- You can discard the vegetables in the roasting pan and use the drippings to make my foolproof gravy.
Nutrition
Calories: 559kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 104gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 305mgSodium: 609mgPotassium: 1216mgFiber: 1gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 3561IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 80mgIron: 4mg
