Tying a Turkey Is Actually Quite Easy (If Needed)
Tying a turkey, or a chicken for that matter, is a lot easier than you think. When I hear the word “farm,” I often think of pork tenderloin or other long, boneless roast that is tied with several knots to help the roast maintain its shape. Tying a whole bird is not like that at all. With a few simple steps and a little kitchen string, you can shape your bird beautifully for baking.
Need to rouse a turkey?
In case you didn’t know, you don’t have to tie up the Thanksgiving turkey . You can cook the turkey to save time and achieve more even cooking, or simply roast it in sections . However, if farms are an important part of your Thanksgiving plans, I would be happy to help you with that.
How to Tie a Turkey
Tying meat usually means tying it in a certain way to maintain an attractive shape. This shape of a turkey or chicken looks like a rounded breast, neatly tucked wings and modestly positioned legs.
To do this, once your bird is properly thawed, the neck and giblets removed, and the turkey thoroughly brined , you should place it breast side down on a baking sheet. I place mine on a rack over a sheet to allow the juices to drain and to make the bird less slippery.
1. Pin the skin of the neck
Turkeys are usually left with a fairly large flap of skin on the neck. It can be attached to the back of the bird, which will give it a neat, rounded shape. It is also helpful to keep the ingredients in the cavity if you are stuffing the turkey.
Take a long bamboo skewer and pierce the skin on the back, one side of the neck with it and secure it on the other side in the same way. If you don’t have a long skewer or you’re tying a much smaller bird, you can do this with two toothpicks, one on each side.
2. Tuck your wings in
Turn the turkey over so that the breast is facing the ceiling. You will see the wings on the sides of your bird cool down, with the sharp tips of the wings pointing upward. If you leave it like this, the ends will likely burn, so tuck them in to prevent this. You can wrap them in foil, but today we will tie them.
With one hand, bend the wing down over the joint and with the other hand, lift the breast up while tucking the wing tip down. It will simply catch on where you attached the neck skin. If the bird is properly defrosted, this will not be difficult. Repeat this on the other side. If you’re stuffing a turkey, now is the time to do it; before the legs are tied.
3. Tie the legs
The last step is tying the turkey legs. You may have seen some tying techniques where you need legs of kitchen twine and you wrap the body first and then loop it to tie the legs. This is not necessary since we have already secured the wings.
Cut and prepare about 10 inches of kitchen string. Cross your shins at the bones – they will sort of neatly hook into each other – and wrap the crossed bones with a rope. There’s no need to complicate this too much. Wrap the rope three or four times and tie the ends. Honestly, if it’s wrapped enough, you won’t even have to tie a knot, you can just tuck the string between the legs.
And in this way the farm was reached. Your turkey should probably now look like a perfect cartoon turkey. Well, at least when it comes out of the oven, it will. Proceed to roast the turkey as directed in your recipe, and if you don’t have one, here is a good simple recipe with cooking times and temperatures.