How are you going to cook your bird?

I like the traditional roast turkey with my mom's special rice stuffing.  It's the stuffing that I crave, however I've made the stuffing by baking it with chicken stock before, adding more and more chicken stock as it cooks to really instill a poultry flavor, and it comes out damn close to the stuffed version.  I've fried a bird in the past and loved that too.  I've never done the brine thing, but was thinking I might try that this year.  And now the beer can thing seems like a nice idea too.  What are you doing for T-giving?

-Allen

Gonna go island style and make a pseudo-kalua turkey.  I'll rub it down with shoyu, sea salt, and liquid smoke, and then wrap it all in taro or banana leaves.  It'll then be slow baked and shredded.  I've done it a few times, and it's a nice twist......

Wow that sounds awesome. Any links to the recipe?

Z

It's sort of an ongoing evolution in my head, but I'll check my notebook tonight and see if I can post the latest recipe.

Edit:  After searching a bit for something similar, I found this:

http://alohaworld.com/ono/viewrecipe.php?id=1097543034

I use Hawaiian sea salt (Available at Uwajimaya or other large Asian grocer), and add Aloha brand (low sodium!!! - white label) shoyu to the liquid smoke.  Really rub the smoke/shoyu mixture into the bird.  Same goes for the salt.  Massage everything into the bird - both inside and out.  I've never used a base of foil, either, as I like the taste/essence of the leaves (much like lau lau).  If you buy the leaves at Uwajimaya, purchase 2 bundles.  Ti leaves are best, but taro or banana will work.  Really seal the bird into a cocoon using the leaves.  This keeps all of the moisture in, and is probably the easiest step to mess up.  Oven-ready string will help the leaves stay in place.  I've never done the two increasing oven temps, and have always started low and left it there all day.  Somewhere around 250-ish, depending on bird size and time.  Once the bird is done, and the leaves are unwrapped, shred the meat, and, before serving, soak the shredded meat in the pan juices for 5-10 minutes.  This really gives it the true kalua flavor.  We've usually just served it with rice and made small pupu dishes to do with it.  Spam musubi and Filipino lumpia are good accessories for this bird.

Lemm know if you are set on trying it; I'll check the notebook for official numbers.....