Apples and Sage are quintessential holiday flavors and pair beautifully with turkey. We created a glaze to add layers of deliciousness to our turkey. The challenge was to achieve this without using butter, in order to accommodate some of our guests who were unable to consume dairy.
We reduced apples and onions with a few other secret ingredients to create a blast of flavor and received rave reviews, some even stated it was the best turkey they had ever tasted. Of course it would not hurt one bit to make a compound butter by mixing dried or fresh sage and unsalted butter to rub under the skin to enrich the drippings and enhance the gravy.
Another detail to note is that we grilled, smoked and roasted the turkey on our EVO Professional Grill. We gave this process a fair amount of thought and received some great tips from Chef Adam Zwerling from EVO America. First he suggested that we elevate the turkey on a rack to promote golden caramelized skin and prevent burning. We thought this was a great idea but what about the yummy drippings for our Applewood Bacon-Sage Gravy? I pondered this dilemma and wondered if the round grill rack would hold my 15 lb turkey and fit into my favorite 22″ paella pan, to catch the drippings. To my delight it was a perfect fit and even left room to add some olive oil coated garlic bulbs to roast along side.
Now that we had the correct set up to place on the grill, it was clear that we would be using indirect heat, so the question still remained how were we going to brown it? Adam felt it was crucial to create enough heat convection room for roasting and smoking. Unfortunately the EVO’s hood/lid was not tall enough to accommodate our turkey-rack set up, so again at Adam’s suggestion we purchased an inexpensive galvanized wash tub to use as a hood thus creating an oven for the roasting part. We decided to completely wrap the tub in foil to keep it clean and free of any grease splatter, which would allow us to use it as an beverage cooler later. Using heavy duty foil also allowed us to easily create a wrap around handle that we looped into the the light weight tub making it easy to pull the hood on and off.
We had a bit of extra room under the hood so we added a can of apple wood chips to create smoky flavor, complimenting the Spiced Apple Brine that we used, Apple Sage Glaze (recipe below) and the Applewood Bacon-Sage Gravy.
GLAZE
On medium high, heat oil in a medium saucepan.
Add the onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
Add the serrano chile and cook for 1 minute.
Add the sugar and vinegar and cook until the sugar has melted.
Stir in the chopped apples and cook until the apples are soft and the mixture is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
Add the apple liquor and cook until reduced.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Place the apple mixture in a food processor and add the sage. Pulse until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cool to room temperature. Separate the glaze into two containers, one for glazing the turkey while cooking and the other reserved fpr serve with the cooked turkey.
TURKEY
If using an EVO grill follow our tips in this post. Heat the center burner and outer burners on low approx (250-275 deg.). Place the turkey on a round rack inside an oversized paella pan like we did or simply use a traditional roasting pan and preferably a flat rack. Lightly brush the brined, air dried and spatchcocked turkey with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
Cover the turkey with the galvanized hood to enclose the cook surface and wood chip canister. After the bird cooks for about 30 minutes, turn off the center burner, pour 1 C of chicken broth into the pan adding more as needed during cooking and add the prepared garlic bulbs to the rack next to the turkey.
Continue to cook with only the outer burner running on a medium low setting for an additional 2 plus hours until a thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 155-160 degrees F.
During the last 15 minutes of cooking begin to brush the turkey all over with the glaze.
Remove from the grill and brush with more of the glaze. Allow bird to rest at least 30 minutes before slicing which will bring the temperature up about 10 degrees and set the juices. When ready to serve slice and brush one last time with glaze. Serve with reserved glaze, Raw Grand Marnier-Ginger Cranberry Relish, and Applewood Bacon-Sage Gravy. Enjoy!
SHOP EVO GRILL
Apple-Sage Flat Iron Grilled Turkey
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 15-20 1x
INGREDIENTS
Glaze
- 1 T olive oil, plus more for brushing on the turkey and coating the garlic
- 1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 serrano chile, seeded and coarsely chopped
- 1 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 Granny Smith medium apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
- 2–3 Garlic Bulbs, tops sliced off to expose cloves and drizzled with olive oil.
- 3 T chopped fresh sage leaves
- 3 T of apple liquor such as Berentzen Apfel
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Turkey
- 1 whole (15-20 pound) spatchcocked turkey
- Up to 4 C of reserved homemade turkey stock or chicken stock.
INSTRUCTIONS
Glaze
- On medium high, heat oil in a medium saucepan.
- Add the onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
- Add the serrano chile and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the sugar and vinegar and cook until the sugar has melted.
- Stir in the chopped apples and cook until the apples are soft and the mixture is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Add the apple liquor and cook until reduced.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Place the apple mixture in a food processor and add the sage. Pulse until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cool to room temperature.
- Separate the glaze into two containers, one for glazing the turkey while cooking and the other reserved to serve with the cooked turkey.
Turkey
- If using an EVO grill follow our tips in this post.
- Heat the center burner and outer burners on low approx (250-275 deg.). Place the turkey on a round rack inside an oversized paella pan like we did or simply use a traditional roasting pan and preferably a flat rack.
- Lightly brush the brined, air dried and spatchcocked turkey with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Cover the turkey with the galvanized hood to enclose the cook surface and wood chip canister. After the bird cooks for about 30 minutes, turn off the center burner, pour 1 C of chicken broth into the pan adding more as needed during cooking and add the prepared garlic bulbs to the rack next to the turkey.
- Continue to cook with only the outer burner running on a medium low setting for an additional 2 plus hours until a thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 155-160 degrees F.
- During the last 15 minutes of cooking begin to brush the turkey all over with the glaze.
- Remove from the grill and brush with more of the glaze. Allow bird to rest at least 30 minutes before slicing which will bring the temperature up about 10 degrees and set the juices.
- When ready to serve slice and brush one last time with glaze. Serve with reserved glaze, Raw Grand Marnier-Ginger Cranberry Relish, and Applewood Bacon-Sage Gravy. Enjoy!
NOTES
Glaze Adapted From | Bobby Flay
