Brothers G. William and Christopher Copeland, private chefs who have cooked at and managed several Wilmington restaurants, gave us their version of traditional Thanksgiving turkey for our feature on how local chefs prepare turkeys.
“We didn’t invent it,” G. William Copeland said. “It was kind of passed down from the gods themselves.”
The Copeland Brothers recipe:
In a disposable aluminum pan, I like to have a single layer of large cuts of onion, celery and carrot. I toss those with oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf.
Then there’s the butter. And as for my bird, pat dry with a towel and then rub that sucker up with butter. I mean, a whole pound just coating the outside of it, with a little salt and pepper too. Then shove another half pound inside after removing the neck and organs, which I place in the pan next to the turkey.
I preheat my over to 500 and put the pan on the lowest rack for 30 mins. Then I turn the oven down to 350 and let the oven do the work. Turning the pan every so often. Basting here and there. It’s a lot of work to get turkey right, but come on, this is what everyone is waiting for.
Maintain vigilance. You’re waiting for the center of the turkey breast to reach 165 degrees. Usually about two and a half hours. But it all depends on the size.
When the turkey is done, you want it to rest for a little bit, or the juices will all be lost when you carve it.
While you wait – and it can be a hellish wait, I know – I usually strain all the drippings from the pain and use that to start my gravy. That’s a whole other story, though.
