Really Garlicky Turkey

One of my favorite restaurants is the Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills,CA. If you're not familiar, they specialize in everything garlic - right down to garlic ice cream for dessert. A few years ago, I integrated my love for this unique, aromatic and somewhat tangy bulb into my Thanksgiving meals. I'm salivating while jotting this down this Thanksgiving recipe.

Items needed-

Turkey pan

Food injector

Large fork

Small pot

Ingredients needed-

Whole Turkey (I use 18-23 lbs)

2-3 large (or elephant) garlic bulbs, peeled

-or one cup of fresh crushed garlic

One cup of vegetable or canola oil

One stick (or quarter) of butter

3 tablespoons of garlic powder (fine ground works best but if you have coarse grind, or California style, the granules will probably clog the injector syringe)

¼ cup of water

Preheat oven at 300 degrees. Clean and prepare turkey as normal or according to instructions. Place turkey in pan and place about 6 bulbs inside. If using crushed garlic, rub entire cup along the inside walls of the turkey. Cover and cook as normal (I usually cook over night, which comes to about 9-10 hours).

In the last hour of baking turkey, melt butter in pot with garlic powder. Do not brown or scorch butter. Once liquefied, add oil and blend together. Let mixture cool and assemble food injector for use. Keep water nearby to thin out mixture. If you used a coarse grind garlic powder for the marinade, you may want to use a paper towel or mesh strainer to thin out before adding water so that much of the flavor is kept.

I brown my bird in the last half hour of cooking so after removing foil or cover, I inject the garlic marinade.

If you have never used a food injector for meat, it is easy -

1. Make sure your liquid is no hotter than room temperature.
2. 
   
3. Double check syringe so that it is screwed on tightly as well as plunger cap
4. 
   
5. Press down on plunger to make sure all air is out
6. 
   
7. Once in liquid or marinade, slowly draw back plunger until filled
8. 
   
9. If you draw back air, try another area or add water to thin out

Once you have gotten the hang of using a food injector, choose the areas to inject. My preferences are the breasts, wings and legs - in that order, since white meat tends to be the driest.

Use leftover marinade to coat skin, if any. If not, then melted butter will do the trick in the tradition of a Thanksgiving turkey recipe. Of course diluted drippings can be used for dressing/stuffing side dishes.