Sous Vide Thanksgiving Turkey

Pouring gravy over the top of the turkey.

5 from 1 vote

Sous Vide Thanksgiving Turkey will change your life! No longer will you stress about achieving the perfect bird. This free's up your oven for pies, bread, and stuffing!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Sous Vide Time1

Total Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 161kcal

Author: Mike Cleavenger

Equipment

Ingredients

12 pound Turkey
8 leaves fresh sage

Instructions

Fill up a large container with 10 quarts of water. Place your sous vide stick in the water bath and preheat to 150°F.
At this point, remove your turkey breast and legs from the brine and rinse under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels so the turkey will get a nice sear. Note- if you did not brine your turkey, you will need to separate the breast and leg/thigh meat from the bird.
In a large non-stick pan, sear turkey parts in a bit of avocado oil to get a nice sear on both sides. Cook for 2 minutes per side over medium-high heat. Set aside.
Place breast meat in a large 2-gallon ziplock bag and leg meat in another ziplock bag. Divide sage leaves among the two ziplock bags. We will cook the legs first so place the breast meat in the refrigerator.
Place the bag of turkey legs into the 150°F water bath and cook for 12 hours or overnight. Drop the temperature down to 135°F and cook breast meat for 12 hours while leaving the leg/thigh meat still in there.
Twenty minutes before it's time to eat, remove turkey from sous vide. In a non-stick pan, sear turkey a second time to get that crispy skin. Enjoy your favorite Thanksgiving day sides!

Notes

Mike's Tips

Start off by placing your leg meat in sous vide at 150°F for 12 hours or overnight. Turn down the precision cooker to 135°F, drop in the bag of turkey breast and cook for another 12 hours. Leave the turkey legs in while you sous vide the breast meat. It is important to start a day of ahead so you have plenty of time to cook your turkey.

Fill your sous vide container with hot water from the tap to help the precision cooker come to temperature faster.

Pre-sear turkey pieces to make crisping up the skin at the end faster.

We highly recommend doing a wet or dry brine on the turkey for the best results.

You can leave Turkey inside sous vide hot water bath for up to 24 hours, giving you plenty of time to get those Thanksgiving sides ready.

Save turkey necks, wings, and carcasses for turkey stock and gravy.

This is a large bird so use large 2-gallon ziplock bags so everything fits.

Only leave the turkey in the brine for 12-24 hours. Brining too long can alter the flavor of the turkey and start to cure the meat.

Nutrition