How One of NYC's Best Soul Food Restaurants Makes Turkey & Gravy

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I am Marcus Woods, executive chef here

at the iconic Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, New York City.

And today I'll be showing you how to make

the best roast turkey with some southern gravy.

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I'm third generation.

Sylvia's, my grandmother,

and the main thing that she taught me was that

you have to cook with love,

cook like you're cooking for your children.

The perfect turkey should be nice and golden brown

on the outside, juicy on the inside.

Seasoned very well.

I know a lot of people get intimidated by cooking a turkey,

but I'm going to try and make it as simple as I can for you.

Allow me to show you.

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Make sure you get a bird that is humanely raised.

You want product that lived a good life.

Looking at this turkey here,

I could tell that this is gonna be a great bird.

Skin is very clean.

It's not all breezed and bruised,

which is another clear sign that it had space

to live and grow.

So this bird right here is a 12 to 14 pound bird.

So a little bit on the older side,

but it's able to build up some nice fat content,

which is gonna help in the cooking process.

The turkey that I have now is fully thawed.

Get your turkey early, get it in the fridge,

let it thaw out the right way

and it will be a better product for that.

And a common mistake people make at home is

they get that frozen turkey.

They're like, It's not thawing out fast enough.

They're like, Oh, I'm gonna just run it down some water.

You know that'll work,

but you're not gonna get a complete thaw,

so that means your turkey's gonna cook uneven.

Today, I'll be doing a dry brine for our turkey.

I choose a dry brine

'cause that's the way we've done it at Sylvia's

for all these years.

A brine is generally a blend of seasonings

that you're going to use to impart a flavor on

whatever protein you're cooking.

But when you brine a turkey

and you actually give it the time to brine,

you're not just going to get that flavor on the outside.

You'll get that flavor imparted all the way to the interior

of the bird so that everybody who's getting that wing

to that person that's getting the inner slice of the breast

will get the same flavor.

This is my dry brine right here.

This is Sylvia's Soulful House seasoning.

We use this for pretty much everything in the restaurant.

So you have some garlic in there, some black peppers,

some smoked paprika, onion powder.

Those things right there are gonna add

a lot of flavor to your turkey.

When it comes to cooking, salt/sodium,

it's usually the last thing I add.

I try my best to impart as much depth of flavor

in what I'm cooking before I add salt.

That way the sodium actually becomes a flavor enhancer

instead of your core of your flavor.

The biggest thing is to make sure you get flavor everywhere.

One of my grandmother's funniest lesson she taught me

when it came to seasoning,

season things like you're putting lotion on a baby.

When I was a kid, I thought that was a little strange,

but the older I got, I get it.

If you have a child at home,

when you're putting lotion on them,

you don't wanna leave any open spaces

'cause you don't want them to be dry.

You want every piece to get the proper attention

that it deserves.

If you see this bird is dried,

I had to pat it dry after it thawed out.

If you put a wet turkey in the oven,

the issue is you're going to be steaming your turkey

instead of roasting it.

We're gonna let this brine in our walk-in box

on a speed rack.

It's gonna have the fans blowing on it

that's gonna help the air dry overnight.

For the home cook, your refrigerator is a perfect place.

Put it on a low shelf, uncovered 24 hours,

take it out in the morning, even let it sit out

for about 30 minutes or an hour

before you even throw it in the oven.

That's gonna help that skin dry out even more.

The dry skin is super crucial

because when you roast it off in the oven,

that skin is gonna become super crispy and golden brown

and that's a lot of flavor.

That Maillard reaction that you're getting from that skin

browning off in the oven,

that's flavor, that's depth of flavor

and that's something you can't achieve

without taking that time and letting it dry.

Now I need to take this time

and start working on the aromatics.

I'm going to be creating a bed of vegetables

and aromatics to sit in the bottom of the roasting pan.

This is a traditional, old-school roasting pan.

This pan is probably older than me,

but it's been used by my grandmother.

It's been used by pretty much everybody

that's worked in this restaurant and its 64 years.

So this is a piece of history right here.

You don't want something too deep

'cause then you're gonna pull up a whole bunch of moisture.

But you do want high sides.

You want something that you could build up some juices

'cause those juices that build up in the bottom of the pan,

that's what you're gonna be basing on top of your turkey.

I'm gonna start with my bell peppers.

Just giving a rough chop.

My grandmother's philosophy was

you can't beat her at giving.

She used to always say that and she meant that

because she was a true giver.

And anybody who's ever been around a true giver

knows that they're a special person

'cause they're gonna give you their all.

They're gonna give you their best.

And that's what we do here at Sylvia's.

We're gonna give you our best.

The whole process of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner

is a labor of love.

But when you come to terms with the fact that

it is a labor of love, you will give it love.

And if you give it love, you will give it attention.

If you give it attention, it will come out good.

I like to add a little red onion

for a little added sweetness.

Celery is part of what we call the holy trinity.

Onions, celery, carrots.

Your citrus.

Acid makes things taste better.

In balance though, you don't want it to become overpowering,

you want it to just impart a little bit more

floral notes to what you're cooking.

That looks pretty even.

We're going to put the rosemary and thyme

in the cavity of the turkey,

but I'm also gonna add a little bit more on top of this.

It's only gonna make it taste better.

Inside every turkey comes a goodie bag.

I call it a goodie bag

because it's a lot of flavor in there.

These are called the giblets.

This stuff right here is what I would call

the essence of turkey.

It's a mixture of turkey necks, turkey livers,

turkey tails and turkey hearts.

A lot of flavor in there.

Do not throw this in the garbage.

Utilize this, utilize every piece of the bird.

That's how we give animals the respect.

And this is gonna go into a stockpile

and we're gonna let it simmer overnight

'til all the meat falls apart

and that stock that now you've come to now in the morning

that has completely broken down all of your protein,

all of your vegetables, onions, celery, carrots.

That's what we're gonna also use to make our gravy.

And once everything starts to fall off of the bone,

you could take those turkey necks out,

pull all the meat off

and you can use that for whatever you like.

I choose to put it in the stuffing.

You can add it to your gravy,

you can add it to whatever you like.

So after 24 hours in the air chiller, the skin is now tight.

It's nice and dry.

That's exactly what I was trying to achieve.

I pulled out a lot of moisture from the bird.

That's another good sign, but still a lot of work to do.

Now, I have a compound butter.

A compound butter simply is a butter mixture

that you blend with other seasonings,

rosemary, some thyme, some garlic,

and the same seasonings that I use for the turkey.

So this is just gonna add more and more

nice, good buttery flavor.

So now we're going to do like grandma said,

we're gonna lotion the baby.

Make sure we don't miss any crevices, okay?

You are gonna be very generous with this.

I'm going to make sure that I get this

lathered on the outside, but not just the outside.

You want to go even on the inside of the bird,

you want to get under the skin.

You wanna make sure that you're getting every, every

nook and cranny that's gonna make sure

all that flavor gets into the meat

and that's gonna make sure that the meat

stays nice and moist.

You want to be careful not to break the skins.

If you break the skin, you're not gonna be able to achieve

that crispy skin.

Your final step, you get this bird tied up.

Butchers twine.

This is what we use in the kitchen for trussing protein.

Trussing is simply tying, keeping everything close together

that helps make sure everything cooks evenly.

When you're doing any trussing,

you want to give yourself a lot more slack.

After you get to this point,

you're gonna make sure it's nice and tight

and bring it up around the body.

You're gonna tighten it up.

You're gonna make sure those wings come nice and flush

to the side of the bird

and make sure these legs are gonna protect that cavity.

It's going to keep it nice and tight so it cooks evenly

'cause I don't want those wings to cook it faster

than anything else.

Turkey's trussed, it's almost ready to go in the oven.

Just can't forget adding some final aromatics to the cavity

that's gonna help impart more flavor

throughout the cooking process.

Rosemary, thyme, a little bouquet garni.

This is just gonna impart more flavor

to the center of the bird,

which is going to end up on the outside regardless.

A lot of people like to stuff their stuffing

inside of the bird.

I'm not a huge fan of that

because your turkey has to be cooked 100% through.

You have to get this bird up to 165 degrees

in order for it to be safe to eat.

While your stuffing doesn't need to be cooked

to 165 degrees, it just needs to be cooked

to the proper doneness.

So I recommend putting your stuffing on the side.

Let your stuffing be its own dish.

Alright, so I have my roasting pan here ready to go.

And your turkey is gonna go on a roasting tray

right over this.

The reason that I'm elevating the turkey

on top of all these vegetables

instead of putting it directly on

is because I don't want the turkey to stew.

We want to roast the turkey.

Allow all of this stuff to go ahead

and marinate with all those turkey juices

and you're gonna use this to finish off your stock

and make your gravy.

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So here's the game plan.

You got three hours of cook time ahead of you.

Make sure your oven is preheated to 350 degrees.

You're gonna do the first two hours covered in the oven.

Don't bother it, just let it cook.

After those first two hours, you're gonna uncover it,

gonna crank the oven up to 375 degrees.

Then you're gonna let your turkey go ahead and roast

and develop that nice crispy skin.

And you're gonna baste that consistently

throughout that process with those juices that develop

at the bottom of the pan.

And check your temperature.

Once your temperature gets to about 160 degrees,

you can pull your turkey outta the oven

and that's the time to rest.

You're gonna let it rest,

and carry over temperature is gonna bring you up

to your desired temperature, which is 165 degrees.

Nothing more, nothing less.

All right, so we're gonna go ahead

and get this turkey covered up.

Seal it nice and tight.

For this first part of the cooking process,

you don't want too much to escape.

You wanna keep everything locked up in there.

All right, bringing it to the oven.

So we got it in the oven now.

Let the oven do its work.

Let that heat circulate around.

Do not open it please.

I beg of you, do not open the oven.

I know you want to.

I know you wanna poke and prod and check.

Do not check.

It's only gonna slow down your cooking process, all right?

So turkey's been cooking for two hours now.

I've already uncovered it.

Those juices that build up in the bottom of the pan,

tilt it and poured into a pan.

So it makes it easier to to baste it.

When you see that golden color,

you're achieving that color that you want.

Baste it maybe every 15 to 30 minutes

just to make sure you're not opening the oven up

too many times.

This last hour is gonna be very touch and feel.

You have to know your oven.

You really have to keep eyes on it at this point

'cause now it's uncovered, you're really achieving color.

'Cause you already got pretty much 75% of the way

as far as the temperature goes.

So now it's all about the color that you want.

Once you start seeing that crisp skin start to develop

on the top, you start seeing the skin

start to bubble a little bit.

That's when you start wanting to baste

'cause you've already kind of achieved the crispy texture

so you could baste at that point

you're not gonna lose too much.

You don't wanna baste too early

'cause your skin will never get crispy

if you start basing too early.

You don't need to spend money on a turkey baste.

Just old fashioned ladle like grandma would've did it.

So you wanna rotate the bird

halfway through your basing process.

Just to make sure we don't overcook.

Well, let's check if this turkey's done.

I've already basted it twice.

Our turkey's outta the oven now.

It has the perfect color that I'm looking for,

but now I'm trying to make sure that that

internal temperature is where I also wanted it to be.

You wanna find the thickest part of that breast

and go in as far as you can, not through the bone.

And I'm getting 160.

That's exactly what we were looking for.

You see our little friend right there, it works.

A lot of people don't trust it, but trust me it works.

This thing is tried and tested.

It's telling me that it's time

to let this bird come out and rest.

We're gonna let this bird rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.

You don't wanna cut into it too early

and all your juices are gonna run out.

So let it rest.

And while it's resting, you still have work to do.

Let's start working on this gravy.

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My gravy is very traditional.

It starts with the roux.

A roux is just a fancy term for a thickening agent.

It is what you're using to thicken your sauce,

your gravy or your soup or your stock.

The roux is the base of a southern gravy in my eyes,

that's what I was taught by my grandmother.

Equal parts flour, equal parts fat.

We're gonna start with our fried chicken oil.

This is our secret ingredient here at Sylvia's.

We use the oil that we fry our chicken in to make our roux.

So that flavor that you develop from frying chicken,

it becomes such a nutty aromatic kind of smell

that's incorporated into the roux,

that's incorporated into the gravy.

Very down home southern flavors.

All purpose flour.

You're gonna start nice and hot,

but you're gonna wanna bring that temperature down nice

and low so you can have time

to actually let your roux brown over time and not burn.

This usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes,

depending on how dark you want your roux,

the color you're gonna need is like a dark brown

and the consistency of like wet sand.

So I know a lot of you guys at home don't have access

to large capacity deep fryers.

If you are frying chicken for Thanksgiving,

use that oil that you fried.

If you fried something maybe a couple of days before,

save that frying oil.

You can use it for an application like this.

You can even use bacon fat, absolutely.

Duck fat. Duck fat is beautiful.

Use any type of fat you have at home

and you try to incorporate it into this dish.

So it's been about 15 minutes now

and now the roux's getting that color that I wanna achieve.

Most importantly, I'm also getting that smell,

that nuttiness from the flour browning in that oil.

And I'm also getting of course that hint

of that fried chicken essence.

If you're making a gumbo at home,

you're gonna wanna stir this for about 30 to 40 minutes

just to get that dark roux.

But if you're making a soup, a gravy,

you don't need that dark, dark roux,

you just need a light brown roux.

This is the base of our gravy right here.

You see that? Wet sand.

My roux's finished now.

I'm gonna set that to the side.

Now it's time to incorporate the turkey stock.

When it comes to a gravy,

usually it's gonna be about 10% roux

to about 90% stock.

But this is one of those also touch and feel things.

You have to kind of watch it

'cause you could think

that your roux looks proper being a 50/50 oil to flower,

but you won't know until you start

incorporating everything together.

So you want to add it slowly.

Yeah, it is gonna keep spooning in

until you achieve your desired consistency.

Then you're gonna flavor it.

Looks good.

You always want to check.

Coats the back of a spoon.

Yeah, this gravy is good to go now.

This is ready for the table.

You want to keep it nice and warm, not too hot,

but don't allow it to cool down

or it will start to like separate.

Our turkey is properly rested now.

We can get ready to serve.

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Okay, so my turkey's rested now

it's been about 30 to 40 minutes, which is ideal.

Now it's time to get carved into it.

You could look by the skin, the color of it.

You could actually lift it and tell that

that water weight is completely gone now.

That means that the turkey is done

so you see the wings perfectly done and crispy.

The skin, everything is done to perfection.

This does not have to be intimidating.

Carving a turkey is fairly simple.

We're gonna start with the drums.

I like to take the drums off first.

That's gonna allow us to make it more

of a manageable piece to deal with.

And then separate the breasts, debone them.

So I'll get the breasts on a flat surface

so I could slice the breast

and make it look nice and pretty.

I have a heavy duty knife,

what you would call in the kitchen, a workhorse knife.

It's sturdy handle, nothing that's gonna bend on you.

So I have the two breasts off

and everything's looking nice and crispy and nice and juicy.

Next thing I would actually be taking off the wings.

Those wings you want to get by the joint.

You don't wanna cut through those oysters,

you don't wanna cut through anything

that you don't want to be on the table.

But I'm gonna separate the wings from the wingette

so everybody gets a fair piece.

My personal favorite is this

because this is what I saw in the holidays growing up.

Everybody wanted that turkey drum.

And at home I like to carve it at the table

because that nostalgic feeling

of somebody pulling out a knife, carving a turkey,

serving you pieces by piece on your plate,

that's just a beautiful feeling.

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So I have everything I need right now

to make my plate perfect.

So I have myself some collard greens,

seasoned with some smoked turkey,

some macaroni and cheese

and some mashed potatoes.

We have our gravy lathered on top.

When I see a plate like this in front of me,

it reminds me of my grandmother's.

All of these things are going to taste

like a touch of the south.

That's the most important thing,

it should taste like love.

It's gonna feed your soul

'cause that's what grandma would've did.

It is about feeding your soul and feeding your spirit

and making you feel whole.

Beautiful.

That crispy skin, that gravy, all that seasoning,

that garlic, that rosemary,

I'm getting a little bit of everything.

All that hard work and that attention

that you put into this dish, you're tasting it at the end.

Gotta go back in.

This feels like my grandmother cooked it for me.

And that's what you get

when recipes are passed down over time.

You get historical data every time you taste this food.

You get to taste history, you get to be a part of history

when you follow old recipes.

Good things do take time.

This is a labor of love.

So like my grandmother will always say, give time time.

And at the end of the day, you'll get a beautiful product

that all of your family

and all of your guests will get to enjoy.

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