Cantonese-Style Turkey Recipe (2024)

Would it be inadvisable to dry brine the turkey before making this recipe?

And for those afraid of MSG, then just be afraid. Just stop telling folks it not good for you unless you can support that with actual science, not MYTH. Any meat I cook gets a health dose of MSG because of the benefit to the flavor.

Miso is only fermented soybeans mixed with sake lees (which are left-overs from sake production and is sometimes used as a pickling agent). The soybean sauce is highly seasoned....so no, they aren't the same thing.

In Cantonese, it's called "mee see jeong". It's fermented soy bean paste, but yellow or brown, not black.

Judy, see what Harley and Bob have to say in this thread. They're both right. That's the stuff! Enjoy.

I added about 6 sh*take mushrooms (reconstituted and thinly sliced) when the celery was added to the sauté. Instead of adding 2 cups of water, I added the retained sh*take soaking liquid. I added an earthy hint to the sauce. Also, when I reheated the drippings containing the sauce, I folded in 1/3 cup of chopped cilantro for some brightness. Turned out well.

This didn't turn out well. The turkey was moist but didn't pick up the flavor of the sauce. The skin was not crisp as depicted in photo.
A disappointment but other eaters liked it alright.
Potatoes ok.
Recipe is in the garbage as of this morning.

Dr. Ling's "Cantonese-Style Turkey" brought to mind the "Roast Turkey (Chinese Style)" in Buwei Yang Chao's "How to Cook and Eat in Chinese," possibly the earliest Chinese cookbook published in the U.S. (1945). You boiled an unstuffed 15-20# turkey in a broth of water, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, scallions and salt 1 hour, then roasted it in 500F oven 1 hour. Always delicious, meat flavorful & juicy, skin shiny brown, crisp & edible. Broth could be strained, frozen and revived year after year.

Water, soybeans, salt, wheat flour, monosodium glutamate and disodium 5'-inosinate and disodium 5'-guanylte as flavor enhancers, sugar, modified corn starch, soybean oil, caramel color, lactic acid, potassium sorbate added as a preservative, sucralose. Yikes!

Won’t the turkey be cold after sitting on a cutting board for 30 minutes?

i made the mistake of trying this for a thanksgiving crowd. the taste was really delicious but the sauce, reduced as directed, was so chunky that it was never possible to baste the turkey without depositing a lot of vegetable matter on top, then scraping it off; the dripping were lost in the sludge (which had to be continually dampened with stock)--not attractive, to say the least. the bird never never browned but sort of steamed. too bad because the taste was great

also, the timing is off. i used a 12.5 lb, unstuffed bird at room temp and followed the directions (30 mins at 450, 325 thereafter). After 3 hours, since guests were waiting, i had to carve the white meat in the kitchen and return the carcass to the oven, sealed in foil, at 400 degrees, for another 20 minutes to get the dark meat done. there is nothing wrong with my oven either--just had its annual checkup as part my protection plan.

Next time, use a potato masher like I do, and mix things up.

That's what I plan to do -- obviously it will cook much more quickly, but I am sure it will work well, so long as we keep an eye on the internal temperature (not letting it exceed 165 at the thickest part of the thigh).

Delicious! For our Thanksgiving meal, I also stuffed the turkey with Hmong egg roll stuffing (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018422-hmong-egg-roll-stuffing ). I followed both the recipes as written, stuffed the bird, and wowed my family. I served along with my daughter's homemade kimchi, among other favorites.

ingredients were good but definitely too much water in the recipe. I made a stock the day before and used it along with many of the ingredients. Also the vegetable should be pureed after they were cooked in the turkey. I combined the homemade stock along with the drippings frm the cooked turkey and it was good. Too much preparation and wish the recipe could be rewritten

Is the "rice wine or sherry" referred to, vinegar, or actual sherry?

My Rule #1 for roast turkey: BRINE. On this, I used a savory brine, but also included two small bags of of dried, ground habanero. It gave a subtle spice to the entire background that complemented the flavor of the meat as well as the seasoning of the recipe. Otherwise, I made this as directed, using a 11.5 pound bird. It was delicious and this evening, some of its leftovers will become turkey burritos.

Is it possible to cook this on a charcoal grill? How would the instructions change for this?

Dr. Ling's "Cantonese-Style Turkey" brought to mind the "Roast Turkey (Chinese Style)" in Buwei Yang Chao's "How to Cook and Eat in Chinese," possibly the earliest Chinese cookbook published in the U.S. (1945). You boiled an unstuffed 15-20# turkey in a broth of water, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, scallions and salt 1 hour, then roasted it in 500F oven 1 hour. Always delicious, meat flavorful & juicy, skin shiny brown, crisp & edible. Broth could be strained, frozen and revived year after year.

Would spatchco*cking the turkey have any effect in the outcome, besides possibly cooking time?

Love the potato technique; the rest is pretty forgettable.

This is the soybean sauce, I think...https://usa.lkk.com/en/products/soybean-sauce

I wonder how this recipe would be with a spatchco*cked turkey which allows for a much shorter cooking time?

Help! What is soybean sauce? And is there a substitute?

something tells me it ain't going to look like the picture. but I'll give it a whirl

Bringing a large turkey to room temp might take as long as 8 to 10 hours, and that may scare some people. I just do what it takes and then make sure to cook it long enuf.

The Times has the best recipes on line. And this is one of the best.I do a lot of turkeys. And this recipe is flexible. It's also an excellent recipe that's easy to follow. So, if you aren't familiar with roasting a turkey, read up on it. Do what ever you want to and enjoy.

Thanks Natalie, for your note. We are not lovers of turkey, and I was wondering how the recipe would work with chicken. I will definitely be trying it.