A Scientist in the Kitchen

What’s cooking in Gen San

Roasted turkey with Chinese five spice rub

Posted on | November 24, 2007 |

We don’t celebrate Thanskgiving here in the Philippines so turkey dishes are not as popular. And they are so expensive here as well. But my dad happens to raise turkeys so on special occasions we serve turkey to our guests. It is usually cooked roasted or as caldereta, a kind of stew. For this post, here’s how we roast turkey at home.

One of the things you will notice with Filipino cooking is that we don’t bake as much. Hence Filipino kitchens usually don’t have ovens unless one is into baking. So if we want roasted or lechon turkey, we do it the traditional way like the picture below. Instead of wood charcoal, we use dried coconut husks to cook with our grills because it is more abundant and cheaper in our place. To hold the turkey in place, we use a pole from a coconut frond, remove the leaves and cut it into desired length.

slide1.JPG

We cook it for 2-3 hours depending on the size of the turkey and someone has to turn it so it is roasted evenly. Now, I’ve got this handy meat thermometer that gives me an idea if the meat nearly done.

The roasted turkey below is what I served during my dad’s birthday early this year.

slide2.JPG

To prepare the dressed turkey for roasting, I marinated it first in a mixture of Chinese five spice (50 grams), crushed pepper and rock salt. I rubbed the mixture all over the turkey, under the skin, the cavity and make slits in the breast and thigh and fill them with the rub. I wrap this in saran wrap and marinate for 30 minutes (though longer is better, but I was in a hurry then). Then we roast it as above.

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This post is also submitted to the Grow Your Own blogging event.

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Comments

10 Responses to “Roasted turkey with Chinese five spice rub”

  1. Katiez
    November 24th, 2007 @ 8:20 pm

    That is a beautiful bird. It must get a lovely smoke flavor from the fire!

  2. steamy kitchen
    November 25th, 2007 @ 4:57 pm

    honey, if i could have an outdoor firepit, i’d gladly give up my oven!

  3. A scientist in the kitchen
    November 26th, 2007 @ 3:25 pm

    A fire pit, so that’s how you call it! Thanks!!!

  4. g_mirage
    November 28th, 2007 @ 8:22 pm

    Wow! Nothing beats the taste of the traditionally cooked Pinoy Turkey (or chicken)…I miss this. Thanks for sharing!

  5. Andrea
    November 30th, 2007 @ 4:57 am

    That looks awesome! I haven’t had really good traditional Pinoy cooking in years, and that photo makes me miss it! Thanks for a fantastic contribution to Grow Your Own! :-)

  6. Caldereta - A Filipino feast favorite
    December 8th, 2007 @ 4:06 pm

    [...] we raise turkeys at home, we usually have turkey caldereta instead of beef. When do we serve it? Birthdays, fiestas and [...]

  7. gita
    December 9th, 2007 @ 3:18 am

    yay, parang si big bird yun a! so big! sarap naman ng luto nyo!

  8. A scientist in the kitchen » Blog Archive » Apples and Thyme: Celebrating my dad’s birthday
    February 20th, 2008 @ 10:00 pm

    [...] milk and his Filipino style spaghetti. I know I inherited my love of cooking from him. He likes to roast chicken or turkey the old-fashioned way. Much like I do, I especially like the planning and preparations that goes [...]

  9. A scientist in the kitchen | Caldereta - A Filipino feast favorite
    July 26th, 2008 @ 11:15 am

    [...] we raise turkeys at home, we usually have turkey caldereta instead of beef. When do we serve it? Birthdays, fiestas and [...]

  10. Cookthink: Five Turkey Strategies To Contemplate This Weekend
    November 20th, 2008 @ 9:33 pm

    [...] 2. Experiment with a new cooking method: deep-fried or spit-roasted. [...]

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