How to Make Peking Turkey

Female: We’re in a restaurant called Chinatown Brasserie, part traditional, part funky and very New York. Here, you can eat like an emperor in this dream setting with beautiful Chinese lanterns and hand painted silk screens, it all sounds impossibly exotic until I tell you what we’re making today. Peking turkey. Just in time for the holidays. So I’m in the kitchen of Chinatown Brasserie, I’m standing with executive chef Tyson Wong. I’ve had a lot of Peking duck in my life and I’ve had a lot of turkey but I’ve never had a Peking turkey. Tyson: Something you should look forward to then. Female: I’m very much looking forward to it. Tyson: Awesome. Female: So how do we start. Tyson: We’re going to start with an under 10 pound bird. Whatever your choice. Organic or not organic, that’s fine. I can soak it in the water so what we do is amount of water, just cover it with under 10 pound water. Female: So why is it important to soak the turkey in water? Tyson: The reason to soak in water is become moisturized and the flavor inside what we’re going to put spice in here and makes turkey more flavorful. So half cup of salt. Female: Any kind of salt? Table salt? Tyson: Table salt, kosher salt, white salt is fine. Almost one and four cups of Chinese five spice, so we cut up the celery, we chop it up and like pepper, two cups, one onion, cut in there, chop it up, soak in it. Mix together. Of course ginger. How about sugar with ginger. Cilantro of course. Female: So we’re just using the stems to put in there. Tyson: That’s right. No waste in the kitchen. And the last step is don’t forget, Shaoxing wine, Chinese cooking wine, half a cup. We cover it with plastic and leave in refrigerator for like over 8 to 12 hour. To make the cranberry sauce, homemade cranberry sauce is very simple. Take fresh cranberry, drain out the water. Female: Are you soaking these in here for a reason? Tyson: Just to clean in, just to make sure everything is clean. Two cups of cranberries. Half cup of sugar, pinch of salt, now a cup of water, mix together. Put in a flat top and how do you say, burner flat top, put in medium flame, simple. Female: So okay, so we’re going to bring this to a boil and let it boil for five minutes? And then shut off the heat and let the whole thing sit for a half hour on the stove and then put it in the fridge. Tyson: Let it cool down, plastic wrap, put it in the fridge. Female: So we’re making pancakes now. Tyson: One cup of cake flour, half cup of boiling hot water. A pinch of salt. Female: That was a quarter teaspoon of salt. How long have you had this on for? A minute? Tyson: A minute. Female: That’s easy. Look at that. Tyson: Now, we come to processing or making pancake, to do this, is to keep this in the moisture plastic bag for 30 minutes. Because the water is hot and the flour is cold so you mix together, you want everything to be chilled combined together. Female: So this is much spongier. Tyson: Much softer, now, we’re going to make homemade pancakes. Female: That was fast. So they are about an inch and a half? Tyson: An inch and a half. There’s two way to do this. In the beginning, make it smaller size, a little bit thicker, the next one, make it really thin. Female: So you can do this in any kind of a pan. Tyson: Any sauté pan, nonstick pan is the best way but in the restaurant, we use as a flat top, French flat top, it’s very easy, cook for like 30 seconds on each side. Very homemade, very simple. Female: Is there oil or any kind of butter or anything? Tyson: No. Female: Do you have to flip them a couple of times. Tyson: Couple of times, flip it, make sure the balance of the side is the same balance of crispy because each side have to be a little bit burn more flavor. Female: Look at that little bubbles in there kind of golden brown. Tyson: That’s all it is, simple as that. Female: Beautiful. So we have a turkey that’s already been marinating for 12 hours. Tyson: Beautiful bird. In home cooking, right before they put the cut vegetables, -- with the bird underneath so that makes sure it’s not burned underneath, put in oven. Female: So you don’t need a rack or anything like that. Tyson: 425 oven. Female: So we’re going to preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Tyson: Put in there, set up your time for hour inside. Then turn oven off for 300. Female: Turn the heat down to 300 degrees. Tyson: Check the turkey. Check in oven, take it out, take in oven. It will be over 180 and it will be perfect. Female: Traditionally, Peking duck is served with certain condiments. Hoisin sauce is one of them. Tyson: Always go with julienne scallion, julienne cucumber and for me, for my taste, I love spice, I love long red Thai spice, --. So we cut it very very thin for the Peking turkey. Female: So we’re cutting into slices. Wow, the cranberry sauce makes it.