Recipe: Salt Encrusted Turkey / Chicken Baked in Salt Crust

SALT ENCRUSTED TURKEY
By Fritz Sonnenschmidt, National Chairman of the American Academy of Chefs and Cutco Cutlery Culinary Advisory Board Member
Serves 7

This is an old method of preparing turkey intended to be baked in the village or town ovens while the cook went to Sunday services. The beauty of placing the turkey in a salt crust was not only that it held in all the juices, but also that the crust could be sealed and marked and thus guaranteed against tampering.

1 medium sized (about 6 lb) turkey

Cavity filling:
1 sprig of Rosemary
bay leaf

Mix:
2 lb. kosher salt or rock salt
2 lb. flour
A little water
Knead mix into dough.

Roll out on a pastry board until large enough to wrap around the turkey.
Place turkey in the middle of the dough and bring up the sides to "wrap" the turkey.
Make sure that the crust is secure and that there are no holes. A little water can be used to patch holes if needed.
Place the wrapped turkey on a greased cookie sheet and bake*.
Break open the crust and serve.

Note: Recipe works best with a medium size turkey. However, if turkey is more than 6 lbs., increase salt mixture. (ie.: For a 12 lb turkey, double the salt mixture.)

Editor's note:
* This recipe called for a very low baking temperature (no reflection on Judy - that's how the recipe was published) which isn't recommended but we're leaving the rest of the recipe for the ingredients and procedure in case someone wants to experiment with it with another recipe below for comparison.

Cooking a Turkey Safely: Thawing and stuffing a turkey safely are the first two basics. But cooking is the only way to destroy bacteria. The oven temperature must be set no lower than 325 degrees F. Overnight cooking of a turkey at a low temperature can result in foodborne illness. Cooperative Extension of the University of Wisconsin-Extension

Here is another recipe using chicken that you may find helpful.

Chicken Baked in Salt Crust
Source: Cargill Salt

1 (4-pound) chicken
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups coarse salt
3 cups ice water
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
4 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add ice water 1/2 cup at a time and knead until you have a well-blended dough.

Lay dough out on a lightly floured working surface. Pat it and spread it out into a circle about 1/2-inch thick, large enough to enclose chicken.

Wash and dry chicken thoroughly. Rub cavity with pepper and insert rosemary, bay leaf and garlic. Truss chicken with garlic.

Lay chicken, breast down, on center of dough. Wrap it with dough, making sure it is sealed.

Place chicken, breast-side up, on baking pan. Cook for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

To serve, saw a lid off crust with bread knife. Chicken can be carried to table. Pieces of crust can be easily broken off as chicken is carved.

Makes 4 servings.