A Thanksgiving Feast, Courtesy of My Friend the Engineer Chef
If there’s one person I’d trust with the perfect Thanksgiving turkey, it’s my friend Nigma. Now, it wasn’t always this way, mind you. When we met in 2012, her culinary skills were… well, let’s just say they were still in the “loading” stage. Back then, she didn’t exactly cook; she “assembled” meals with the precision of someone solving a math problem. But over the years, Nigma has transformed from a kitchen novice to the mastermind behind the best Friendsgiving feasts I’ve ever attended.
Nigma approaches cooking like an engineer at a lab bench: each ingredient measured, each step carefully noted in her trusty recipe book. It’s her culinary bible, filled with trial and error scribbles that are priceless. Her recipes, while refined now, have always had notes like, “1/8 teaspoon salt—no more!” and “mix exactly 12 times clockwise.” Nigma leaves nothing to chance.
Her Thanksgiving turkey is her pièce de résistance, and let me tell you, it’s not your average bird. While I would be tempted to go heavy on the usual herbs and hope for the best, Nigma’s turkey is a whole different story. She’s crafted a marinade that’s a blend of rich spices—think smoky cumin, a dash of paprika for heat, earthy coriander, and just a touch of turmeric. It’s a flavor bomb, meticulously balanced to coat each inch of the turkey. And her secret? She knows exactly how long it should sit before roasting—down to the hour.
But getting to this point was no easy feat for Nigma. I remember her early days, where recipes often ended in something half-edible and very experimental. She’d laugh and say, “Well, at least I know what not to do next time.” That attitude became the core of her kitchen philosophy. With every culinary misstep, she’d go back to her recipe book, jot down what went wrong, and tweak her measurements. Each year, her dishes got better, her turkey juicier, and her Friendsgiving parties more legendary.
At her last Friendsgiving, as we all sat down, Nigma smiled, clearly proud of her Thanksgiving feast—a meal built on years of trial, error, and perfectly calculated spices.
‘Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them’
– Albert Einstein
Ingredients
- Size - 24 lb Turkey
- 6 medium onion
- 6 whole garlic
- 2 whole ginger
- 8-10 piece green chilli optional; depends on preferred spice level
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp very hot red chili powder
- 2 tbsp cumin
- 2 tbsp coriander
- 1/2 tbsp curry powder
- Chicken tikka masala 1 packet optional
- 1.5 whole yellow lemon squeezed
- 3/4 whole Yogurt 32 oz
- 3 melted butter
- 10 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Prepare
- Blend the onion, garlic, whole ginger, and green chili in a food processor.
- Add veggies of your choice. It can be carrot, potatoes, or anything!
- Make sure turkey is fully defrosted typically takes an entire day. If fresh, you don’t need to worry about defrosting.
- Marinate minimum 24 hours and put in fridge. Poke holes with fork and really marinate fully. make sure the holes go under the skin.
Bake
- Bake for 8 hours. Oven temp should be 350 degrees. Typically 20 mins per lb of turkey need to be in oven.
- Lightly covered on top with aluminum foil so top skin doesn’t get too burnt.
Notes
