Recipe

Roasted Turkey Recipe

Add Step-by-Step Photos	Thegoldminer / All my dishes 1 year ago This turned out to be a pretty good recipe. I cooked one for my very good friend Javier and his family on Wednesday. He told me he didn’t know how to cook a turkey so I bought him one and cooked it for him. I think he was happy, see his pic. C... More Prep:20m Cook:200m Servings:10	Thegoldmine
	just plaln good

Butter

Removing butter

Cut butter

Ready for butter

Hand under skin

Butter under skin

Buttered breast

Hole in drumstick

Raise skin

Butter for leg

Put in butter

Seal with toothpicks

Toothpicks

Both knees sealed

Buttered and sealed

Buttered

Seasoned

Close up

In the pan

Use this oil also

In the oven

Juice

Cookiing

Close up

Cooked

Nice breast

Sealed back up

Ready to eat

Javier my friend

Check all the juice

Reducing for gravy

Clean up time

Done

Turkey #2

#2 Ready to cut

Olive oil seasonings

Olive oil

Add & stir seasoning

Add Photos

Does this look good? Yeah! / Nope

Fans

cholena

juels

lunasea

michellem

momo_55gra

Ingredients

Turkey Thawed (The pictured turkey is 12.75 lbs)

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon Sage powder

1 teaspoon Thyme powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon poultry seasonings (if you don’t have it just add marjoram or not)

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1 cube (1/4 lb butter)

2 cans of chicken broth (soup can size)

1 measuring cup with a pour spout

1 roasting pan (make sure the lid is tall enough) my second turkey made the lid lift about a 1/4 inch off the pan. I am going to look for a roasting pan with a taller lid. The current lid 2.5 inches tall and the base is 4 inches. I need a 4 inch tall lid!

This was a good recipe as the white meat (breast was not dried out and the dark was rich in flavor). A pretty easy way to make perfect turkey and then have fantastic gravy.

Directions

Number One: The temperature in your oven has to be accurate.

Number Two: Your turkey has been safely and totally thawed and cleaned. The only safe way to thaw a frozen turkey is to place it in the refrigerator. Other methods such as running cold water over it or placing it in a microwave oven are not safe because of the chance of bacterial growth and contamination.

Time Required to Thaw a Turkey

8 to 12 lbs. 2 to 3 Days

13 to 16 lbs. 3 to 4 Days

17 to 20 lbs. 4 to 5 Days

21 to 24 lbs. 5 to 6 Days

Preheat the oven to 475°F. This is not a typo!

To help prevent contaminating my counter, after I carefully washed the turkey in the sink and removed both the bag of giblets and the neck, I placed the turkey on the counter on top of about 20 sheets of newspaper. It kept the turkey and turkey juices from touching the counter and once I was done seasoning the turkey, the paper was wadded up the paper and thrown away. Pretty clever! The sink and was washed with hot soap and water and then a solution of water and bleach was wiped everywhere just to be safe. Did you know the neck and giblets are not from the turkey you bought!

In case someone is not aware there is a bag of giblets (gizzard and liver) in a bag at one end and the turkey neck is also in the cavity. Another pointer is to use your fingers to clean out yuck in the “back” portion of the turkey. You will find this by opening the ass end of the turkey (have the breast side up) and scrapping with your fingers clean out the cavities in the back that is where there is some nasty stuff you don’t want to cook. It is red in color, just keep using your fingers to dislodge anything in the area, then rinse, rinse, rinse. Keep the neck and gizzard to add to the juice to make gravy. When frying chicken you want to clean out the back of the yuck stuff also. Ok the portion where the tail of the turkey is connected is considered the “back”.

Put olive oil in a measuring cup; add all seasonings except the Lawry’s.

Gently separate the skin from the breast but don't remove it. You just want to be able to get your hand between the skin the breast meat. Your goal is to both pour the oil mixture and stuff the slabs of butter between the breast skin and the meat and leg and thigh. Now cut a hole at each leg knee and separate the skin and stuff in the pieces of butter. Don't butter the outside of the skin. Before you stuff the butter pour some of olive oil mixture where you have separated the skin from the breast and the legs and thighs. Try and work it around under the skin and then put in the butter. Eventually the oil mixture and butter will work it self out of the turkey and become part of the liquid that will make the most wonderful gravy you have every tasted. The gravy recipe will be posted later.

Once you have put the oil and butter in the leg openings, using very sharp toothpicks, pull the skin back over the meat, inserting the toothpicks to keep the skin in place. It works (see pics). Round sharp toothpicks!

Lightly sprinkle the Lawry’s and Pepper on the skin on the outside. Then pour on the remaining olive oil mixture and work this all over the skin (see pics). This will help make the skin crisp!

Don't place stuffing in the turkey! Stuffing plays havoc with cooking times and is a recognized health hazard. Cook your stuffing separately and be safe.

Place turkey in roasting pan

Pour in two cans of chicken broth in pan.

Place the turkey in the roasting pan (uncovered) in the oven preheated to 475°F for 20 minutes. Our goal here is to "seal the bird" to help keep it juicy and to get the high temperature into the bird. At the 20 minute mark I opened the oven, basted the turkey, put a lid on and let it begin. I basted the turkey every hour.

Reduce the heat to 250°F. The reason that turkey is so often very dry is that it's overcooked. We want to now slow cook the turkey.

After 3 hours I used an instant read thermometer and once the temp read 160 at the breast and 170 degrees at the thigh, it was then removed from the oven. Take the turkey out and leaving the lid on allow the turkey to set 20/30 minutes and the temperature raised to 170/180. I took off the lid, using two large forks, held up the turkey so it would drain most of juices and then placed it on a cutting board with a raised edge or depression rim to keep any juice from going onto the counter. I placed a sheet of foil over the turkey to keep the turkey warm until serving.

Removing the turkey from the oven and allowing it to rest uncovered for at least 20/30 minutes before carving allows the remaining juices to redistribute themselves inside the turkey making the turkey even more juicy, delicious, and easier to carve.

All the juices in the pan will become the gravy except the fat which is either poured off or you put the juice in a container and place it in the refrigerator or freezer to get the fat to rise to the top for easy removal.

Cook the turkey at 250°F for 20 additional minutes for each pound.

Many variables come into play when cooking a turkey. The only way to be absolutely sure that your turkey is fully cooked is to use a quality meat thermometer. Interior breast meat should finally reach 170°F and 180°F for thigh meat. Using a meat thermometer is particularly important if you are roasting the turkey a high elevations since it will take longer but there is no rule of thumb to predict how much longer.

OK, “My turkey reached the correct temperature in three hours” plus the 20 minutes. Don’t go by time, go by an instant read thermometer. When you see 160 on the breast and 170 on the thigh, take it out and leaving the lid on, in 20-30 minutes you should get a high temp reading. It is jut like meat roasts, once removed roasts always climb another 10 degrees.

If your oven is accurate and your turkey has been completely thawed, the turkey cooking time chart below should give you a perfect turkey.

Size Turkey Time at 475°F Time at 250°F "Resting" Time Total Preparation Time

10 lbs. 20 minutes 3 hours 20 minutes 20 minutes 4 hours

11 lbs. 20 minutes 3 hours 40 minutes 20 minutes 4 hours 20 minutes

12 lbs. 20 minutes 4 hours 20 minutes 4 hours 40 minutes

13 lbs. 20 minutes 4 hours 20 minutes 20 minutes 5 hours

14 lbs. 20 minutes 4 hours 40 minutes 20 minutes 5 hours 20 minutes

15 lbs. 20 minutes 5 hours 20 minutes 5 hours 40 minutes

16 lbs. 20 minutes 5 hours 20 minutes 20 minutes 6 hours

17 lbs. 20 minutes 5 hours 40 minutes 20 minutes 6 hours 20 minutes

18 lbs. 20 minutes 6 hours 20 minutes 6 hours 40 minutes

19 lbs. 20 minutes 6 hours 20 minutes 20 minutes 7 hours

20 lbs. 20 minutes 6 hours 40 minutes 20 minutes 7 hours 20 minutes

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Comments

momo_55grandma 1 year ago said:
Great instructions perfect Turkey{wonderful guy to do that for his friend} great job

rosemaryblue 1 year ago said:
Nice recipe and a great way to give thanks..

thegoldminer 1 year ago said:
Paul Harvey time (the rest of the story). I called Javier last Sunday and asked what he was going to do for Thanksgiving and he didn't know. I asked if he was going to have Thanksgiving at home and cook a turkey. He said he didn't know how to cook one so I bought mine and his. Then on Tuesday night he called and said he was going to go to LA Wednesday night to see family, taking his wife and two kids. I said I will cook it and you can take if with you. He came over Wednesday afternoon, and we tasted the fresh cooked turkey and he liked it. I looked him in the eye and said "I bet your going to go home and eat this tonight". He smiled and said "Yes senor JJ". He is so funny and yes they ate the turkey that night and then went to LA that night, not hungry. Alas, I did get some good pics. JJ

lunasea 1 year ago said:
Hey JJ - this has to be one of the best instructional recipes ever posted - and your presentation is outstanding. Great pics! Thanks so much! What a nice guy you were to roast a turkey for Javier - he looks so happy. Awhhh... :) Vickie

cholena 1 year ago said:
The instructions are so accurate ... I have never roasted a turkey before even thou I have enjoyed turkey biryani .... This is something Im gonna save and try it for sure .. Thx JJ

michellem 12 months ago said:
What a sweet friend you are to Javier. Your bird looks so nice.

juels 12 months ago said:
You are a great friend! Javier looks so happy in the picture! Very nice turkey recipe, your pictures really help to guide us along!

lilliancooks 1 month ago said:
What a lovely story! Javier is very lucky to have a friend like you! What's he doing for Thanksgiving this year? lol!

mamaliz5 3 weeks, 1 day ago said:
There needs to be more people like you play it forward. happy thanks giving

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