The first year I cooked a turkey, I used this Roasted Herb Butter Turkey recipe from Sandra Lee, It was... pretty good. But it wasn't perfect. The skin was soggy from the butter and while the flavor was nice and the turkey was moist, it just didn't scream "Make me every year!"
The next year I decided to use a little of the Sandra Lee recipe and a little of this Herb Roasted Chicken recipe. And, WOW! That was it!!! Poultry perfection!!!
Butterball has an AWESOME website dedicated to how long to cook your turkey, how much turkey you need for how many people, how long to thaw it, etc. Check it out. Everybody should use this every year!
So, here is my version of a great Thanksgiving Turkey!
REMINDER -- It is important that you take the size of your turkey into consideration when planning this recipe and cooking. I used a 14lb turkey and it cooked a little over 3 hours. You also need to adjust your seasonings based on the size of your turkey. So plan accordingly!!
Oven Roasted Herbed Turkey
Ingredients:
Turkey
2 lemons, halved
Bunched fresh sage, rosemary and thyme
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 whole pod of garlic, peeled and gently crushed
1 cup carrots
1 cup celery sticks
4 cups chicken broth
For every 4 lbs of your turkey you will need the following:
1 Tbsp fresh Sage
1 Tbsp fresh Rosemary
1 Tbsp fresh Thyme
1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
Directions:
THAW your turkey!!! Make sure your turkey is thawing several days before Thanksgiving. It takes DAYS to thaw in the fridge and hours to thaw in water. For some reason, you can not leave a whole turkey out on the counter to thaw. So don't try it! Plan ahead and thaw the baby out right!
Once your turkey has thawed, open the packaging and remove the bag inside the cavity. Also... you may chose to remove the butt. Just sayin'... some people do like to eat it though. Hm.
Preheat your oven to 350°.
Chop the sage, rosemary and thyme, finely. Place in a small bowl and add vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly. This can be done early and refrigerated. The earlier you do it, the more the flavors of the herbs will infuse the oil. But it can also be done right before baking and that is fine too! No fuss! Also, make sure you use the above measurements for EVERY 4 POUNDS of turkey.
OK... you're ready to go. If you are using a turkey roaster with a rack, place the rack in the roaster and place the celery and carrots in the bottom of the turkey roaster. Pour enough chicken broth over the carrots and celery to cover them and fill the pan about an inch high. You need to keep an eye on this as you roast your turkey. You do not want to let the juices burn off because you will start to burn the turkey drippings as well. If it starts to get low, just add more broth.
Rinse your bird and pat it dry with paper towels. This will help the herbs stick. Place the turkey atop the roasting rack and rub down with the oil and herb mixture. Cover the whole bird, make sure you get inside the wings and legs and the bottom of the turkey. Once you've used all of the herb mix, stuff the turkey with the lemon, garlic, onion and remaining herb clippings.
I should say that after about 90 minutes, you should baste your turkey every 20-30 minutes. However, we forgot to do this and still had an AMAZINGLY moist and tasty bird, so..... apparently it wasn't a horrible sin!!
The size of your turkey will determine the cooking time, but it should be 180° internally before removing the turkey.
Once you remove your bird from the oven, let it rest 20-30 minutes before carving.
ENJOY!!
Also read https://bakingreview.com/best-turkey-roaster/
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