Robb + Jessie Married & in the Badger State
Happy Thanksgiving
Update 5 December: My mom called me this morning and wanted to confirm the cooking times and temperatures in my recipe. It turned out that I forgot a good portion of how to cook the bird. It is now updated. Sorry for the confusion.
Hopefully you had a joyous Thanksgiving day with friends and family. We joined Eric and Ruthie at their house for a smashing good feast. We volunteered to cook this years bird which turned out to be a major success. Having only watched my mom in years past, I had to do a bit of research to figure out the proper way to cook a turkey. I thought I would post my “method” here so I could refer to it in the coming years and maybe you’ll also find it to be helpful.
Roasted Turkey
Ingredientes:
12-13 pound fresh (or thawed) young turkey (Kosher or brined)
juice from 1 medium lemon
sea salt
1 small yellow onion, cut into eights
1 medium carrot, cut into one inch pieces
1 rib celery, cut into one inch pieces (we omitted because we ran out)
1 small apple, cut into eights
fresh sprigs of rosemary, thyme and sage
small bunch of parsley
olive oil
melted butter
pepper
Directions:
We purchased our turkey from Trader Joe’s. They sell Kosher turkeys that have been pre-salted. Otherwise, we recommend using a brining method. (We like this one).
The night before, unwrap your bird, wash it and remove any feather stubs (Kosher birds have more because they use a manual method rather than the hot water method). Reserve giblets and neck for stock. Pat off all the excess moisture of the bird. Place in a large casserole dish that can hold the bird without it spilling over the sides. Rub the cavity with the lemon juice. Fill up the cavity with the onion, celery, carrot, apple and herbs. Stick the parsley into the neck of the bird. You may cover up the cavity opening with some aluminum foil and then tie the legs together with string. Massage the skin with olive oil. Wrap the casserole and bird tightly with plastic and place in the refrigerator.
At this time you may now prepare the Turkey Giblet Stock (used for the Cream Gravy).
One hour before you plan to begin cooking, bring the bird out and allow to come to room temperature. You may now During this timeframe, you can do the final preparations. Baste the bird with melted butter. Season all over with pepper. Tuck the remaining sprigs of rosemary and thyme under the birds wings. Finally, tie a string around the bird’s wings to keep everything tight and together.
Preheat the oven to 500ºF and remove extra racks in the oven so that the pan will fit on the bottom rack. Add about 1 cup of water to the roasting pan. Transfer the bird to the oven and insert an instant read thermometer into the thickest part of the breast. (We used a digital thermometer that sounded an alarm when the meat reached 160ºF). Cook the bird at 500ºF for the first 30 minutes, then lower the oven to 350ºF for the remaining time. You can assume 15 minutes/pound for the total cooking time. Our 12 pound bird took between 2.5 — 3 hours (we didn’t time it because we used the thermometer). Since the dark meat must reach 185ºF before being “done” we removed the wings and legs from the carcass (after the breast was fully cooked) and allowed them to cook for an additional 10-15 minutes.
The bird needs to rest for 30 minutes before carving. Meanwhile you may prepare the Cream Gravy. Unfortunately my roux didn’t thicken so we used a bit of corn starch to aid in the thickening. And because our turkey was brined, we didn’t need to add any extra salt to the gravy.
I must say, this recipe is most excellent. Our vegetarian friends who joined us at dinner also gave up their vegetarianism for the evening to enjoy a few pieces of succulent turkey.