It’s Thanksgiving this weekend and one of the most important parts of the dinner is the turkey! The turkey has to be magnificent, juicy, tender with extra crispy skin. Here are my turkey roasting tips for a perfectly roasted Turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Top Tips
- Purchase a fresh, local, organic turkey
- Air dry your turkey
- Put herb butter under the skin
- Create a vegetable bed for the turkey to rest on while roasting
- Begin cooking your turkey at a high temperature, then finish the cooking at a lower temperature
- Rest your turkey for at least an hour
Ingredients
- Turkey (local, organic, fresh)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Herb butter: 1/2 cup room temperature butter, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, 1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves, 1 tablespoon chopped thyme, 2 cloves garlic crushed into a puree, 1 lemon, salt, pepper.
- Inside the cavity of the turkey: 1 lemon, 2 onions, 2 bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper.
- Bed of Vegetables for the turkey to sit on in the roasting pan: 4 carrots, 4 onions, 4 celery ribs, 1 fennel bulb, 2 cloves crushed garlic. Chop the vegetables roughly.
Preparation
- Purchase a local, organic, fresh Turkey.
- Air dry your turkey: Remove the wrapping from the turkey and remove everything out of the cavity. Dry the turkey well with a paper towel inside and out. Salt the turkey everywhere including in the cavity. Place the turkey on a baking tray and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight to it to air dry.
- Take the turkey out of the fridge an hour before cooking to let it come to room temperature.
- Prepare a herb butter: In a small bowl mix together: 1/2 cup of room temperature butter, 1 tsp. olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves, chopped rosemary, sage, thyme, lemons zest and juice of 1 lemon, salt, and pepper.
- Carefully loosen up the skin between the breast meat and the skin keeping the skin intact. Then, carefully press the butter under the skin. Massage the outside of the turkey with the remaining butter. (this keeps the breast meat moist) Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil over the bird.
- Season the inside cavity of the bird with salt and pepper and stuff the cavity with two onions cut in half, 1 lemon cut in half, and a bay leaf. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and turn the wing tips under the bird.
- Place your vegetables in the roasting pan and toss them with oil. Place a roasting rack on top of the vegetables. Place the turkey on the roasting rack, breast side up.
- Cook turkey for 30 minutes on high heat (425 degrees F), then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and cook the turkey for the remaining time until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 degrees F.
- Allow the turkey to rest at room temperature for one hour before carving. This will allow the juices to be locked in and the turkey to carry over to an internal temperature of 170°F.
Note: I recommend an organic turkey because this means your turkey is free-range (the turkey has access to the outdoors) and the farmer has taken the extra steps to make sure the animal was fed a pesticide-free diet and that no antibiotics were administered.