This promises to be a super short post, but over the last few years, people keep begging me for my secret recipe to making the most delicious, moist turkey for Thanksgiving every year. My secret: KEEP IT SIMPLE. No joke folks, most of the stuff your grandma taught you about how to cook a turkey is great advice...other pieces of advice for this should go straight in the trash. So let's do it!
Ok first, lets talk turkey. I have never made a turkey that was dry, so size, brand, frozen or fresh, grass fed, steroid fed, placed on a pedestal while fed grapes... it's all the same. I generally choose my turkey based on one thing...PRICE. Yup, if its on sale.. that's my turkey. I also have a small family of 7, three of which are teenagers and one 9 year old who mimics a black hole in space, so I also tend to get the biggest turkey I can. So the turkey itself, I guess as long as it isn't green and giving off vomit-inducing odors, you are good.
Next up, the pan. I don't care. I've used electric turkey roasters, fancy oven pans (those tend to not be able to hold my turkey, so I steer clear), or whatever. It doesn't matter as long as it fits in your oven with your turkey. You'll see in my pictures, I used a state of the art disposable hotel pan. I doubled it up, however because I didn't think putting a 28 lb. turkey in this thing was the wisest decision for transport to and from the oven.
Ok, plastic. First up, the oven roasting bag. Dear heaven above thank you for this gift from god. I have yet to have a turkey that doesn't fit in this thing, and its AMAZING. I seriously have not made a turkey in over a decade now without one. GET IT. Luckily they come 2 in a box, so if the first one rips when you are putting your turkey in it, there is a spare. NEXT for plastic, that little pop-up "I'm done" timer piece of crap. THROW IT AWAY. It's worthless. It's worse than worthless, its unsafe. First of all, if inserted wrong, it will tell you its done when its not and then the whole family dies of food poisoning. Ok, maybe not that severe, but there is a serious risk here. The bone gets a lot hotter than the meat, but most of us don't eat the bone, we need to be measuring the temperature of the meat. Second, if inserted wrong, it could act as a drain for the tender juicy and turn it into soaking leather. JUST DON'T DO IT! In fact, when choosing your turkey, if it comes with it already inserted...steer clear if possible.
I think we are ready...so lets begin the actual turkey part of this turkey "recipe."
INGREDIENTS
Butter (room temperature or softened)
Dried Basil
Granulated Onion
Granulated Garlic
Turkey (ALREADY THAWED COMPLETELY)
Yes, you read the ingredients right, its that simple.
First you will want to put your turkey in the oven bag. I usually require assistance with this. Huge turkey, remember? It can be awkward, so I suggest having someone to help. I cut the bag the turkey came in about half way down, so the turkey can come out, but not send all that turkey juice down the drain. Once the turkey is in the bag, I pour that juice right in there with it.
Next. lets prepare the butter stuff. It really helps if the butter is softened but not melted. We are not adding something tough like sugar that can beat the butter into submission, so softer butter for this. Put your butter, basil, onion and garlic all in the mixer and mix it up good. It should look kind of like garlic butter when it's done. No this is not garlic butter, if you make it like this for your garlic bread or garlic toast...you're doing it wrong. So wrong.
Ok, now you are going to separate the skin from the meat, without removing the skin. I know, it sounds like a halloween horror movie, but trust me here. Lift here and start moving your hand in, and separating the skin. Its a lot stretchier than you would think, and not as hard to break as you would think.
Yes, I do baste it a few times during cooking. For this turkey specifically, I only did it twice. The turkey will be a beautiful brown when it is done, even with the bag, but to be safe, please please please use a thermometer to measure. Remember to put it in the breast meat without touching bone. Earlier, I told you the bone heats up before the meat does? It's very true, and if you put your thermometer to bone, you will measure the temperature of the bone, not the meat and could end up serving turkey that is not done. If you want a worse situation than dry turkey, raw turkey and food poisoning is definitely the route to go.
Yes, this turkey was so big it dwarfs the platter plate. But it was beautiful anyway. Enjoy your perfect turkey!
