Recipes

[brewhaha]

My turkey is very smart. He's a good watch "dog". He chases away any intruders.

[Dusty1]

I will brag, because my cooking doesn't turn out all that great sometimes. My turkey was perfect. These are the notes that I made for next year.

I used a frozen 16lb Butterball turkey. I put it into the refrigerator on Friday. I baked the turkey on Wednesday.

Put it into a foil pan with the handles. Drizzled olive oil on the bird, salted & peppered the skin. Put a handful of onion powder & Fines Herbs into the cavity of the turkey.  Covered the whole turkey with foil. Put on bottom rack of oven. Baked it at 275° for 3 1/2 hrs. Took off the foil, rubbed butter all over the turkey, raised the temperature to 350°. Left the foil off & baked the turkey for another 1 1/2 hrs.

I poured the drippings off into a jar & saved for gravy.

The turkey was beautiful & so flavorful & moist.

I used The Pioneer Woman's turkey recipe. I started out looking at her turkey brine recipe, but she says that frozen turkeys don't work with brining.

She also flavors her butter, which I did not do.

[Toppers]

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@dex wrote:

i need some ideas from all of you on how to get my turkey to brown and be moist.I just can't seem to get both.I will be doing another turkey for Christmas and would love to make it moist and beautiful..thanks for your suggestions.I don't want to brine because I tried that once and it was watery and salty.

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I will post a link for you to the Butterball turkey website.

I personally think that it has some great information overall, for preparing and roasting turkey in general. I have used the information on there for roasting turkey, and the turkey turned out great.

I happen to like their brand. However, I will also use other brands of turkey, too.

Here is the link:

http://www.butterball.com/how-tos

[ECBG]

They all said "Truely, you're not going to cut that because it looks like the cover of Southern Living Magazine!!!!!"!!!!!!!

My secret is I melt a half stick of butter, and use a lot of poultry seasoning, marjorum, and celery seed.  I do stuff the turkey, and when it comes out, it will scald you it's SO hot!  I also use a Reynold's Oven Bag and bake at 325, NOT 350 for a moist turkey.  It's moist even cold!  Absolutely no cross contamination because my minor was in chemistry and one of my courses was food science!

[Susan in California]

@dex

I am so glad you asked us to share (or brag) about a turkey recipe.

My daughter-in-law followed an Alton Brown recipe which involved

brining and then roasting the turkey.  The process started on Wed.,

and she used a bucket she purchased at Home Depot as a brining

vessel. The turkey roasted first at 500 degrees and then a lower

temp.  The result was incredible!!!!! A lovely, beautiful brown skin

and a succulent turkey.

My turkeys in the past have been ok, we enjoyed them.  But this turkey

was so tender, moist and delicious.  You could cut it with a fork and flavorful.

She found the recipe online, on the food network, under Alton Brown.

I plan to try this myself.  It is a process, but well worth the effort.

We had an 18 lb. turkey for eight people.

[Poshparis]

Ok, if you insist.  LOL.  This is the first time I have ever made this type of turkey, but I will never roast a turkey the old fashion way again.  My friend turned me on the cooking my turkey in the scatchbcock way.  I cooked a 16 lb. turkey in less than 90 minutes doing it this way.  Take the turkey (unfrozen of course) out of the fridge and let it rest for about an hour.  It will still be cool, but not cold.  Use a VERY sharp knife or kitchen shears and cut out the back bone, starting at the tail end on both sides.  Turn back over breast side up and smash down on the breast to make the butterflied turkey as low as possible. Tuck the wings under and roast at 450 degrees for about an hour and a half.  I used thermometer and when thickest part of thigh gets to 165,  It is done.  I spatchcocked the night before and rubbed with salt, pepper, thyme and sage, after putting on EVOO first.  After taking out of oven, it is brown and beautiful and oh so juicy.  Look it up on youtube.  

[Toppers]

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@Poshparis wrote:

Ok, if you insist.  LOL.  This is the first time I have ever made this type of turkey, but I will never roast a turkey the old fashion way again.  My friend turned me on the cooking my turkey in the scatchbcock way.  I cooked a 16 lb. turkey in less than 90 minutes doing it this way.  Take the turkey (unfrozen of course) out of the fridge and let it rest for about an hour.  It will still be cool, but not cold.  Use a VERY sharp knife or kitchen shears and cut out the back bone, starting at the tail end on both sides.  Turn back over breast side up and smash down on the breast to make the butterflied turkey as low as possible. Tuck the wings under and roast at 450 degrees for about an hour and a half.  I used thermometer and when thickest part of thigh gets to 165,  It is done.  I spatchcocked the night before and rubbed with salt, pepper, thyme and sage, after putting on EVOO first.  After taking out of oven, it is brown and beautiful and oh so juicy.  Look it up on youtube.  

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This sounds like a really good way of making a turkey. I have heard of doing this, and would like to try doing this some time. Thanks for letting us know that it turned out so well for you! 

[Poshparis]

You can take the wings off, then the legs and thighs, then separate those, then cut off one side of the breast and then the other.   You will want to slice the breast like you would a pork loin. or tendersloin, not like you would on a regular whole turkey.  I used a Butterball, which I learned that the frozen ones are already brined (fresh ones aren't), so I did not brine.  It looks pretty on a platter, not as pretty as a whole turkey, but you don't have to bother slicing at the table either.  I practiced on a chicken, but a turkey is hard to cut out, so have a very sharp knife and/or kitchen shears.  It was a little tiring!!!

[Toppers]

Thanks for the additional info., poshparis. This really sounds so interesting to do! I understand what you mean, about cutting the breast meat that way. 

[Dominosmom]

i just followed the directions on the bag, cooked it unstuffed at 325 degrees and watched the internal temperature. Took the bird out at 160 degrees covered it for 30 minutes then made gravy. Tasted fine nice and easy. Family was happy.