Roasted Turkey
Ingredients:
One whole turkey-completely thawed and left at room temperature for an hour.
1 stick of butter
1 lemon
1 medium onion
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels. Place the turkey on a roasting rack. If youhave a roasting pan without a rack, make a bunch on aluminum foil balls in the bottom and set the turkey on them. Cut the lemon in half and rub the skin with the juice, squeezing out as much as you can. Put the lemon halves in the cavity of the turkey. Quarter the onion and put it in the cavity. Gently melt the butter and pour it onto the turkey. Then add your favorite seasonings.
Cook on convection 325 until the temperature of the thickest portion of the turkey reaches 165 degrees. Let the turkey sit for at least 20 minutes, then serve.
General turkey preparation tips
- Make sure the bird is completely thawed, with all the parts out of the cavity. If you didn't plan far enough in advance, fill a 5 gallon bucket with luke warm water and let the turkey float in it for about 4 hours.
- Use a roasting rack. It allows air flow around the whole whole turkey and it keeps the bottom out of the juice. After all, you want a roasted turkey, not a boiled one.
- If you have convection, use it. Use convection or convection roast at 325. If you don’t have convection, put your turkey on the second rack from the bottom. Put an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack.
- Use an instant read thermometer or your oven’s temperature probe and cook to 165. Ignore the plastic pop-up thermometer, it pops at 180, which is WAY overdone.
- Let the turkey sit for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour before you carve it. This allows the juice to absorb into the tissue. If you cut into it too soon, you just get a puddle on your counter-top.
- Season the bird for your gravy and for how you want the home to smell. It doesn’t really make it into the meat anyway.
- Don’t stuff dressing into the turkey. It will slow the cooking down a lot. Also, by the time the stuffing is at 165 degress and safe to eat, the outer portion of the turkey will be way overdone.
- If you are serving a large number of guests, use two small turkeys instead of a large one.
Sponsor: Duerdens Appliance
