A new look at cooking and home decorating...with an attempt to add more greens to the plate, more vegetarian options & hopefully lots of new ideas to explore

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Roast Turkey


Nothing can replace a turkey on thanksgiving. Turkey meat is relatively inexpensive and which makes it a very viable choice for feeding large crowds. You may want to consider turkey an option for an open house, tree-trimming buffet, or as part of a more lavish banquet. Some people feel turkey can be a bit difficult to deal with because the white meat tends to get dry as the dark meat rises up to a safe temperature- if this worries you simply carve off the entire section of each breast and put the legs and thigh meat back in the oven to finish cooking. *Please note some people love to brine their turkeys- while I sometimes brine chicken parts I find turkey takes up too much room, some kosher birds have been bathed in a salt bath and will help eliminate the whole brining, turkey in your bathtub scenario.

1 Turkey- 12 pounds (remove any packets they have stuffed inside the cavity) and bring the turkey to room temp for 1 hour before cooking
1 recipe for classic stuffing (feel free to use any stuffing you like)
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temp or very soft
½ tablespoon kosher salt
1/8 tablespoon ground pepper
2 red onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup chicken stock


Preheat oven to 350

Take your room turkey and place it in a roasting pan with a v rack. In a small bowl mush the salt and pepper into the butter. Rub the butter all over the bird even underneath the breast skin, coating the breast meat with a good layer of butter. Stuff the bird with stuffing (any extra may be baked in a separated dish until warm). Add the sliced onions to the bottom of the roasting dish as well as the chicken stock. Cover loosely with aluminum foil. After 1 hour remove foil. Continue to cook until the breast meat is 165-170 and the dark meat is 175-180. (As I said I often pull the bird out when breast meat is 165 and cut off the two large chunks of breast meat then place the legs and stuffing back in the oven to continue cooking until the juices run clear). Total cooking estimated cooking time for a 12-pound bird would be 2 ½ to 3 hours.
Serve with simple pan gravy.

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