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Roast turkey is a traditional, old fashioned holiday main dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. You can develop roast turkey recipes by adding involve cajun spices, honey glazing, lemon infusions. The secret of a perfectly cooked turkey is a combination of two things: providing moisture and cooking at the correct temperature.

Preparations before cooking:

Before you even think about roasting the turkey, you’ll need to budget enough time to thaw, brine, and dry the turkey. If you’re purchasing a frozen turkey, allow at least 5 hours per pound of thawing time in the refrigerator. After the turkey has thawed, treat it as if it were fresh (for the purposes of this recipe). Remove the giblets and the neck (found inside the chest cavity). Prepare a brining solution of 1 cup table salt to 1 gallon water in a nonreactive container and soak the turkey in the solution in the refrigerator for four hours.

Pour out the brining solution and rinse the turkey. One convenient way to do this is to position a rack in the sink and place the turkey on the rack to rinse. After the turkey has been rinsed, let it dry by placing it on a rack on a sheet pan in the refrigerator overnight (or for eight hours). Alternatively, use a blow drier on cool setting (no heat) to blow over the skin of the turkey until dry.

Roast Turkey Recipe 1

Yield 24 servings

Cooking time: 4 hours and a half

Nutrients:
Amount Per Serving

Calories: 663
Total Fat: 33.8g
Cholesterol: 211mg

Ingredients:

1 (18 pound) whole turkey
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 quarts turkey stock
8 cups prepared stuffing

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Place rack in the lowest position of the oven.

1 Remove the turkey neck and giblets, rinse the turkey, and pat dry with paper towels. Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack in the roasting pan. Loosely fill the body cavity with stuffing. Rub the skin with the softened butter, and season with salt and pepper. Position an aluminum foil tent over the turkey.

2 Place turkey in the oven, and pour 2 cups turkey stock into the bottom of the roasting pan. Baste all over every 30 minutes with the juices on the bottom of the pan. Whenever the drippings evaporate, add stock to moisten them, about 1 to 2 cups at a time. Remove aluminum foil after 2 1/2 hours. Roast until a meat thermometer inserted in the meaty part of the thigh reads 180 degrees F (80 degrees C), about 4 hours.

3 Transfer the turkey to a large serving platter, and let it stand for at least 20 to 30 minutes before carving.

Roast Turkey Recipe 2

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

Cooking time: 2 hours and a half

Ingredients:

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Instructions:

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Roast Turkey Recipe 3

Ingredients:

• 50g/2oz butter
• a sprig of fresh sage, leaves picked
• 12 strips of pancetta or thinly sliced streaky bacon
• 1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
• 4 medium red onions, peeled
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
• a big handful of breadcrumbs
• a handful of dried apricots
• 300g/10½ oz minced pork
• zest of 1 lemon
a pinch of grated nutmeg
• 1 large free-range or organic egg
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus a few extra
• 4–4.5kg/9–10lb turkey, preferably free-range or organic, at room temperature
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 large orange
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1.1litres/2 pints chicken or vegetable stock

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to maximum. Heat a saucepan until medium hot and drop in the butter, sage leaves and 6 of the pancetta or bacon strips. Peel and chop 2 garlic cloves and 1 onion. Add the garlic, celery and onion to the saucepan and fry everything gently until soft and golden brown. Take the pan off the heat, add the breadcrumbs and, while the mix is cooling down, chop the apricots roughly and stir them in. When the stuffing has cooled down, add the pork, lemon zest, nutmeg, egg and lots of salt and pepper, and mix everything together well.

Slice the remaining strips of pancetta or bacon in half and slice 1 peeled garlic clove into thin slivers. Place a rosemary sprig and a garlic sliver on one end of a halved strip of pancetta and roll it up tightly. Repeat with the other pieces of pancetta until you have 12 little rolls. Stab the thighs and drumsticks of the turkey in 6 places on each side. Push a little pancetta roll into each hole until it just peeps out. This’ll give your turkey thighs a fantastic flavour and will keep them moist while they cook.

Chop the remaining onions in half and slice the carrots thickly. Give your turkey a good wipe, inside and out, with kitchen paper, and place it on a board, with the neck end towards you. Find the edge of the skin that’s covering the turkey’s breasts and gently peel it back. Work your fingers and then your hand under the skin, freeing it from the meat. If you’re careful you should be able to pull all the skin away from the meat, keeping it attached at the sides. Go slowly and try not to make any holes! Lift the loose skin at the neck end and spoon the stuffing between the skin and the breast, tucking the flap of skin underneath to stop anything leaking out. Pop the orange in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up and stuff it into the cavity. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time (about 20 minutes per 500g/1lb 2oz).

Place the bird on a large roasting tray, rub it all over with olive oil and season well. Surround with the chopped carrots, onions, remaining garlic, cover with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down right away to 180°C/350°F/gas 4, and roast for the calculated time, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if you pierce with it a knife or a skewer. Remove the tinfoil for the last 45 minutes to brown the bird. Carefully lift the turkey out of the tray and rest on a board that’s covered loosely with foil for 20 minutes while you finish off the veg and gravy. Skim the surface fat from the roasting tray and add the flour and stock. Place the tray on the hob and bring to the boil on a high heat. When the gravy starts to thicken, strain it into a bowl. Carve your turkey, serve with the gravy.

Cooking Tips:

A turkey should be roasted 10 to 12 minutes per pound if it is not stuffed and 12 to 15 minutes per pound if it is stuffed.

Turkey should not come in contact with raw foods, especially the ones you are going to serve uncooked.

Turkey is very sensitive to heat and therefore, if your turkey recipe requires marinating, do so in the refrigerator. Exposure to heat can increase the chances of spoilage.