What is your favorite way to roast a turkey?

[TheAttachedMama]

Anyone have any favorite recipes for roasting a turkey?   

 

I'm making Thanksgiving dinner for about 30 people this year and putting my grocery list together today.   In the past, I used Alton Brown's recipe.    I thought it was good, but I don't think others thought it was anything special.   I'm thinking about trying something new this year but wanted it to be a "tried and true" recipe.  :)

 

 

[madteaparty]

Spatchcocked. I'm doing Thanksgiving in an airbnb apartment this year (on the road) but it's the only way I roast a bird now

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/butterfiled-roast-turkey-with-gravy-recipe.html

Edited November 18, 2017 by madteaparty

[SamanthaCarter]

I've only ever done a dry bribe, and never tried anything different because it's good. It seems to be trendy this year, so just google it. It's basically making an herb salt rub for the turkey about three days ahead and letting it all cure. Slow roast when ready.

 

 

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[KungFuPanda]

Spatchcock! A whole bird cooked in less than two hours and juicer to boot because it doesn't dry out in that amount of time. Plus, you don't have to mess with brine and get weirdly salty gravy in the end. I'm a convert and have done my turkeys this way for about 3-4 years now.

[Crimson Wife]

Icing the breasts keeps them from getting dried out while the dark meat cooks to a safe temperature.

 

Last year and this I've skipped getting the whole turkey and just bought several packages of thighs & drumsticks. Doesn't look as pretty but it keeps me from getting stuck eating the white meat because everyone else has taken the dark meat.

[itsheresomewhere]

Brine it the night before and slow cook it on thanksgiving in the oven. I stuff it with fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme wrapped around a stick of butter and half an orange. The skin gets an olive oil infused with herbs de Provence treatment before it goes in the oven.

[JFSinIL]

Hubby smoke grills it outside on the Weber.  Always comes out tasty and never dry, and leave me my oven for other items. Even when below freezing he does this.

[Carol in Cal.]

Barbequed in a Weber with a domed lid, with a water filled dripping pan under it.  Nothing dries out, and it tastes amazing.

Last year I tried roasting one in the oven, but turning it upside down (breast on the bottom) for the first half of the cooking time.  That kept the breast from drying out, but it also had a chance to brown beautifully once it was right side up.  I got this idea from the Fannie Farmer cookbook.  Oddly it is in the suggestions but not the recipe, so I had to kind of work out how to do it; but it turned out great.

 

I like the Pepperidge Farm stuffing.

[Chris in VA]

We just follow Butterball's directions. We do take out the neck (and giblets, of course) and put an onion in the cavity. Super simple and always turns out well. 

[6packofun]

We do the high heat method, seasoning it a little differently every year but making sure to DRY out the skin (and I let it sit out an hour before putting in the oven to make sure it's dry) because we like it crispy.  Brush with oil right before it goes in.  Not butter because there is a lot of water in butter.

 

This year I'm going to try doing it high heat the WHOLE time.  Usually I just do 475 or so for 30-40 min. and then lower the temp for the rest of the time.  Like Carol in Cal. we're doing breast down first.

 

(I found these tips in the comments section of a high heat recipe online so we're going to incorporate some of them:  "I have been cooking a 24 lbs. turkey, at 500 degrees, for the last three years, it is great, turns out very moist, and takes about three hours. The flavor is great, I first rub the turkey inside and out with a cut lemon, and an orange, season the inside with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and loosely stuff with a quartered onion, some cut celery, fresh rosemary and fresh oregano sprigs, the lemon and orange. I make a mixture of salt, pepper, Poultry seasoning, mashed garlic, olive-oil, canola oil, then loosen the skin on the breast and around the thighs, I rub this mixture under the skin, ties the legs, fold the wing tips under the bird ( I do all this the day before Thanksgiving), I keep the turkey in a non reactive pan, cover well with plastic wrap, refrigerate overnight. Two hours before baking, take out of fridge, brush top with melted butter or oil, place in pan, and roast." )

[Sneezyone]

We don’t. 😂 Why make something most people tolerate vs really enjoy? The only turkey I ever liked was a fried one. Sibce we’re having company this year, we’re forgoing our usual game hens in favor of two whole chickens (one maple-garlic and one garlic-herb) and a smoked gammon joint.

[Paige]

I’ve made 1 turkey. It was easy and good: put on pan. Rub with oil. Rub with Lipton soup mix. Roast the way it said on the package. That’s all I did and I’d do it again.

[JBJones]

.....

Edited November 20, 2017 by JBJones

[Tanaqui]

My favorite way? Go to the store, look at the turkeys, shrug and buy a duck instead. Or a chicken. Or a ham. ANYTHING but a turkey! (Maybe a nice heirloom breed would be okay.)
 

[Happy]

I smoke our turkey (often only a breast--we are a small group) This is the only way I do turkey--flavorful and not dry. 

[ScoutTN]

The best turkey choice we've made is to start with a pastured bird from a local farm! An animal that has lived outside with fresh air and s

sunshine on a beautiful farm, eaten fresh greens and bugs as well as grain. No antibiotics, no sodium injected, no flavor enhancers etc. Tastes fabulous and is yummy cooked with any recipe, as long as you don't overcook it. 

 

This year I will brine overnight in the fridge. I usually stuff the turkey with veggies and butter and sage, and put olive oil on the skin.

Into a 450 oven, then turn it down to 275. 

[KungFuPanda]

I forgot yo mention, when you spatchcock (cut out the backbone and open it like a book so it's flat) your bird, ALL of the skin gets crispy and the dark meat is on the outside where it cooks faster while the white meat is in the center.

[creekland]

We're Butterball fans, so just buy one of theirs, then we stuff the inside with a bread stuffing (sage and thyme as main spices) - this is a much loved/tasty side too, once cooked - and rub the skin with oil.  I add a cup of water to the bottom of the roasting pan even though it says not to.  We love gravy made directly from all the drippings, so the water adds more gravy that is already mixed with the drippings.  It's terrific over mashed potatoes and turkey.

 

One of our home cooked turkeys (done like that) is a tippy top request from our boys when they're at home - or even my mom now that she's nearing the end of her life.  Hubby and I will do one just for ourselves now that we're empty nesting.  We eat from the main cooking for a few meals, then get the rest of the meat off the bird and freeze it to use in soups or pasta/rice dishes later on.  Since turkey is usually just 98 cents/pound when on sale for the holidays, it's a cheap, very tasty, meat.

[Baseball mom]

Take the stuff out off the cavity, set in roasting pan, poked a beer in cavity, cover with foil and bake at temp & time on package.

 

Comes out moist & good.

[JFSinIL]

Just don't do what my kid sister did one year and MICROWAVE the bird!   KS (kid sister) hated the smell of roasting bird, and figured less odor if she nuked it.  I had talked new hubby into spending the holiday in California (we lived near his folks in Illinois) with MY family (we were newlyweds).  My ks did the meal.  The microwave beeper would go off, we'd all rush to the set table in the dining room "Is it time to eat?" but noooo.... she had to rearrange the carcass and restart the microwave.  Took forever. Rubber turkey, pale and tasteless. 

 

A different holiday we were all invited to my aunt's house for Christmas Even dinner, showed up half starved, and she announced that since the next day was Christmas and we'd be stuffing ourselves, she had prepared a "light" evening meal - turned out to be cornbread and veggie broth with carrots in it.  Again, this was out in California, and afterwards hubby and I could find NOTHING open between aunt's house and our motel, and ended up using all the change we had to score peanut butter crackers out of a vending machine for a meal. 

But I digress ;-)

Edited November 18, 2017 by JFSinIL

[TechWife]

I put celery and apple, sage, rosemary and parsley in the cavity, then put it in an oven bag. I cook it according to the directions that come with the oven bag. No fuss, no mess. 

[umsami]

We always use the Reynold's Turkey bags.  I put butter mixed with poultry seasoning under the skin..... and we stuff the bird with doctored up Stove Top.

 

 

We mix the in-the-bird stuffing with the stuff we didn't have room with and a little turkey juices....and that makes it all taste like it was cooked in the bird.   (There is never enough stuffing in our house. :))

Edited November 18, 2017 by umsami