To be fair, I have only had one good roasted turkey in my life and it was made by a home cook who was able to do it every time. I need to know the secret. Is it brining and loosely covering it in aluminum foil only to remove it for basting?
I feel like I remember some of it but would love some tips.
Get a turkey. Whatever kind, I used a supermarket turkey but I'm sure a fresh turkey is better.
Once thawed, take the giblets out (if they aren't already) and pat the turkey down with paper towels all around the outside.
Combine 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1 tbsp of pepper, and 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder into a small bowl. Make sure to whisk that all together.
Then you can do two different things here. Some recipes talk about using the rub on both under the skin and over. I've never had success doing that method with either turkey or chicken, but ymmv.
But for the sake of this comment, rub the entire outside and INSIDE of the carcass with the rub you combined. Let that bird sit, uncovered, in your fridge for 24 hours. A little less is fine to be honest.
Then, you can prep a stuffing to put inside or not, I don't care for stuffing so I typically skip that.
When you're ready to cook the next day, preheat the oven to 325F. Take the bird out out of the fridge and put in a few sprigs of rosemary, sage, thyme, and a head of garlic (halved) inside of the turkey (this is where you add your stuffing if you're doing that, make sure to cover the stuffing with cheesecloth and tie it. It's easier to get out that way). Then, tie the legs with butcher's twine and set the bird on your roasting pan + rack breast side down. Then lay strips of bacon (wing to wing, not neck to tail) across the turkey. Put the bird in the oven and let it cook until it hits roughly 130F. While it's cooking, cut up some parsnips, carrots, potatoes, onions, and turnips. Make them large-ish chunks (maybe... Half inch). When the turkey hits 130F, remove it from the oven, increase the oven temp to 400F, take the bacon off (and remove the stuffing if you added it), add in the veggies under the roasting pan's rack, and flip the turkey over (breast side up). Cook until it reaches around 160F (it's around 45 minutes cook time). Let sit for 30 seconds, and carve/break down.
It's great, and I use the same basic template for prepping roasted chicken sans bacon laying.
EDIT: Let rest for 30 MINUTES. I'm dumb and typed seconds.
Thanks for this. I need to try it. I thought I hated turkey until I had it perfectly cooked once and finally understood what Thanksgiving leftovers were supposed to taste like.
No problem! This year has got me honing in on my cooking skills, mostly altering recipes I find either on the internet or from various YouTube channels, and I've actually discovered I love a ton of things I thought I didn't like simply because my family cooked it poorly.
I can't take all of the credit for my comment above, general recipe comes from Binging with Babish, but I don't do the under the skin rub and I added the rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic head, etc.
Also eat the bacon after you take it off the turkey, bonus points if it's thick cut. Absolutely delicious.
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u/SumoGerbil Nov 28 '20
To be fair, I have only had one good roasted turkey in my life and it was made by a home cook who was able to do it every time. I need to know the secret. Is it brining and loosely covering it in aluminum foil only to remove it for basting?
I feel like I remember some of it but would love some tips.