Moms Roast Turkey Recipes

MOM'S PERFECT ROAST TURKEY

Steps:

• Defrost turkey, if necessary.
• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Open turkey package, (try this in a clean sink) removing turkey giblets and other interior cavity elements along with thermometer. Unless you want to make gravy or cook these elements, throw them away, noting the exact poundage of the bird (cut off the label with this on it if necessary and reserve for time calculations later). Leave the skin on the turkey for roasting.
• Wash (rinse) turkey inside and out, making sure that any stray feathers are removed.
• Place turkey breast-side down in a foil-lined rectangular cake pan (depending upon size of bird, use a 9x13 pan) or foil-lined roasting pan. Also take into consideration that some juices and fat will melt during roasting time and may fill up the pan a bit around the turkey unless put on a roasting rack in the pan. (No one likes to clean up turkey mess, but if you're out of foil, spray pan with cooking spray to have easier cleanup later. I prefer to use a disposable foil pan so that I can discard entire mess after Thanksgiving is over.).
• Place turkey with pan into oven, about in the middle (enough space needed for bird to fit), and not so close to heating element that anything burns.
• Do not change oven temperature. Cook for fifteen minutes per pound. (Example: 20.2 pound bird would be: 20.2x15=303 minutes. 303/60=5.05, so you would need to cook the bird for five hours, and one to three minutes.).
• Take out of oven, and let rest for at least 15-30 minutes. The juices will need to settle back into the bird. If you cut it immediately, you will have a dry bird. Basting is only required when you overcook the meat (aka meat thermometer), or if you want a particular flavor to the turkey (basting with stock, juice of some sort, butter mixture, BBQ sauce, etc.) Turkey, when done well, may be nice with seasonings, but has a great flavor on its own. If you left in the meat thermometer, you should not see it pop out. The bird is still safe to eat and YUMMY!

MOM'S ROAST TURKEY

Steps:

• Make sure turkey is thawed. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rinse inside of turkey, pat inside and outside dry with paper towels. Sprinkle inside of turkey with a little lemon pepper.
• Prepare turkey dressing, spoon into turkey cavities. (If do not use stuffing inside turkey, place large pieces of onion inside.). Tuck ends of drumsticks under band of skin across tail or wire or nylon leg clamp. Twist wing tips under back.
• Brush the whole turkey with oil/butter. Season the whole turkey with seasoning salt and lemon pepper lightly.
• Place the turkey breast side down; on a rack in a roasting pan. (I know! Everyone bakes them breast side up but that makes the breast dry! Cooking it breast side down lets the yummy juices flow into the breast.).
• If using a meat thermometer, insert it into the center of inside thigh muscle. The thermometer should not touch bone. Cover turkey loosely with foil.
• Roast turkey for 2 1/4 hours. (Adjust baking time according to turkey size).
• Remove foil; cut band or string between drumsticks so thighs cook evenly. Continue to cook until meat thermometer or instant-read thermometer registers 180 degrees F. Juices should run clear and drumsticks should move easily in sockets.
• Remove turkey from oven. Cover loosely with foil; let stand for 20 minutes before carving.

EASY ROASTED THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Steps:

• Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Rub 3 tablespoons of the butter all over the bird, legs, thighs, breasts, everywhere. Rub the salt over the bird evenly. Place the turkey into a large plastic bag, preferably a sealable one, press out the air, and seal it tight. Place the turkey in a roasting pan, breast side up in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Turn the turkey at least once a day, and rub the salt into the bird through the plastic bag
• After 2 to 3 days, and 1 day before Thanksgiving, remove the bird from the fridge and take it out of the plastic bag. Do not rinse the bird, but pat it dry with paper towels. Place the turkey in a rack in the roasting pan, and refrigerate uncovered, for another 24 hours.
• Remove the turkey from the fridge 1 hour before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven, and make sure you raise or remove the upper racks so the turkey can fit with room to spare on top.
• Place the orange sections, onions halves, and rosemary and thyme sprigs into the cavity of the bird. Tuck the wings behind the back of the bird and place it in a rack in a roasting pan breast side up. Tie the legs closed (some birds have a little plastic gadget that holds the legs together, thus closing up the cavity).
• Rub the remaining three tablespoons softened butter all over the turkey, covering all of the skin. Season generously with the pepper. Make sure the turkey is breast side up in the rack in the roasting pan, and place the pan into the oven.
• Pour the wine and chicken broth into the pan around the turkey. Place the pan in the oven. After one hour, baste the bird with the juices from the bottom of the pan. Start checking after 2 hours with an internal thermometer, sticking it into the deepest part of the thigh, and making sure that it does not touch bone. The temperature should be 160°F. If, as the turkey is cooking the top starts to get too browned, just tent a large piece of tin foil over the top of the bird.
• When the turkey is finished cooking, remove it to a cutting board with a moat, tipping any juices that have accumulated in the turkey back into the roasting pan. Let the turkey sit, tented with foil, for at least 20 minutes.
• While the turkey is resting, pour all of the liquid from the roasting pan into a large measuring cup. Put it into the fridge and when the fat has risen to the top, use a spoon to scrape off the fat and discard. You also can use a fat separator for this purpose. Click here for how to make gravy, or just drizzle the pan juices over the turkey meat.
• Carve the turkey and serve.

MOM’S ROAST TURKEY RECIPEMOM’S ROAST TURKEY RECIPE

Steps:

• 1 To start, if the turkey has been refrigerated, bring it to room temperature before cooking. Keep it in its plastic wrapping until you are ready to cook it. While in the refrigerator, and or while you are bringing it to room temp, have the bird resting in a pan, so that if the plastic covering leaks for any reason, you are confining the juices to the pan. If you get a frozen turkey, you will need to defrost it. Remove the neck and giblets (heart, gizzard, liver). Use the heart and gizzard for making stock for the stuffing. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Wash out the turkey with water. Pull out any remaining feather stubs in the turkey skin. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Lather the inside of the cavity with the juice of half a lemon. Take a small handful of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey. For flavor, put in inside the turkey a half a yellow onion, peeled and quartered, a bunch of parsley, a couple of carrots, and some tops and bottoms of celery. You may need to cap the body cavity with some aluminum foil so that the stuffing doesn't easily fall out. Close up the turkey cavity The neck cavity can be stuffed with parsley and tied closed with thin skewers and string. Rub either melted butter or olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously all over the outside of the turkey Place turkey BREAST DOWN on the bottom of a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. This is the main difference between the way mom makes turkey and everyone else. Add several sprigs of fresh (if possible) thyme and rosemary to the outside of the turkey. 8 Put the turkey in the oven. With the turkeys mom gets, she recommends cooking time of about 15 minutes for every pound. start the cooking at 400 F for the first 1/2 hour. Then reduce the heat to 350 F for the next 2 hours. Then reduce the heat further to 225 F for the next hour to hour and a half. out at thigh is 170°F, breast 160°F, stand 15 min.

MOM'S ROAST TURKEY

Steps:

• Defrost the turkey several days ahead: If you are starting with a frozen turkey, you will need to allow several days to defrost the turkey. You'll want to defrost it in the refrigerator so that the turkey stays chilled during this process. Put the wrapped frozen turkey in a pan to prevent leaks and then place it in the refrigerator. It will take about 5 hours of defrosting time for every pound of turkey. So, if you have a 15 pound turkey, it should take about 75 hours, or 3 days, to defrost. If you need to defrost it more quickly than that, you can place it in a large tub of cool water, and keep changing the water to keep it cold, until the turkey is defrosted.
• Bring the turkey to room temperature before roasting: Remove the turkey from the refrigerator 2 to 5 hours (depending on the size of the bird) before cooking, to allow it to come closer to room temperature. The turkey will cook more quickly and more evenly that way.
• Remove giblets and rinse: When you are ready to cook the turkey, remove it from its package. Usually turkeys come packaged with the neck and giblets (heart, gizzard, liver) in the main cavity or the neck opening (make sure to check both!) Pull the giblets out; they are often wrapped in a small paper package. If you want, you can chop up the heart and gizzard to make stock for the stuffing or dressing (put the chopped heart and gizzard into a small saucepan, cover with water, add salt, bring to simmer for an hour or so.) You can either cook the neck alongside the turkey, or use it to make turkey stock. You can also use all of the giblets for making giblet gravy . Rinse the turkey inside and out with water. If you see stray turkey feathers, pluck them out. Use paper towels to pat the turkey dry. Many turkeys come with a plastic tie holding the drumsticks together. Check the instructions on the turkey package; it is likely that you will not need to remove the tie unless you are cooking the turkey at a very high temperature.
• Preheat the oven: Turn your oven to 400°F.
• Add the aromatics and truss the turkey: Slather the inside of the cavity with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice . Take a couple teaspoons of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey. (Skip the salt if you are using a brined turkey .) Put the cut onion, several sprigs of parsley , a chopped carrot or two, and some leafy celery tops into the main cavity of the turkey. These are aromatics that will flavor the turkey from the inside as it cooks. Cover the entrance to the main cavity with aluminum foil, or close it with metal skewers or kitchen string (not nylon string!), so that the aromatics don't fall out while you are roasting the turkey. Put a few sprigs of parsley into the neck opening, cover the opening with the surrounding turkey skin, and close the opening with skewers or string. By the way, we don't cook stuffing (or dressing as it is known in many parts of the country) in the turkey anymore. Stuffing the turkey adds to the overall cooking time. Not packing the turkey with stuffing will allow the turkey to cook more evenly. We do make our stuffing with stock made from the turkey giblets so the stuffing has plenty of turkey flavor. We truss our turkey, though some people choose not too. The point of trussing is to keep the legs and wings close to the body so they don't spread out while cooking. To truss, make sure that the turkey's legs are tied together, held close to the body, and tie a string around the turkey body to hold the wings in close. (Here's a good video: how to truss a turkey .)
• Season the outside of the turkey: Rub either softened butter or extra virgin olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously on all sides of the outside of the turkey (do not add salt if you are using a brined turkey). Sprinkle black pepper over the turkey as well.
• Place turkey breast side down on the rack: Place the turkey BREAST DOWN on a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. How do you know the turkey is breast side down? The wings are up and the legs are down. Note that you can also place the turkey directly on an oven rack with a large roasting pan to catch the drippings on the rack below. That method helps create a convection-like environment, helping the heat circulate more evenly around the turkey. Add several sprigs of fresh thyme, sage, and/or rosemary to the outside of the turkey or tucked under the wings. Note: if you are using a remote thermometer (or two) to gauge the temperature of the turkey while it cooks, it's easiest to find the right place to insert the probe when the turkey is breast side UP. So eyeball where you think the thermometer probe(s) should go first, before placing the turkey breast side down in the pan. Once the turkey is breast side down in the pan, insert the probes into the thickest and coldest parts of the breast and/or thighs, making sure the probe is not touching the metal rack or pan. If you only have one remote thermometer, put it in the breast.
• Roast the turkey: Before you put the turkey in the oven, do a rough calculation of how much overall time it should take to cook the turkey. Usually they say to assume 15 minutes for every pound of meat, but I have found in practice that it's usually less than that, more like 13 minutes per pound. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the turkey, how long it has been sitting at room temperature before cooking, and the shape and particulars of your specific oven. So come up with a rough estimate for the overall cooking time, and then make sure to check how the turkey is doing well before it is supposed to be done! Put the turkey in the oven at 400°F, uncovered. For the 15 lb turkey, start the cooking at 400°F for the first 20 minutes to brown it. Then reduce the heat to 325°F for the next 1 to 2 hours, until the internal temperature of the breast reaches about 140°F to 145°F or so. Then reduce the heat further to 225°F until done, anywhere from a half hour to an hour or more. Note that the lower oven temperature at the end of cooking can help you time when you want the turkey to be done. If the turkey is cooking more quickly than you expect, lowering the oven temp can extend the cooking time. If the turkey isn't cooking quickly enough and you're ready to eat, don't lower the temperature to 225°F, or if you already have, increase it again to 325°F.
• Brown the breast (optional): If you want the turkey skin of the breast to be browned, when the turkey is close to being done (about 150°F for the breast), you'll need to turn the turkey over so that the breast is on top, and put it in a 500°F oven or under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes, just enough time to brown the breast. Note that by browning the breast you may end up over-cooking the turkey breast a little bit. We often don't turn the turkey over. Turning the turkey over can be a hot, messy job, so if you do it, the best way is to use clean oven mitts or clean kitchen towels (just throw them in the laundry afterwards.)
• Check the turkey to be sure it's done: Start taking temperature readings with a meat thermometer, inserted deep into the thickest part of the turkey breast and thigh, an hour and a half before the turkey should be done. You want a resulting temperature of 165°F for the white meat (breast) and 165°F to 170°F for the dark meat (thighs and legs). The temperature of the bird will continue to rise once you take it out of the oven, so take the turkey out of the oven when the temperature reading for the breast is 155°F to 160°F, and for the thigh is 160°F to 165°F. If you don't have a meat thermometer, spear the breast with a knife. The turkey juices should be clear, not pink. If the thighs reach their target temperature before the breast, turn the turkey over and let the turkey finish cooking, breast side up.
• Rest the turkey and carve: Once you remove the turkey from the oven, transfer it to a cutting board, tent it with aluminum foil to keep it warm, and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the turkey. Turn the turkey breast side up to carve it.
• Make a roux with the turkey fat: Use a metal spoon to ladle off some of the excess fat from the pan (leave about 4 tablespoon or so of fat and drippings in the pan) and reserve for another use. You can use either flour or cornstarch to make the gravy. (We find we get better results with flour. So, we recommend making the gravy with flour unless serving a guest who must eat gluten-free.) If using flour, heat the fat and drippings in the pan until they are bubbly. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour all over the fat and drippings. Stir with a wire whisk to make a roux with the flour and fat. Let the flour brown a minute or so in the hot pan.
• Add liquid to make the gravy: Slowly add 3 cups of water, stock, or milk to the pan, whisking vigorously to get rid of any lumps. Let the gravy simmer and thicken. Add salt and pepper, ground sage, thyme or other seasonings to taste. See our gravy recipe for more detailed instructions and on making gravy using cornstarch.

MOM'S CLASSIC ROAST TURKEY BY FREDA

Steps:

• 1. Here's where we Start. . . With the Bird, (TURKEY)Place In a Pan to catch any drips, (this way you are Making sure Any drips or Leaking stays contained) Bring Turkey to Room Temp from refer. keep it in wrapper till ready to cook. Remove before Roasting. (if your turkey is "frozen", you need to thaw in the refer several days to thaw, can take 3 days to thaw in refer if Frozen, and then follow same procedure above)
• 2. REMINDER: Use same Sanitary Precautions as you would for any Raw chicken. wash hands with hot soapy water. dry with paper towels
• 3. Remove Plactic turkey is sealed in. Remove pkg inserted in the cavity of the Turkey.(usually a neck bone heart, gizzard also liver)save to boil for Gravy or Soup later. PREHEAT OVEN @ 400.
• 4. Wash out Turkey in your sink with water. remove any stubs of Feather left on bird. Pat turkey dry with paper towels. Lather inside of this cavity with a 1/2 a handfull of salt.
• 5. Put 1/2 a cube of butter cut in pieces under the Skin of the Turkey. (the skin is easy to Pull up and insert that butter as far under the Skin as possible.) Now take the Onion, celery, garlic and carrots and Place in the Cavity of the Bird.Tie with string if you must to keep it from falling out. you can place a little ion the neck cavity also.
• 6. Tie Your Legs of the turkey together with twine or String to Keep legs together close to the turkey's body.
• 7. Now with Your Melted Butter, Rub over the entire turkey, (Just lather that baby, I mean Bird.) Sprinkle with salt peper and paprika all over outside. . to taste & season well.
• 8. Place Turkey Breast Down on the bottom of the Rack in a "very Sturdy" Roasting pan. (you don't want any mishaps trying to left the bird from a flimsy pan) you can add rosemary and thyme now all over the outside of the turkey. NOTE: Roasting the Bird with breast down makes for a much more Moist Breast. Half way thru baking Turn Bird over to Brown the Breast if you want a browned Breast.
• 9. Place Turkey in 400 degree Oven, Covered for 1 hr. Then Uncover and follow Baking time Instructions on your Packaging for the bird. Basting Bird with Drippings every 1 hr or so. Start Baking at 400 for 1/2 hr. Reduce Heat to 350 for the next 2 hrs. Then reduce heat to 225 for the remaining cooking time. This helps to Not Over Cook the Bird nor Dry it out. This Helps to make for a very Moist Bird.
• 10. TIP: It is reccommended 15 min per pound, baking time for a 15 Lb Turkey. NOTE of Caution: if you choose to bake with breast down you can turn it over 1/2 way thru and place bird under Broiler at the end for a few min to Brown more. approx 4-5 min. but you also run the risk to overcook the breast by doing this. That is the risk you take if you do it this way. using a thermometer you want the DARK MEAT @ 175degrees. 165 for the breast. the temp will continue to rise after removing from the Oven, So I take mine out 5 degrees less than it needs to be. Remove from Pan onto platter. Let Rest 15-20 min before carving. Enjoy this bird. and add your own sides and don't forget the vegies in the cavities Soo good.
• 11. DRIPPINGS IN PAN: Scrape & Use Drippings in the pan for Your Turkey gravy. Hint: You can also boil and Chop gibblets, (That's the Pkg you took from the inside of the turkey) and add this to your garvy for Giblet gravy.
• 12. GRAVY from Drippings: Scrape all the drippings in the pan, Add 4 Tbs Butter in same pan Add 4 Tbs Flour to same Mix as for a Roux. Over Medium heat. Blend til smooth and not Lumpy. add 2 cups cold turkey broth from your Boiled Gibblets. Whisk very well as not to have any lumps. when this starts to thicken, add 2 more cups, now, as it thickens to your Desired consistency. Whisk continually. Salt and Pepper to taste. . . Now Serve and Enjoy Makes 4 cups gravy.