Recipe Review: Simplest Roasted Turkey

Here’s one of my favorite recipe tips from Gourmet on roasted turkey. Of all the various turkey articles and t.v. episodes I’ve read and watched, this is the most helpful and intuitive set of basic recipe tips for a juicy and flavorful whole roasted turkey or stuffed or even just the turkey breast. It has actually been useful for following along whenever I needed to remind myself what to do next or check on. As usual, always check temperature earlier for lighter weight turkeys and add a cup of water to dark-colored metal roasting pans before putting it in the oven. I suggest using an oven thermometer, placing it on the same rack as your turkey in the oven to make sure the temperature is accurate. Adjust the oven rack so that your turkey, not the roasting pan, can be positioned in the center of the oven.

Recipe: by Gourmet
Yield: 8-10 Servings
Time: Total 3 hours, 20 minutes active
Ingredients:
1 (14- to 16-pound) turkey, neck and giblets (excluding liver) reserved for turkey giblet stock
2 1/2 teaspoons salt (2 teaspoons if using a kosher bird)
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
Special equipment:
pliers (preferably needlenose); a small metal skewer (optional); kitchen string; a flat metal rack; an instant-read thermometer

1. Remove any feathers and quills with pliers (kosher turkeys tend to require this more than others).

2. Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450ºF.

3. Rinse turkey inside and out and pat dry. Mix salt and pepper in a small bowl and sprinkle it evenly in turkey cavities and all over skin. Fold neck skin under body and, if desired, secure with metal skewer, then tuck wing tips under breast and tie drumsticks together with kitchen string.

4. Put turkey on rack in a large flameproof roasting pan. Roast, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through roasting, until thermometer inserted into fleshy part of each thigh (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 hours.

5. Carefully tilt turkey so juices from inside large cavity run into roasting pan…Read More

Other cooking options:
Stuffed turkey: Twelve cups of stuffing will fill both cavities and leave you extra to bake separately. Just before roasting, spoon room-temperature stuffing loosely (stuffing expands as it cooks) into the neck (smaller) cavity. Fold the neck skin underneath the body and secure with a small metal skewer. Then loosely fill the body (larger) cavity, and tie drumsticks together. If you don’t want any stuffing to spill out, cover the opening with a slice of fresh bread, tucking it inside the cavity before tying the drumsticks. Follow roasting directions above. (Timing for a stuffed bird may be slightly longer, but start checking the temperature at 1 3/4 hours.)…Read More

Roast turkey breast: The same method used above can be applied to a whole turkey breast (instead of the entire bird). For a 6- to 8-pound breast (with skin and bone), reduce amount of salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons and pepper to 3/4 teaspoon. Use a V-rack instead of a flat rack…Read More

I hope you find this as helpful as I have. Let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations. Click here to see more recipes.