Oven Roasted Turkey

Turkey or torki as many Iranians will pronounce it is an essential for Thanksgiving, obviously not required though many folks don’t make one depending on their culture.

There really is nothing more American than a turkey, as the bird is native to the Americas. It was then later introduced to England. It’s been said that Ben Franklin was very fond of the turkey and thought it to be a pretty noble bird. Whatever dude. Eagles are baaaaad assss.

But outside of its sort of blah nature, turkeys themselves are pretty freaking delicious. My experience with turkeys is pretty much exclusively with deli meat turkey and Thanksgiving turkey, both of which I am pretty fond of.

Now many people freak out about cooking turkeys for Thanksgiving. I don’t really get it, it’s just like roasting a larger chicken. It’s pretty hard to f up. Remember, the trick to perfectly cooking ANY cut of meat or poultry is a meat thermometer. Just cook it to the right temperature and you can never go wrong.

Now with this turkey, I did one thing that was unique and that was brought to my attention by the fine folks over at America’s Test Kitchen. I was watching their show and they showed an old Julia Childs method of deboning the turkey leg.

Julia would cut the legs off of the turkey, debone the thigh bone and then proceed to stuff them. It’s fairly easy, it allows the turkey to cook faster and it’s delicious! WIN, WIN, WIN!

Obviously you can skip this step if you want but it really ups the flavor.

Now what turkey would be complete without our good old friend gravy. Gravy is essential to really bring the turkey meal home. The key to any good gravy is a good base, which needs to be created with all the giblets from the turkey. Note, refrain from showing any squeamish diners the giblets because they freakout and tend not to want to eat the gravy regardless of how mind-numbingly delicious it is. Without further ado here is your Thanksgiving Turkey with Gravy.

Recipe

Ingredients

A whole turkey ( I used a 9lb turkey, typically 15 minutes per lb they say)

4 Tbsp. Softened  Butter

Fresh Rosemary

2 Tbsp. Thyme

2 Tbsp. Salt

2 Tsp. Pepper

1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder

2 Tbsp. Flour

1/2 Diced Onion

4 Cups of Water

Turkey Giblets (Neck, Lung, Heart, and Liver) *use all of the giblets that you get from the insides of the turkey*

Gravy Seasonings (2 tsp Thyme, 2 tsp, Rosemary , 2 tsp garlic powder)

Method

Make sure your turkey is thawed, then pat it dry with some paper towels. Remove all of the giblets and set aside for the gravy, this is big boy/girl gravy. Put on your big boy/girl huggies because giblet gravy is the only legit gravy around. I don’t usually make categorical statements, but it’s not going to even come close in flavor if you do not use the giblets.

If you want to prepare the turkey legs separate like I’ve shown above do the following, if not jump ahead. Pull the turkey leg away from the breast and slowly cut the entire piece of the leg away from the breast. As you separate the leg from the breast, follow the path of the joint to the thigh bone that sticks into the body of the turkey. Then butcher that portion so you can pull the leg/thigh component away from the turkey. If my great descriptive wording was not clear, which how could it not be? Use this helpful video.

 

Now use the back end of a wooden spoon to lift up portions of the skin, you may be asking why are you doing that? Go ahead ask, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?”

I’m doing that because this will serve two functions for us. It will allow your skin to crisp up even more (which I like) and it allows you sneak in delicious savory goodies underneath the skin, which will in turn keep your turkey flavorful and juicy.

Mix two tablespoons of the softened butter with salt, pepper, thyme, garlic powder, and the fresh rosemary. Rub this all over the bird and if you have some chunks of butter slide those underneath the skin of the breast. Make sure your bird is well seasoned.

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Place your turkey on a rack in a deep roasting pan like I did. You can opt out of placing it on a rack, but by doing that your turkey may take longer to cook and the back of the turkey won’t crisp up as much. Elevating it slightly allows for more air to travel around the turkey aiding the cooking process.

Surround the turkey with potatoes, celery, garlic, and fresh rosemary. Add about a half cup of water to the roasting pan.

If you separate the legs, stuff them with the butter and rosemary and cook on a separate baking sheet ( I cooked them at the same time in the oven and was no worse for wear)

Bake in the oven for 2-3 hours depending on how large your bird is, typically it’s about 15 minutes per bird.

While your turkey is cooking you can prepare the gravy. This is easy, take your diced onion, giblets, and some cooking oil and saute them in a large pot. As all of these parts carmelize then add all of your gravy seasonings. Saute for about one minute then once this is done, you can proceed to add your water. Allow this to cook almost like a soup, but let the water reduce down a little more than you would with your standard soup. After about an hour of cooking this you can begin making your roux.

Heat your butter until it begins to foam in a separate saucepan and then add your flour. Once it begins to brown, begin adding ladlefulls of the gravy broth to the gravy and mix it in. Being mindful that your gravy doesn’t burn or thicken to the point that it loses it’s liquidity. Keep stirring and adding broth until it reaches the thickness you prefer.

The trick to cooking your turkey perfectly is just making sure the turkey internal temperature is around 165-170F. Use a thermometer it will take the guessing out of cooking the turkey.

Once your turkey is ready take it out of the oven and wrap it aluminum foil for about 15 minutes to allow the juices to settle in the meat.

Then slice your turkey and serve with the gravy. Enjoy!