Sunday, November 20, 2011

Thanksgiving Turkey

So I tried to think of how I could make this recipe vegetarian for my Hardly Housewives homey girl, Caitlin.  Something just seemed wrong with replacing turkey with tofu on Thanksgiving.  Hmmm....what to do what to do?


All kidding aside, you can't have Thanksgiving without a Turkey.  And as far as I'm concerned, you just can't have a dry turkey.  Follow this recipe to get a super moist and juicy turkey like this one.  Yum, look at that.  I'm drooling, despite the fact I ate half of this last night. 

Normally, I stay far, far away from the turkey.  That's usually my husband's job.  But, now that I'm documenting my kitchen escapades, I've started living on the edge.  Cue Aerosmith....now. 

Rinse your turkey under some cool water then pat dry with some paper towels.  OMG did anyone see the episode of Adrienne Maloof on Real Housewives washing her CHICKEN WITH HANDSOAP? Amazing.

Also, see that little mark on the side of the turkey?  Despite my desperate pleas, my husbands likes to "slap the turkey."  I'm convinced this mark is from him.  Pray for me.

Now, get your room temp sage butter.  You can find my simple recipe for sage butter here.  The last time I did this I put the butter UNDER the skin.  I thought I would try over the skin this time and I actually liked it better.  And it was also a lot less work.  Less work = good.


Liberally add all of the butter to the outside so it looks like this.  Do not lick the turkey.

OH BOY.  3 hours was a long time to wait for this but ohhhhh was it worth it.  Speaking of cooking time, just cook to your package's instructions.  It will differ by weight.  Mine was 13 lbs so I cooked it at 350 for about 3 - 3.5 hours until it reached 180 degrees in the deepest part of the breast and thigh.  I put the convection oven on for the second half of the cooking time to get it nice and golden brown all over.

Look. At. That. Drumstick.  It's speaking to me.

I put it on a silver platter with handles so it's easy to maneuver and decorated the pan with some extra sage I had laying around.  You could also decorate with rosemary, parsley, or anything else that looks pretty and green.  You could even do veggies like carrots if you wanted.

This isn't our dog, but I wish it was.  This is Ralph and he is adultsitting us for the weekend.  I'm actually typing this with one hand right now because his cute little (huge) bear face is asleep on my left hand.  I like spoiling him (i.e. bribing him with crispy turkey skin to like me more than my husband).  It seems to be working.

Serve your turkey with some creamy smooth gravy, which I'll show you how to make tomorrow.  Gobble gobble it up and stay hungry!

1 comment:

  1. Great looking bird. Our plane to Chicago lands at 9:00 am Thanksgiving day. Since you'll be busy with the turkey, Deb and I will find our way to your condo.
    Love ya

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