recipes:
The Basics
The Basics: How to Roast a Turkey
The centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner
From the store to the kitchen to the table: We outline the steps that get you from raw ingredients to your dinner tonight, free of measurements and complicated techniques. It’s a method you’ll remember and whip out whenever you like. It is the most basic way to make the thing you’re making.
- WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- - a large roasting pan fitted with a roasting rack
- - a brush or turkey baster
- - a meat thermometer
- - a 12- to 15-pound natural turkey
- - salt and pepper
- - vegetable oil
- - a half stick of butter
- - half a lemon
- - half an onion, cut into four pieces
- - one celery stick, cut into three pieces
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
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1. The night before you roast the turkey, make sure it is fully defrosted (if you bought a frozen bird, you’ll need to put it in the fridge three to four days ahead to thaw). Remove the contents from the cavity. Discard the giblets (heart, liver, and gizzard) and reserve the neck. Rub the turkey all over with several generous pinches of salt, including a few under the skin covering the breast. Place in a dish or on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until the next day.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (it will take at least 20 minutes to warm up) and place a rack in the lower third.
3. Pat the turkey dry inside and out with paper towels and tuck the wing tips back and underneath. Season well with salt and pepper, including inside the cavity, then rub a generous amount of vegetable oil inside the cavity, all over the outside, and under the skin.
4. Break the butter into little chunks and place them under the skin covering the breast. Put the lemon, onion, and celery inside the cavity.
5. Place the turkey breast down in the roasting pan, and put the reserved neck in the bottom of the pan. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes, basting the turkey every 20 minutes once the pan juices accumulate.
6. After 45 minutes, flip the turkey onto its back and continue to baste and roast for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
7. When a meat thermometer inserted into the inner thigh registers 170 degrees Fahrenheit and the juices run clear, remove the turkey from the oven and let it rest 20 to 30 minutes before carving. (If you’re planning on making your own gravy, be sure to reserve the vegetables from inside the bird’s cavity.) See more Thanksgiving Basics.
Illustrations by Bill Russell
Now I know how to look like a hero during thanksgiving. I think the biggest mistake people make is that they throw it it frozen.
I have had absolutely perfect results for several years in a row now using the high heat roasting method: 450 degrees--around 2 1/2 hours for a 16 pound turkey. No basting; no flipping. Basting, from all I've been able to glean, does nothing more than cool the oven off. With the high heat method you just turn the bird around once in the oven and tent it with foil if it gets too brown. Simple and delicious.
If you have a big Weber grill you can cook a 22 pound turkey in two hours flat using indirect heat - and it will be tender inside and picture-perfect-brown-and-crispy-skinned outside. We've been doing it that way for 20 years, since I had a good Weber and a shitty oven. Now i've got good grills and ovens coming out of my ears- we still cook the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill. Come to think of it, we cook turkey on the grill, thanksgiving or not. It's too good not to. BTW- I get a few packages of necks and wing tips to make stock out of so we canhave gravy, too. I don't need it, but lots of folks really want gravy. Of course I'm not OPPOSED to the idea...
BTW- no stuffing inside if you cook it that way, but you can fill it pretty full of herbs and spices.